Clarence Bay
Clarence Bay is a broad bay on the west coast of Ascension Island in the South Atlantic Ocean, and it serves as an archorage for the island's capital, Georgetown. The town stands to the south of the bay.
This bay was the first place settled when Ascension was annexed by the British Crown. The island today is part of a wider British overseas territory, St Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha.
History
Early landings on Ascension are poorly recorded, but the bay was known. In February 1701, HMS Roebuck, commanded by William Dampier, sank in the common anchoring spot in Clarence Bay: sixty men survived for two months until they were rescued, drinking water from the strong spring in Breakneck Valley.[1]
In May 1725, a Dutch ship's officer, Leendert Hasenbosch, was set ashore at Clarence Bay as a punishment for sodomy.[2] British mariners found the Dutchman's tent, belongings and diary in January 1726; the man's remains were not found
On 22 October 1815 HMS Zenobia and her sister ship HMS Peruvian arrived at Ascension and dropped anchor in Clarence Bay. The ships’ logs that at 5.30 pm Commander Nicholas Charles Dobree of the Zenobia and Captain James Kearney White of the Peruvian came ashore here and took possession of the island in the name of King George III.[3]
References
- ↑ see Duff Hart-Davis, Ascension, the story of a South Atlantic island.
- ↑ Alex Ritsema: A Dutch Castaway on Ascension Island in 1725 (2010), pp. 26, 115-117
- ↑ Ascension Island Bicentenary