Charlotte Bay
Charlotte Bay is a bay stretching for 12 nautical miles between Eckener Point and the Reclus Peninsula on the Danco Coast on the west coast of Graham Land. The bay stretches in a south-east direction. Its head is fed by five glaciers.
The bay was discovered by Adrien de Gerlache during the 1897–1999 Belgian Antarctic Expedition. It was roughly charted on 7 February 1898 and named Baie Charlotte or Baie de Charlotte after the fiancée of Georges Lecointe (from whom Lecointe Island is named), Gerlache's executive officer, hydrographer and second-in-command of the expedition.
The bay was photographed from the air by the Falkland Islands and Dependencies Aerial Survey Expedition in 1957.
Charlotte Bay hut
A Falkland Islands Dependency Survey hut was built at Portal Point, between Brabant Island and the Danco Coast.
In the 1956–57 season, Wally Herbert, leader of a later British expedition, mapped the area from Hope Bay, and arrived at the Charlotte Bay hut for a scheduled pick up by the Shackleton. With no radio, Herbert had no way of knowing that the Shackleton had hit an iceberg and was returning to the Falkland Islands for repairs. The six men and their dogs were forced to stay in the hut for about three months without knowing their fate, and with diminishing food supplies.
Location
- Location: 64°34’59"S, 61°37’59"W
References
- Antarctica. Sydney: Reader's Digest, 1985, pp. 189, 216.
- Stewart, Andrew, Antarctica: An Encyclopedia. London: McFarland and Co., 1990 (2 volumes), p. 182.
- Damien Gildea, Mountaineering in Antarctica: complete guide: Travel guide
- Gazetteer and Map of The British Antarctic Territory: Charlotte Bay