Mikkelsen Harbour
- Not to be confused with Mikkelsen Bay
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Mikkelsen Harbour is a small bay indenting the south side of Trinity Island, between Skottsberg Point and Borge Point, in the Palmer Archipelago, off Graham Land in the British Antarctic Territory. The bay provides excellent anchorage for ships, and was frequently used by sealing vessels in the first half of the nineteenth century and by Norwegian whaling vessels at the beginning of the twentieth century.[1]
History
This bay was roughly charted by nineteenth-century sealers and called 'Hoseason Harbour' after J. Hoseason (after whom Hoseason Island is named.) This name was also applied to the south-west entrance of the Orléans Strait.
The bay was further charted by the Swedish Antarctic Expedition and by Norwegian whalers, who anchored there in each season, 1910-1917. The whalers applied the name 'South Sandefjord Anchorage' after the Norwegian town. The whalers latter used the name 'Mikkelsen Bay' after Captain Klarius Mikkelsen, a Norwegian whaling captain and Master of Thorshavn on the Norwegian Antarctic expedition of 1933-1935, which circumnavigated Antarctica and discovered the Ingrid Christensen Coast (now part of the Australian Antarctic Territory). The name was in common usage by 1913, at the time of the geologic reconnaissance by the geologist David Ferguson in the whale-catcher Hanka.
The bay was photographed from the air by the Falkland Islands and Dependencies Aerial Survey Expedition in 1956.
About the bay
Mikkelsen Harbour is bordered to the west by Skottsberg Point, the southernmost point of Trinity Island. It was first charted by the Swedish Antarctic Expedition and was named for Carl Skottsberg, botanist of the expedition.
Borge Point is a headland forming the east side of Mikkelsen Harbour. Awash of the point is Klo Rock, is a rock on which the sea breaks, lying at the east side of the entrance to the harbour.
A small island called D'Hainaut Island sits within the harbour.
A refuge hut was established by the Argentinian Antarctic Expedition on Bombay Island in 1954, and called Refugio Capitán Caillet Bois after Captain Teodoro Caillet Bois (1879-1949), an officer in the Argentine sloop-of-war Uruguay in 1904-1905
Location
- Location map: 63°53’47"S, 60°46’34"W
References
- ↑ Mills, William J. (2003). Exploring Polar Frontiers: A Historical Encyclopedia. ABC-CLIO. p. 662. ISBN 978-1-57607-422-0. https://books.google.com/books?id=PYdBH4dOOM4C&pg=PA662.
- Gazetteer and Map of The British Antarctic Territory: Mikkelsen Harbour