Possession Bay

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Possession Bay
Shore section of Possession Bay

Shore section of Possession Bay

Waters South Atlantic
Land mass South Georgia
Geographical location 54 ° 5 '59 "  S , 37 ° 7' 32"  W Coordinates: 54 ° 5 '59 "  S , 37 ° 7' 32"  W
Possession Bay (South Georgia)
Possession Bay
width 3.2 km
depth 8 kilometers
Islands Inner Reef , Outer Moraine Reef
Tributaries Murray snow field , Purvis glacier
Possession Bay is on Cook's map (south is up)

Possession Bay is on Cook's map (south is up)

The Possession Bay ( English for property bay ) is a 3.2 km wide bay , which extends 8 km inland South Georgia . Your entrance is southeast of Black Head on the north coast of the island.

history

The bay was discovered and named in 1775 by a British expedition under James Cook . This is where Cook landed on South Georgia for the first time, which is where the name comes from.

Cook undertook the first landings, investigations and mapping in South Georgia. As instructed by the Admiralty , he took possession of the island for the United Kingdom on January 17, 1775 and named it Isle of Georgia in honor of the then British monarch George III. The German naturalist Georg Forster , who accompanied Cook on that day during his three landings in different places, wrote:

“Here Captain Cook unfolded the British flag and performed the ceremony of taking possession of these barren rocks, in the name of His British Majesty and His Heirs for all eternity. A volley of two or three muskets was fired. "

Cook himself wrote in his log :

"The end of the bay [...] was closed off by a great mass of ice and snow of huge proportions, it had a vertical cliff of remarkable height, just like the side of an ice island; pieces kept breaking off and drifting out to sea. A great break Happened while we were in the bay; there was a sound like a cannon. The inner parts of the land were no less wild and terrible [...] the wild mountains raised their lofty peaks until they disappeared in the clouds, and the valleys lay buried under everlasting snow. Neither a tree was visible, nor a bush big enough to make a toothpick out of it. "

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