The Schooner Huntress Meets 

 the Ship Huron at the Falk lands 



Even while the Stonington vessels were getting ready to leave Staten Land for 

 the South Shetlands, two vessels had arrived at the Falklands which were to 

 follow them soon to the South Shetlands. Neither of these had previously met. 

 One was the ship Huron, of New Haven, Captain John Davis, and the other, 

 the schooner, Huntress, Captain Christopher Burdick of Nantucket. The Huron 

 had sailed from her home port on March 20, 1820, and the Huntress on 

 August 4, 1820.'^ 



Due to the loss of the first pages of the Huron's log, covering her 1820 

 cruisings, it is not known when she reached the Falklands. The log of the 

 Huntress reveals that Captain Burdick first took the schooner to the Cape 

 Verde Islands (September 5, 1820) where a load of salt was put on board, 

 and then headed south-southwest for the Falklands, where he arrived on 

 October 31, 1820.3« 



Sighting the land at 3 :30 o'clock in the morning bearing southeast. Captain 

 Burdick tacked off shore until 8 :00 A.M., when he stood in for his landfall. 

 *'I juged it to be the Western Falkland," he recorded in his log, "and ... at 

 12 m. made an opening in the Land which apear'd to form a bay at the same 

 time made several small islands bearing west about 4 leagues. Latitude 51° 12' 

 south." 



With characteristic thoroughness. Captain Burdick sent a whaleboat in to 

 survey the channel, his logbook reading: 



", . . The boat return'd and reported 2 fathoms in the pass & no roles & 

 a large Sound inside whore ship & run in, sent the boat ahead & cros'd 

 the sound to the southward which was six miles wide & 10 fathoms 

 water Went in to a snug harbor at 5 p.m. anchored in 2 fathoms so 

 Ends Sea Acc't." 



This landfall was off Byron's Sound and the little anchorage was in Bense 

 Harbor inside Bense Island, at the promontory between North and King 

 George's Bay. This picturesque portion of the West Falklands was one of 

 the most frequented rendezvous of the sealers and whalers, utilized by them 

 for over half a century — a veritable crossroads of a watery world which 

 only this breed of sea-nomad habitually visited. Two large islands — the English 

 and Spanish "Maloons" — were separated by a sound, the entire region being 

 rich in the colorful names given by pirates, merchantmen, whalers and sealers. 



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