Landfalls at the South Shetlands 



After two days' sailing on a course south-southeast, the Huntress log records 

 running into thick, rainy weather. On Wednesday, November 29, they hove 

 to, "juging it not safe to run. Saw several fur seal in the water alongside." 

 In the afternoon it lighted up and Captain Burdick took a sight and figured 

 her latitude as being 61° 26' south. A heavy snow storm developed during the 

 night, and again they hove to. The log of the Huntress noted "being in Coul- 

 lered water" and a "very thick haze to the S.S.E. At 10 A.M. the water being 

 very much discoullered sounded 150 fathoms, no bottom." 



They were in typical South Shetland weather — rain, snow, fog, a slight 

 clearing, then the same conditions repeated in varied order. But the evidences 

 of land had been well substantiated and at midday on November 30, 1820, 

 Captain Burdick wrote: "made the Land bearing S.E. hauled on a wind to the 

 Southward . . . Huron and Shallop in Co. Lat. 62" T South." 



While their crews unbent the cables and got the anchors on the bows, the 

 Huntress, Huron and shallop stood in to find a harbor. On December 3, 1820, 

 while only three-quarters of a mile from shore, a thick fog shut in and the 

 vessels stood off for safety. Now the shallop Cecilia left them to search for a 

 suitable harbor. The heavy fog, like a giant curtain, soon hid the little shallop 

 from view. 



It was not until two days later that the shallop was again sighted. In the 

 interim she had found a fine harbor at a cove on the west side of Greenwich 

 Island, which was called Yankee Harbor.^^ The next twenty-four hours found 

 the shallop hunting for the Huron and Huntress, which, all this while, had 

 anxiously tacked off and on the wild coast. At last, early on December 7, 1820, 

 the Huntress sighted the shallop and learned that a harbor had been found. 

 The Huron soon came up to them. Piloting the ship and schooner toward 

 Yankee Sound — a wide channel between Greenwich and Livingston (Freze- 

 land) islands — the Cecilia shallop led the way to an anchorage basin later 

 called by the English Hospital Cove but named by its New England discoverers 

 Yankee Harbor. The log of the Huntress records ". . . came to at 6 p.m. in 16 

 fathoms, landlocked. Found four Stonington vessels here. So ends my sea 

 account." 



These Stonington vessels were the Frederick, Freegift, Hersilia and Express 

 — the Hero being absent on its mission of picking up sealskins at the camps 

 along the nearby shores of Livingston Island. ^^ Since their arrival at the South 

 Shetlands early in November, these experienced sealers had been busy. As has 



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