THE VOYAGE OF THE HURON AND THE HUNTRESS 



From this entry the course of the Hero can be clearly followed. The heavy 

 snow storm forced him to get clear of Deception Island, and after tacking to 

 the north at 8 P.M., he "made the Land" again at Livingston Island's south 

 coast and followed its rocky indentations until he discovered the harbor. Char- 

 cot calls this Ereby's Bay on his chart. Livingston Island's southern coast line 

 is over forty miles long. 



Captain Palmer then continued his explorations. On Tuesday, November 16, 

 he got under way at 2 in the afternoon with a fresh breeze from the northwest. 

 He wrote: ". . . Beat up the Harbor, stood over to the south shore, sounded 

 along and found no anchorage at 6 P.M. got up to the head we very suddenly 

 shoaled our water to 2>4 fathoms and came too." 



Another heavy snow storm developed and Captain Palmer lay to until 5 

 o'clock the next morning. After taking soundings, he wrote: ". . . went to an- 

 other further Dist. sounded in 15 fathoms at the entrance and 10,7-6-5 within 

 found it to be an excellent Harbor secure from all winds. Returned on Board. 

 . . ." This discovery was the embayed harbor which Weddell clearly marked 

 Palmer's Harbor on his chart. American historians. Colonel Martin and Pro- 

 fessor Hobbs, however, place Captain Palmer in the harbor of Deception 

 Island, the former claiming he sailed down the west coast of that island and 

 around the southern end into Deception Harbor. The logbook entries of Cap- 

 tain Palmer himself show this was not his course. 



On the next day, November 17, Palmer got under way and stood out of his 

 harbor, course S by E ^. At 10 A.M. he was clear of the harbor and "stood 

 over for the Land." Several historians have placed Captain Palmer under the 

 heights of Trinity Island, at the Antarctic Peninsula, some fifty miles away. 

 By this reasoning they have had him sailing from Deception Island. But the 

 log entries make no further references to this Island after he was turned away 

 from it by the snow storm on the night of November 15, 1820. Through their 

 assumption that he reached it, these historians have made his course decidedly 

 different from that given above, which is the course which this writer feels 

 the Hero's log substantiates. However, the single entry which they utilize to 

 place the Hero over against the mainland of Antarctica, fifty miles to the south, 

 cannot be taken as solitary evidence — it must be studied in conjunction with the 

 previous and subsequent entries of this particular cruise of the Hero. The fact 

 that the word "Land" is capitalized is no reason in itself to state that Captain 

 Palmer meant the continent of Antarctica. Both he and others of his con- 

 temporaries used the capitalization of "Land" for islands in the South Shet- 

 land group. In this instance the "Land" was Livingston Island. His entries 

 for the next two days show how carefully he followed his exploration of this 

 coast line. On Friday, November 17, 1820, the log records: 



"These 24 hours commences with fresh Breese from SWest and Pleasant 

 at 8 P.M. got over under the Land found the sea filled with imense Ice 

 Bergs — at 12 [midnight] hove Too under the Jib Laid off & on 

 until morning, at 4 a.m. made sail in shore and Discovered-a-strait- 



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