THE VOYAGE OF THE HURON AND THE HUNTRESS 



2. Discovery of the South Shetlands 



The discovery of the South Shetland Islands 450 miles southwest of Cape Horn which 

 opened the way for subsequent discovery and exploration of the Antarctic continent, may have 

 been accomplished prior to 1819. This chain of volcanic islands trending in a north-northeast 

 -south-southwest direction between 61° and 63° south latitude and 54° and 63° west 

 longitude, are separated from the Palmer Peninsula of Antarctica by the sixty-mile-wide 

 Bransfield Strait. These islands may have been seen as early as 1599 by Dirck Gherritz in 

 the Dutch ship Blijde Bootschap (Glad Tidings) and possibly by the crews of sailing ships 

 in the 17th and 18th centuries; but because no proof of such discoveries is extant, Captain 

 William Smith in the brig William out of Blyth, England is most commonly credited with 

 the discovery of the South Shetlands. 



In the translation of an article in Annates Maritime et Coloniales, 1821, Deuxieme 

 Partie, page 1034 we find the following: 



"I have before me several reports proving that United States' vessels have been 

 calling at southern New Shetland, which the British claim to have discovered last 

 year, for the past ten years, or even longer, and that they take on cargo there similar 

 to the cargo they obtain from the Crozet Islands (seal skins), using such cargo to 

 maintain their trade with China." 



In Hugh R. Mill's The Siege of the South Pole, on page 92, we find a similar statement 

 regarding early American visits to the South Shetlands : 



"According to a communication which was made by Captain J. Horsburgh, Hydro- 

 grapher to the East India Company, to Professor Heinrich Berghaus, the distinguished 

 author of the Physical Atlas; American Sealers had been at work in the South 

 Shetlands since 1812, and had kept their field of operation a profound secret in order 

 to exclude competition. . . ." 



Similar claims appeared in contemporary newspapers such as the Niles Weekly Register 

 (Baltimore), which continued the claims in the following articles: 



"It is now well known that some of these hardy people (referring to Nantucket, 

 Massachusetts seamen) had visited what is regarded by the English as newly dis- 

 covered land, and now called New South Iceland, as early as 1800 — but the great 

 profit which they made by catching seals, sea-elephants, sea-bears &c. caused them 

 to keep their voyages a secret. In the year just stated, nine vessels arrived with 

 151,000 fur-seal skins, giving it out that they had been obtained on the N.W. Coast." 

 [November 23, 1822; page 180] 



"If there is any merit in the simple fact of accidental discovery, we have no doubt 

 that it belongs to our 'Yankee' brethren; for 'Yankee Harbor' [harbor on west 

 coast of Greenwich Island, South Shetland Islands] is quite a famous place, and 

 long since we were told in the public newspapers that there was a spot where 'seals 

 were as tame as kittens.' It cannot be doubted that the discovery [of the South Shet- 

 lands] was made before October 1819 [the date that William Smith verified his dis- 

 covery of February 1819], and we hope that some of our countrymen, now divested 

 of the opportunity of keeping their discovery a secret for their own advantage, will 

 tell us when they first knew of this land." [August 11, 1821; page 384] 

 "By the favor of doctor Mitchell, we are enabled to lay before our readers the follow- 

 ing very interesting letter from J. Robinson, esq. The magnitude of the discovery 

 [of the South Shetlands] will not fail to arrest the attention of everyone, and the 

 surprise is, that such an extent of ocean and so situated should not before have been 

 known. It is said, however, to have been discovered some years since by some 

 American whalers, and the knowledge concealed for mercantile purposes." [Sept. 

 16, 1820; page 43. From the Ne<w York Columbian.'] 

 "Americans at Sea" A notice of the skillful and adventurous spirit of our country- 



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