HISTORY OF THE ISLANDS 289 



which he kept during his voyage to and from the South Shetlands during the years 1821 

 and 1822. The actual extracts concern the South Shetlands and South Orkneys only, 

 but mainly the latter. The meagre record he has left and the little that is known of 

 his life, his early death which occurred less than two years after the completion of his 

 Antarctic voyage of 1821-2, and the probability that his work may have been over- 

 shadowed by Weddell's more spectacular high southern record in 1823, are all factors 

 that may well have contributed towards keeping his name in undeserved obscurity. 



It is only since the beginning of this century that modern geographers, particularly 

 Bruce,^ have drawn attention to his undoubted ability. 



He was one of the few sealers who kept an accurate journal and his Notes on South- 

 Shetland, although short, is a pamphlet of considerable value ; it constitutes one of the 

 very few reliable records of discovery and sealing in this period and is freely quoted in 

 this report. It is of great assistance in unravelling the rather complicated early history 

 of a region in which questions of priority of discovery have become confused owing to 

 the publication of verbal accounts of sealers in a distorted form.^ 



Powell appears to have been a sailor of more than ordinary ability. In the course of 

 his second Antarctic voyage, during the summer season of 1821-2, he made surveys 

 resulting in the publication of the first reliable chart of the South Shetlands,^ a 

 considerable and extremely creditable work in the construction of which he must have 

 employed every moment of the scanty time he could snatch from his arduous occupation 

 as a sealer. It was not, however, the result of his own work entirely, for Powell was 

 acquainted only with the northern side of the archipelago, a fact he is careful to point 

 out in the full acknowledgment he makes for help received in laying down its southern 

 coast-line on his chart. He says: 



I have not been on the south-side of the land [South Shetlands] myself, but I received my in- 

 formation respecting it from the descriptions and sketches of my friends, Captain John Walker, 

 Captain Ralf Bond, and Mr Charles Robinson; and, by comparing these documents together, and the 

 information I have received from other masters of vessels, I conclude that the description will be 

 found exact. 



In view of these remarks Purdy's comment on Powell's chart is also of some historical 

 interest. He writes:* 



The first chart of these Islands, for the use of navigators, was constructed by the late Mr Geo. 

 Powell, commander of the ship Dove, and published by Mr Laurie, in 1822. In the composition of 

 it, exclusive of his own observations and sketches, Mr Powell was materially assisted by several 



1 Bruce, W. S., 1917, The Weddell Sea: An Historical Retrospect, Scott. Geog. Mag., xxxiii, No. vi, 

 pp. 248-9. 



^ Cf. Fanning's account of N. B. Palmer's voyage to the South Orkneys in 1821, itifra, p. 299. 



' Chart of South Shetland, including Coronation Island, etc., from the exploration of the Sloop Dove, in the 

 years 1821 and 1822 by George Puwell, Commander of the same. Published hy R. H. Laurie, November ist, 

 1822. The first chart of the South Orkneys, under the name of "Powell's Group " from the survey by Powell, 

 was included in this chart, as the title suggests. 



* Purdy, J., 1845, The New Sailing Directory for the Ethiopic or Southern Atlantic Ocean, 3rd ed., revised 

 and corrected by Alex. G. Findlay, Section I, p. 155 (London, R. H. Laurie). 



