142 DISCOVERY REPORTS 



visit was left on shore. The 'Havfruen' was damaged by ice and sank on December i 

 191 1, her crew being rescued by the 'Thulla'. The latter vessel afterwards operated on 

 the Patagonian coast; but the voyage proved a commercial failure, as in the course of a 

 year's work only twenty-eight whales were taken. 



Sir Ernest Shackleton^ in 1914, in the auxiliary barquantine 'Endurance', passed 

 between the Candlemas Group and Saunders, on his expedition to the Weddell Sea. 

 Fifteen miles north-east of Saunders he met a belt of heavy pack-ice, and he notes that 

 the position of this island, according to observations made by Cmdr. Worsley, is roughly 

 3 miles east and 5 miles north of its charted position. 



In 1922 Cmdr. Frank Wild,^ who was in command of the 'Quest' after Shackleton's 

 death, paid a visit to Zavodovski. Like all others who have seen it he refers to its vol- 

 canic activity and speaks of caves on the southern side "from the mouths of which 

 sulphurous fumes were issuing in a reddish cloud". With the help of Cmdr. Worsley 

 a running survey was made of the island, and a reproduction of the chart has recently 

 been published.^ 



In more recent years the islands have been visited on a number of occasions by vessels 

 of the whaling fleet. Of these visits, as of that of Capt. Jorgensen, no published record 

 appears to exist, but we have gathered some information regarding them from the 

 managers of the whaling stations in South Georgia. 



In 1927 the T0nsberg Whaling Co. sent one of their catchers to the islands to prospect 

 for whales and to discover whether conditions suitable for a whaling factory were to be 

 found. The catcher was the 'Busen VII', under the command of Capt. H. Hansen, 

 accompanied by Lieut. B. Dingsor of the Norwegian Navy. A translation of Capt. 

 Hansen's report has kindly been placed at our disposal by Capt. J. G. Andersen, 

 Manager of the T0nsberg Co.'s station at Husvik in South Georgia. 



The ' Busen VII ' left Husvik on January 20. Course was set for Southern Thule, but 

 when about 60 miles west of Montagu heavy drift ice was met. Capt. Hansen steered 

 east, but found that Saunders was the most southern island that he could reach. 

 Saunders itself was surrounded by a compact belt of ice, but by next day (January 25) 

 it had drifted away. The report describes the bare hills at the southern end of the 

 island, and mentions — for the first time — that the northern peak is volcanically active. 

 There is a reference to a preliminary chart of the island, but this we have not seen; 

 Holtedahl,* however, has published a sketch made by Lieut. B. Dingsor of the island 

 seen from the north. The 'Busen VII' anchored for the night in Cordelia Bay. On 

 January 26 she proceeded north to the Candlemas Group, where the existence of two 

 islands with some rocks between was noted. Little time appears to have been spent at 

 the group, for though the volcanic activity of the north-eastern island is mentioned, the 



1 Shackleton, South, p. 5 (London, 1920). 

 ^ Wild, Shackleton's Last Voyage, pp. 85, 347 (London, 1923). 



^ Rep. Geol. Collections made during the Voyage of the ' Quest' . . .in 192 1-2, p. 65 (British Museum, 1930). 

 * Holtedahl, "On the Geology and Physiography of some Antarctic and Subantarctic Islands," The 

 Norwegian Antarctic Expeditions, 1927-8, 1928-9, No. 3, p. 102, fig. 44 (Oslo, 1929). 



