ANTARCTIC RIGHTS .
By L. P. KIRWAN
PRESENT Argentinian and Chilean claims in the British sector of the Antarctic first defined in 19o8 as the Falkland Islands Dependencies make the history of the discovery of the disputed territory of more than merely historical interest. For these dis- coveries, by British ships and British sailors in the first quarter of the nineteenth century, form prrt—though admittedly not the most important part—of the basis of the British title to possession. The story, which can now be reconstructed from evidence carefully sifted and checked in recent years, is the story of the voyages of the merchant brig Williams' of Blyth, whose master William Smith was a native of this Northumberland port.
William Smith's first sight of the South Shetland Islands, where the Governments of the Argentine and of Chile have now illegally set up their bases, was on February 19th, 1819. He was on a voyage from Buenos Aires to Valparaiso, and steering a more southerly course than usual round Cape Horn, in the hope of better weather, he came within sight of a group of islands, barren and snow-capped, the seas around them rich in whales %Id seals. When he returned to Montevideo, no one would believe his story of islands in this region, though a group of American merchants thought there might be something in it, and even tried, though un- successfully, to charter his ship and to find out from him the longitude and latitude of this new land which offered such good prospects for the whaling and sealing business. It was generally thought that what Smith had seen were icebergs. But he was not discouraged. He had, after all, been brought up in the Greenland whale-fisheries and considered himself well able to distinguish an island from an iceberg. So. with a new cargo he set off again in 1819 to prove his case. On the 15th October of that year Smith made a successful landing in the South Shetlands. With a boat's crew and his first mate he planted a board with the Union Jack, and " with three cheers " took possession of the land in the name of the King.
While the Williams,' on her return in November, was refitting and discharging her cargo at Valparaiso, a certain Mr. Miers, a merchant, obtained from Smith and his mate the story of their discovery. This, with certain literary embellishments, he published in the Edinburgh Philosophical Journal. Some drawings and a map made by a midshipman, Henry Foster, of H.M.S. Creole,' from information supplied by Smith were sent home for safe keeping to the Admiralty, and these formed the basis for maps and charts of the " new land " which were soon selling in the principal London shops. H.M.S. Andromache,' with her captain W. H. Shireff, was also in Valparaiso port at the time. Shireff at once realised the importance of Smith's discovery. He immediately chartered the
Williams,' and with Edward -Bransfield, R.N., the master of the Andromache,' and several other officers on board, he sent her off again in December, 1819, on a true voyage of Antarctic discovery. Shireff gave Bransfield the most detailed instructions. He was to discover whether the new land seen by Smith was a continent, perhaps the polar continent which Cook believed lay beyond ..his own discovery, the South Sandwich Islands and South Georgia, made in 1775. He was to report on whales, otters and seals. He • was to make geological and meteorological observations, and collect plants and specimens of fish and insect life. He was to investigate the prospects for founding a colony. Above all, he was to carry out a detailed survey of all coasts and harbours found. And he was to take possession of all new land discovered in the name of His Majesty King George III, his heirs and his successors. With these specific instructions on board, the 216-ton merchant brig steered a course through flying snow and fog and floating ice for the South Shetland Islands. The full account of the brig's new voyage, of which the climax was the discovery of the Antarctic Continent, was published in London in 1821 in the Literary Gazette and Journal of Belles Lettres. From internal evidence, it is evidently based on information supplied, with the tacit approval of the Admiralty, by Midshipman Thomas Maine Bone, who sailed with Bransfield as a skilled draughts- man. Bone's sketches form part of Bransfield's general chart as published by the Admiralty in November, 1822.
On January 17th, 1820, the brig `Williams' was once again within sight of the South Shetlands group. As it ran eastwards through heavy seas past -Desolation Island, the black snow-capped islands where Smith had landed in February, 1819, came into view through the haze. The party anchored in a large bay off what is now known as King George Island, and Bransfield went ashore in the whale-boat to plant the Jack and to bury a bottle " containing several coins of the realm, given by different people for that purpose." Thus for the second time the South Shetlands, at first called New South Britain, were claimed for the British Crown. The only trouble the landing party met with was from the penguins, of which there were five varieties. These, according to Midshipman Bone's journal, disputed the landing with a most unusual ferocity. It was their breeding-season.
But this was territory already claimed by Great Britain. The most important discovery was to come. After four or five days in George's Bay, surveying, watering and collecting specimens, Brans- field and Smith steered a course west-south-west and then south- wards because of the weather. On January 3o, 1820,-at three o'clock in the afternoon, so the Literary Gazette records, " they very um- expectedly saw land to the S.W. and at four o'clock were encom- passed by islands, spreading from N.E. to E. The whole of these formed a prospect the most gloomy that can be imagined, and the only cheer the sight afforded was in the idea that this might be the long sought Southern Continent, as land was undoubtedly seen in latitude 64°, and trending to the eastward. In this bay or gulph there was a multitude of whales, and a quantity of seaweed, appar- ently fresh from the rocks. A round island was called Tower Island, latitude 63° 29', longitude 6o° 34', and the land Trinity Land, in compliment to the Trinity Board."
As is clear from Bransfield's own signed manuscript chart—its authenticity is beyond doubt—and from a map made originally by Smith but drawn by another hand, this Trinity Land was what is now known as Trinity Peninsula, the northern tip of Graham Land which juts out from the Antarctic mainland. On January 30th, 182o, therefore, Edward Bransfield, R.N., with William Smith, discovered the Antarctic-Continent. Before returning to Valparaiso, Bransfield and Smith took possession of a number of other islands north-east of the Trinity Peninsula, landing at Clarence Island and on the Seal Islands, north of Elephant Island. Back in poi t, they handed over the charts and the journals of this very remarkable voyage.
The discovery by Smith and Bransfield of the South Shetland Islands and of Graham Land in 1819 and 1820 was followed in 1821 by the British sealing-captain Powell's discovery of the South Orkney group. His map confirming this discovery was published with detailed notes in 1822. News of these British achievements had meanwhile brought other nations to the scene. In November, 182o, Palmer,. who had been with Powell to the South Orkneys and commanded the American sloop ' Hero,' found land in much the same area as Bransfield's Trinity Land. The following year Bellings- hausen, of the Imperial Russian Navy, discovered two large islands to the west of Graham Land and explored the Bellingshausen Sea. But the bulk of the territory—Graham Land and the South Orkney and South Shetland groups—lying within the zone of the Falkland Islands Dependencies now claimed by Argentina and by Chile was first discovered by British seamen. The historical basis of the British title to possession is strong.
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