Quaker Harbour is the irregularly shaped bay indenting for 3.7 km the north coast of Weddell Island in the Falkland Islands.Quaker Harbour. Falkland Islands. GeoNames Geographical Database It is centred at , and has its head fed by Pitt Creek. The bay takes its name from nearby Quaker Island.
History
The British navigator and Antarctic explorer James Weddell, who visited the Falklands in 1819–1824, overwintered ashore on Weddell Island (known at that time as Swan Island) at Quaker Harbour in May–September 1823.J. Weddell. A Voyage Towards the South Pole, Performed in the Years 1822–24. London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orne, Brown and Green, 1825. p. 77 The harbour lies on the western side of Weddell Island. Two Hispanicized versions exist for Quaker Harbour; either Bahia de la Plata or Peurto de Ximenez.
Several islands lay in Quaker Harbour and the waters just beyond including Pitt island, Lock's Island, Low Island, Penn Island, Fox Island, Barclay island and Quaker Island. These islands and Weddell island itself, were the haunt of American whaling ships, amny of whom were Quakers, and the sailors upon them lent their names to the islands, such as Penn (after William Penn), Fox Island (after George Fox), and Quaker Island which was named for their faith.
A prominent hill at on Weddell Island overlooks the bay. The hill is and was renamed in 2022 as Jones Hill in honour of a serviceman killed in the Falklands War. The naming was a project commissioned in 2022 as part of the 40th anniversary commemorations where over 250 landforms were identified and named after those who had died in the conflict.
Comerson's Dolphins have been observed in the bay.
Maps The Falkland Islands. Scale 1:401280 map. London: Edward Stanford, 1901 Falkland Islands Explorer Map. Scale 1:365000. Ocean Explorer Maps, 2007 Falklands Topographic Map Series. Scale 1:50000, 29 sheets. DOS 453, 1961-1979 Falkland Islands. Scale 1:643000 Map. DOS 906. Edition 3-OS, 1998 Map 500k--xm20-4. 1:500000 map of Weddell Island and part of West Falkland. Russian Army Maps (for the world) Approaches to the Falkland Islands. Scale 1:1500000 chart. Gps Nautical Charts, 2010 Illustrated Map of Weddell Island
Gallery
Notes
References B. Stonehouse (ed.). Encyclopedia of Antarctica and the Southern Oceans. Chichester, West Sussex: John Wiley & Sons, 2002. 404 pp. C.H. Barnard. A Narrative of the Sufferings and Adventures of Capt. Charles H. Barnard, in a Recent Voyage Round the World, Including an Account of His Residence for Two Years on An Uninhabited Island. New York: J.P. Callender, 1836 P.P. King and R. Fitzroy. The South America Pilot. Part II. From the Rio de la Plata to the Bay of Panama, including Magellan Strait, the Falkland, and Galapagos Islands. Fifth Edition. London: Printed for the Hydrographic Office, Admiralty, 1860. pp. 116–118
External links Weddell Island Official Website NASA Johnson Space Center, 30 April 2005