Port-Christmas is a natural and historical site on the Kerguelen Islands, located at the northern tip of the main island, on the east coast of the Loranchet Peninsula. It covers the bottom of Baie de l'Oiseau, the first shelter for sailors approaching the archipelago from the north, and is easily identifiable by the presence at the entrance of a natural arch, now collapsed, known as the Kerguelen Arch.
It was here, in 1774, that the explorer Yves Joseph de Kerguelen de Trémarec took possession of the island on behalf of King Louis XV of France. However, the name of the island, Christmas Harbour, was given by James Cook, whose ships anchored in the bay on Christmas Day back in 1776, during his third circumnavigation. The name appears in some French translations or fictional works such as le Havre de Noël or Port-Noël.
Considered to be a safe haven, in the 19th century it regularly welcomed the ships of seal and whale hunters, mainly from Nantucket, who scoured the southern seas and islands. The site is also occasionally used as a research station for geomagnetism investigations.
Descriptions of these landscapes by explorers in their travelogues inspired great writers, starting with Edgar Allan Poe (1838), followed by Jules Verne (1897), who incorporated them into their adventure novels, then Valery Larbaud (1933) and Jean-Paul Kaufmann (1993), among others, in their more personal works.
Toponymy The name "Port-Christmas" was established by Raymond Rallier du Baty in 1908 to designate the most isolated part of Baie de l'Oiseau, as shown on the 1⁄228000 map published in 1922.Jean-René Vanney, Histoire des mers australes, Paris, Fayard editions, 1986, 737 p. () The Commission territoriale de toponymie des Terres australes françaises (TAAF Territorial Commission) upheld this designation when the 1⁄100000 IGN map was published in 1973.Dominique Delarue, "Historique toponymie : commission de Toponymie" [archive], on http://www.kerguelen-voyages.com archive (accessed March 21, 2020) It also extended the name to the area between the beach and Lake Rochegude, location to a secondary scientific station.Commission territoriale de toponymie et Gracie Delépine (pref. Pierre Charles Rolland), Toponymie des Terres australes et antarctiques françaises, Paris, French Southern and Antarctic Territories, August 20th, 1973, 433 p. (read online archive [PDF]) p.6 archive and p. 275 archive .
This now-official toponymy puts an end to almost two centuries of debate between the name given to the whole bay by Kerguelen, "Baie de l'Oiseau", and the one chosen by Cook, "Christmas Harbour".
Indeed, during his second expedition, Yves Joseph de Kerguelen de Trémarec called this bay after L'Oiseau, the frigate he sent there in January 1774 to do reconnaissance. Almost three years later, on December 25, 1776, the ships HMS Resolution and HMS Discovery anchored in the same location. Captain Cook, in command of the expedition, was well aware of the French navigator's earlier discovery, but was not yet aware of the details, nor that the bay had already been named.Gracie Delépine (pref. Christian Dors, senior administrator of the French Southern and Antarctic Lands), Les îles australes françaises : Kerguelen, Crozet, Amsterdam, Saint-Paul, Rennes, Éditions Ouest-France, October 1995, 213 p. (, chap. II ("Geography, landscapes"), pp. 31 and 37. He decided to celebrate the holiday's festivities by giving this "Christmas haven" the English name of Christmas Harbour.(en) James Cook, The Three Voyages of Captain James Cook Round the World, vol. 5 : being the first of the third voyage, Londres, Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, et Brown, 1821 (read online archive ), chap. IV, p. 146–151
The predominantly Anglo-American presence of the archipelago in the 19th century, along with its literature, favored the use of the latter name.
However, when France decided to reaffirm its sovereignty by sending the French aviso ship l'Eure in 1893 to perform a new take-over ceremony, Baie de l'Oiseau formally reverted to its original name.
In the end, the current consensus, instituted by Rallier du Baty, which "semi-francizes" Christmas Harbour as Port-Christmas and reserves its denominations for a particular area of Baie de l'Oiseau, allows us to respect Kerguelen's former discovery while preserving the historical trace of Cook's passage.
Geography
Location
From the permanent base at Port-aux-Français, located 115 km to the southeast, Port-Christmas is one of the most isolated and inaccessible areas of the archipelago.Jean-Paul Kauffmann, L'Arche des Kerguelen : Voyage aux Îles de la Désolation, Paris, Flammarion editions, 1993, 249 p. () Given its distance and, in particular, its mountainous topography, the site is almost never reached by land. It can, however, be reached by sea after sailing at least 100 nautical miles (190 km). Baie de l'Oiseau, at the base of which the site is located, forms the first indentation at the northeastern end of the Loranchet peninsula. The bay is closed off to the north by the Cap-Haïtien|Cape-Haïtien and to the south by Kerguelen Arch.
Port-Christmas is towered over by Table de l'Oiseau (403 m) to the north and Mount Havergal (552 m) to the south.Amicale des missions australes et polaires françaises (AMAEPF), Zoom on IGN map 80354 of the Kerguelen Islands, Port-Christmas.
While most of the bay's shores are rocky and often steep, the bottom is occupied by a 350-meter-long black sand beach, formed by the erosion of the surrounding basalt rocks.(en) James Clark Ross, A Voyage of Discovery and Research in the Southern and Antarctic Regions – During the Years 1839–43, vol. 1, London, John Murray, 1847 (lire en ligne archive ) Here, a stream flows into the sea, after collecting both stormwaters from Mount Havergal and drainage tunnel waters from Lake Rochegude. This lake, located approximately 500 m from the shore at an altitude of 40 m, marks the barrier separating Port-Christmas from Baie Ducheyron to the west.Carte de reconnaissance des îles Kerguelen – feuille nord-est archive
The anchorage at Port-Christmas is 11 meters deep (6 fathoms). It offers a relatively safe haven"Christmas-Harbour", in Dictionnaire géographique universel, A. J. Kilian and Ch. Piquet, 1826 (read online archive ), p. 22 for sailors who frequent this particularly turbulent part of the ocean caused by the Roaring Forties.
Geology The geological environment of Port-Christmas, like that of practically the entire Loranchet Peninsula, is dominated by trap-rocks, terraced basaltic piles formed by the superimposition of lava outpouringsAndré Giret et al, "L'archipel de Kerguelen, les plus vieilles îles dans le plus jeune océan", Géologues, n° 137, 2003, p. 15-23 (read online archive ) around twenty-eight to twenty-nine million years ago.(en) P. Camps, B. Henry, K. Nicolaysen et G. Plenier, "Statistical properties of paleomagnetic directions in Kerguelen lava flows: implications for the late Oligocene paleomagnetic field", Journal of geophysical research, vol. 112, 2007, p. 6 (DOI 10.1029/2006JB004648 , read online archive , accessed April 1, 2020)(en) K. Nicolaysen, F.A. Frey, K.V. Hodges, D. Weis et A. Giret, "40Ar/39Ar geochronology of flood basalts from the Kerguelen Archipelago, southern Indian Ocean: implications for Cenozoic eruption rates of the Kerguelen plume", Earth and Planetary Science Letters, vol. 174, nos 3–4, January 15th 2000, p. 313-328 (DOI https://doi.org/10.1016/S0012-821X(99)00271-X )
At various points in the bay, between the hard stratum, a few small coal seams"Narrative of the wreck of the Favorite on the island of Desolation detailing the adventures, sufferings and privations of John Nunn", TAAF n° 28, Paris, La Documentation française, July–September 1964, p. 19 (read online archive , accessed March 25, 2020) emerge. British explorer James Clark Ross noted this as early as 1840. He also noted the presence of fossilized trees, the first of their kind to be spotted in the archipelago. These petrified woods, or simply lignites, found at Port-Christmas and Mount Havergal,(de) Die Forschungsreise S.M.S. "Gazelle" in den Jahren 1874 bis 1876 unter Kommando des Kapitän zur See Freiherrn von Schleinitz : herausgegeben von dem Hydrographischen Amt des Reichs-Marine-Amts, vol. I : Der Reisebericht, Berlin, Ernst Siegfried Mittler und Sohn, 1889, 307 p. (read online archive ), chap. VII (" The Kerguelen Islands "), p. 120 (Christmas port). mainly belong to the conifer tree families known as Araucariaceae and Cupressaceae, more specifically the Araucarites, Cupressinoxylon, and Cupressoxylon genera, which are similar to those found today in the southernmost regions of the Southern Hemisphere. They bear witness to widespread ancient vegetation and past climates that were milder, or at least did not undergo intense glacial periods.Marc Philippe, André Giret and Gregory J. Jordan, "Bois fossiles tertiaires et quaternaires de Kerguelen (océan Indien austral)" ["Tertiary and Quaternary fossil wood from Kerguelen (southern Indian Ocean)"], Comptes rendus de l'Académie des sciences, Paris, iIA – Earth and Planetary Science, June 1998 (read online archive , accessed March 25, 2020).
Highlights
From Port-Christmas, the sight of the pillars of the Kerguelen Arch is a must. As soon as the archipelago was discovered, Kerguelen mentioned the imposing rocky arch located at the tip of the southern rim at the entrance to Baie de l'Oiseau. It rises to over 100 meters. Named "le Portail" by Kerguelen, then "Arched-Rock" by James Cook, the arch collapsed between 1908 and 1913, leaving only its two basalt columns standing.
Port-Christmas also has the geographical distinction of being one of the only land-based antipodes with the United States territory. It corresponds to Kevin, a township in Toole County, in the state of Montana, near the border with Canada."48°40'41N, 111°59'45W (antipodal coordinates of Port-Christmas) ", at https://www.google.fr/maps/ archive (accessed March 20, 2020)
Natural environment When the first navigators landed in the archipelago, they were struck by the abundance of a rich variety of birds. On the Port-Christmas shore itself, Kerguelen's lieutenants, like James Cook, noted the presence of "penguins".Yves Joseph de Kerguelen de Trémarec, Relation de deux voyages dans les mers australes et des Indes, faits en 1771, 1772, 1773 et 1774, par M. de Kerguelen, Paris, Chez Knapen & sons, 1782, 247 p., In-8° (read online archive ), p. 21-83. A nesting colony of king penguins is still found there today, one of the smallest on Kerguelen with just forty breeders.Réserve naturelle nationale des Terres australes françaises (downloadable document from the World Heritage website archive ), Volet A du plan de gestion 2011–2015: diagnostic de la réserve, October 12th, 2010, 2058 p., p. 353. Elephant seals, known at the time as "sea lions", also frequent the beach.
Fishing, on the other hand, was disappointing as the net Cook had thrown into the sea brought back only half a dozen fish. Recent samples show that the fish in the area belong to the Channichthyidae family, or sometimes to the species Zanclorhynchus spinifer, the Antarctic horsefish, of the Congiopodidae family. The beach drop-offs at Port-Christmas are notable for their abundance of soft corals (Onogorgia nodosa), and the giant seaweed Macrocystis pyrifera forms dense seagrass meadow.(en) Jean-Pierre Féral et al, "Long-term monitoring of coastal benthic habitats in the Kerguelen Islands: a legacy of decades of marine biology research", The Kerguelen Plateau: marine ecosystem and fisheries. Proceedings of the Second Symposium, Kingston, Tasmania, Australian Antarctic Division, 2019, pp. 383–402 (, DOI 10.5281/zenodo.3249143 , read online archive , accessed March 27, 2020).