Esther Harbour

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Esther Harbour ( 61°55′S57°59′W / 61.917°S 57.983°W / -61.917; -57.983 Coordinates: 61°55′S57°59′W / 61.917°S 57.983°W / -61.917; -57.983 ) is a small harbour at the west side of Venus Bay, lying immediately west of Pyrites Island and south of Gam Point, on the north coast of King George Island in the South Shetland Islands. The harbour was known to both American and British sealers as early as 1821. The sealing vessel Esther (Captain Low) of Boston worked in this area in the 1820–21 season. [1]

Geographic coordinate system Coordinate system

A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are often chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position and two or three of the numbers represent a horizontal position; alternatively, a geographic position may be expressed in a combined three-dimensional Cartesian vector. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation. To specify a location on a plane requires a map projection.

Pyrites Island

Pyrites Island is the largest of three small islands lying northeast of Gam Point and forming the east side of Esther Harbor, off the north coast of King George Island in the South Shetland Islands. In 1913–14, the rocky extremity of Gam Point and the adjoining islands to the northwest and southeast were named Esther, Pyritis or Pyritic Islands by Scottish geologist David Ferguson, who reported they were composed of pyrites and vein quartz. From Ferguson's description it appears that the ice cliff behind the Gam Point has advanced since 1914 so that this "island" is now joined to the mainland. The highest and most conspicuous of the remaining islands is the one here described. The name Pyrites Island was recommended by the United Kingdom Antarctic Place-Names Committee (UK-APC) in 1960 to avoid confusion with the other existing "Esther" names in the vicinity.

Gam Point is a rocky point 2 nautical miles (4 km) southeast of False Round Point on the north coast of King George Island, in the South Shetland Islands. The point is one of the features named Pyritic or Esther Islands by Scottish geologist David Ferguson in 1913–14. Although Ferguson represented the point as a rocky island separated from the ice cliff of King George Island by a channel 400 feet (120 m) wide, air photos show that there is no channel. It was named by the UK Antarctic Place-Names Committee in 1960. The word "gam" is an old sealers' and whalers' term for the occasions when groups of men from several vessels met in one of them for a gossip. Nearby Esther Harbour was an anchorage frequently used by sealers.

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References

PD-icon.svg This article incorporates  public domain material from the United States Geological Survey document "Esther Harbor" (content from the Geographic Names Information System ).

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The Geographic Names Information System (GNIS) is a database that contains name and locative information about more than two million physical and cultural features located throughout the United States of America and its territories. It is a type of gazetteer. GNIS was developed by the United States Geological Survey in cooperation with the United States Board on Geographic Names (BGN) to promote the standardization of feature names.