Unconfirmed undersea bank in the southern Pacific Ocean
Pactolus Bank (or Burnham Bank) is (or was) a seamount in the Southern Ocean, west of Cape Horn. It was discovered by Captain W.D. Burnham of the American ship Pactolus on November 6, 1885. The bank has been proposed as a possible location for Elizabeth Island, a phantom island reported by Sir Francis Drake in October 1578. However, subsequent surveys have been unable to locate the bank, which may itself be a phantom.
Burnham reported to the US Hydrographic Office that "while running before a gale off Cape Horn in command of the American ship Pactolus at 4 o'clock in the morning of 6 November 1885, the wind lulled and the sea fell, and noticing very highly discoloured water, he hove the ship to and sounded three times, obtaining each time from 67 to 70 fms. of black sand and small rocks". He then "ran South for 30 miles before the water, which all the time was very thick and yellow, resumed its natural colour". He reports "the line of demarcation was very distinct".[1] Burnham gives the position of the soundings as 56°36′S74°20′W / 56.600°S 74.333°W / -56.600; -74.333. He states that an English ship from San Francisco to Liverpool reported discoloured water in the same location at the same time.[2]
Marine historian Felix Riesenberg notes that earlier mariners had observed large icebergs stationary in the area, suggesting they had grounded on the bank; these have typically been 200ft or more in height, with a corresponding depth of 800 to 1,400ft below the surface;[3] others could have been several miles in length and up to 1000ft high, while an iceberg sighted by a Captain CC Dixon in 1860 was L-shaped, 50 miles long on one leg, and 30 miles on the other.[4] These icebergs have been observed stationary for up to a month in the vicinity of the bank, and are thought to be responsible for the loss of several ships that have run into them, or been trapped.[5]
Significance
Felix Riesenberg, who served under Burnham, postulated that Pactolus Bank was the sunken location of Elizabeth Island, discovered by Sir Francis Drake's ship the Golden Hinde in 1578. Leaving the Magellan Strait, Drake's ship was driven far to the west and south, before clawing its way back towards land. On 22 October the ship anchored off an island which Drake, according to Riesenberg, named "Elizabeth Island", where wood and water was collected and seals and penguins captured for food, along with "herbs of great virtue". According to Drake's Portuguese pilot, Nuno da Silva, their position at the anchorage was 57°S. However, no island has been confirmed at that latitude, although a sinking volcanic island may have been sighted in that vicinity by the Danish ship Lutterfeld in December 1876 or 1877.[citation needed]
The USS Bear (AG-29) investigated the area in March 1940, but her log does not mention any soundings or results. The USSWyandot(AKA-92) investigated the area in 1956 and found no indication of a shoal. The importance of these attempts is extremely limited,[clarification needed] mainly due to the severe weather these ships had to operate in. Therefore, Pactolus Bank may itself be a phantom island.
In 2008, Dutchman Hylke Tromp, after some years of research, published a comprehensive report, containing all known facts and myths regarding the Pactolus Bank.
Sir Francis Drake was an English explorer and privateer best known for his circumnavigation of the world in a single expedition between 1577 and 1580. This was the first English circumnavigation, and second circumnavigation overall. He is also known for participating in the early English slaving voyages of his cousin, Sir John Hawkins, and John Lovell. Having started as a simple seaman, in 1588 he was part of the fight against the Spanish Armada as a vice-admiral.
A phantom island is a purported island which was included on maps for a period of time, but was later found not to exist. They usually originate from the reports of early sailors exploring new regions, and are commonly the result of navigational errors, mistaken observations, unverified misinformation, or deliberate fabrication. Some have remained on maps for centuries before being "un-discovered".
The Drake Passage is the body of water between South America's Cape Horn, Chile, Argentina, and the South Shetland Islands of Antarctica. It connects the southwestern part of the Atlantic Ocean with the southeastern part of the Pacific Ocean and extends into the Southern Ocean. The passage is named after the 16th-century English explorer and privateer Sir Francis Drake.
Golden Hind was a galleon captained by Francis Drake in his circumnavigation of the world between 1577 and 1580. She was originally known as Pelican, but Drake renamed her mid-voyage in 1578, in honour of his patron, Sir Christopher Hatton, whose crest was a golden hind. Hatton was one of the principal sponsors of Drake's world voyage. A full-sized, seaworthy reconstruction is in London, on the south bank of the Thames.
Dougherty is the name of a phantom island that was believed to be located in the extreme south of the Pacific Ocean, roughly halfway between Cape Horn and New Zealand. It is named for Captain Dougherty of the James Stewart, an English whaler, who in 1841 reported discovering it at 59°20′S120°20′W. He described it as 5–6 miles long with a high bluff to the northeast and covered in snow. Dougherty's discovery was confirmed by Captain Keates of the Louise in 1860, giving its coordinates as 59°20′S120°18′W, and by Captain Stannard of the Cingalese in 1886, giving the location as 59°21′S119°7′W.
Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa (1532–1592) was a Spanish adventurer, author, historian, mathematician, and astronomer. His birthplace is not certain and may have been Pontevedra, in Galicia, where his paternal family originated, or Alcalá de Henares in Castile, where he later is known to have studied. His father Bartolomé Sarmiento was born in Pontevedra and his mother María Gamboa was born in Bilbao, Basque Country.
The Diego Ramírez Islands are a small group of Chile's subantarctic islands located in the southernmost extreme of South American and southernmost point in the world, without a human population.
The clipper route was derived from the Brouwer Route and was sailed by clipper ships between Europe and the Far East, Australia and New Zealand. The route, devised by the Dutch navigator Hendrik Brouwer in 1611, reduced the time of a voyage between The Netherlands and Java, in the Dutch East Indies, from almost 12 months to about six months, compared to the previous Arab and Portuguese monsoon route.
Cape Horn is the southernmost headland of the Tierra del Fuego archipelago of southern Chile, and is located on the small Hornos Island. Although not the most southerly point of South America, Cape Horn marks the northern boundary of the Drake Passage and marks where the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans meet.
The García de Nodal expedition was chartered in 1619 by King Philip III of Spain to reconnoiter the passage between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, rounding Cape Horn, south of Tierra del Fuego, just discovered by the Dutch merchants Jacob Le Maire and Willem Schouten. It was a successful expedition, as all goals were reached. In addition, neither lives nor ships were lost and the whole was done in a small amount of time.
Bonaventure was a 47-gun galleon purchased by the Royal Navy in 1567. She was the third vessel to bear the name. She was commanded by Sir Francis Drake during his 1587 attack on Cadiz, and a year later was part of the fleet to face the Spanish Armada.
Farthest South refers to the most southerly latitudes reached by explorers before the first successful expedition to the South Pole in 1911.
Felix Riesenberg was an American maritime officer and writer of maritime professional, historical, and fictional literature in the early 20th century.
A Strange Discovery is an 1899 novel by Charles Romeyn Dake and is a sequel to Edgar Allan Poe's The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket which was published in 1838. It follows the experiences of the narrator, an Englishman, during his stay in Bellevue, Illinois, and his encounter with Dirk Peters, Pym's sailor companion in Poe's novel. On his deathbed, Peters relates the missing conclusion to Poe's tale.
Elizabeth Island is the name given to an island off the tip of South America visited by Sir Francis Drake in September 1578, during his circumnavigation of the globe. The island was not seen again and is regarded as a phantom. Various suggestions have been offered as to where Drake landed.
The Battle of las Palmas was an unsuccessful English naval expedition in 1595 during the Anglo-Spanish War against the Spanish island of Gran Canaria. The English Fleet was originally directed towards Puerto Rico, but had taken a detour in hopes of an easy victory and taking supplies. The English expeditionary fleet under Francis Drake, Sir John Hawkins, and Sir Thomas Baskerville failed to achieve victory and was forced to withdraw from the Canary Islands towards the Spanish Caribbean, where Francis Drake died of dysentery at Mosquito Gulf.
Sars Bank is located in the Drake Passage in between the southern tip of South America and Antarctica. The bank's coordinates are 59°35′22.18″S69°0′42.87″W, about 350 km south of Diego Ramírez Islands and 500 km from the South Shetland Islands. The top of the bank lies a few hundred meters under sea level.
Francis Drake's circumnavigation, also known as Drake's Raiding Expedition, was an important historical maritime event that took place between 15 December 1577 and 26 September 1580. The expedition was authorised by Queen Elizabeth I and consisted of five ships led by Francis Drake. Termed a 'voyage of discovery', it was in effect an ambitious covert raiding voyage and the start of England's challenge to the global domination of Spain and Portugal.
Admiral Karpfanger was a German four-masted barque that was a cargo ship and sail training ship. She was built near Bremerhaven in 1908 as l'Avenir, which was the name that she bore until 1937. She spent most of her career with the Association Maritime Belge, SA.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
