Mikkelsen Harbor 20090117-IMG 1079 (16092792481)

Mikkelsen Harbour () is a small bay indenting the south side of

Trinity Island Trinity Island or Île de la Trinité or Isla Trinidad is an island long and wide in the northern part of the Palmer Archipelago, Antarctica. It lies east of Hoseason Island, south of Deception Island in the South Shetland Islands, and nor ...

between Skottsberg Point and Borge Point, in the

Palmer Archipelago Palmer Archipelago, also known as Antarctic Archipelago, Archipiélago Palmer, Antarktiske Arkipel or Palmer Inseln, is a group of islands off the northwestern coast of the Antarctic Peninsula. It extends from Tower Island in the north to Anver ...

, Antarctica. It provides excellent anchorage for ships, and was frequently used by sealing vessels in the first half of the nineteenth century and by Norwegian whaling vessels at the beginning of the twentieth century.

History

Mikkelsen Harbour was discovered by the

Swedish Antarctic Expedition The Swedish Antarctic Expedition of 1901–1903 was a scientific expedition led by Otto Nordenskjöld and Carl Anton Larsen. It was the first Swedish endeavour to Antarctica in the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration. Background Otto Nordensk ...

(SAE) of 1901–04. The origin of the name comes from Peder Michelsen, a whaling manager who was lost in the whaling grounds in December 1910. The harbour was charted by Captain Hans Borge. Apparently the name was in common usage by 1913, at the time of the geologic reconnaissance by Scottish geologist David Ferguson in the whale-catcher ''Hanka''.Whaling in the Falkland Island Dependencies 1904-1931 by Ian B. Hart

Named features

Mikkelsen Harbour is bordered to the west by Skottsberg Point, the southernmost point of Trinity Island. It was first charted by the SAE, it was named for

Carl Skottsberg Carl Johan Fredrik Skottsberg (1 December 1880 – 14 June 1963) was a Swedish botanist and explorer of Antarctica. Life Skottsberg was born in Karlshamn on 1 December 1880 the son of Carl Adolf Skottsberg a schoolmaster and his wife, Maria L ...

, botanist of the expedition. Borge Point is a headland forming the east side of Mikkelsen Harbour. Klo Rock is a rock on which the sea breaks, lying at the east side of the entrance to the harbor. Both features were charted and named by Captain Borge. A small island called

D'Hainaut Island D'Hainaut Island is a small island lying in Mikkelsen Harbor, Trinity Island, in the Palmer Archipelago. It was charted by the French Antarctic Expedition, 1908–10, under Jean-Baptiste Charcot, and named by the sixth Chilean Antarctic Expe ...

sits within the harbour.

References

Bays of the Palmer Archipelago {{PalmerArchipelago-geo-stub