Cumberland West Bay is a bay forming the western arm of

Cumberland Bay Cumberland Bay is a bay, wide at its entrance between Larsen Point and Barff Point, which separates into two extensive arms, Cumberland West Bay and Cumberland East Bay, which recede inland along the northern coast of South Georgia. It ...

, South Georgia. It is entered southward of Larsen Point, where it is wide, and extends in a southwest direction. It is separated from Cumberland East Bay by

Thatcher Peninsula Thatcher Peninsula () is a mountainous peninsula in north-central South Georgia. Its total area is approximately , with roughly covered in vegetation. It terminates to the north in Mai Point, rising between Cumberland West Bay to the west, and ...

Papua Beach Papua Beach () is a beach 1.5 nautical miles (2.8 km) long on the southeast shore of Cumberland West Bay, South Georgia. The name derives from " Papua Cove," now an obsolete name, applied for a minor recession of the shore of this beach by ...

is situated on its southeast shore. This feature was first surveyed 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 ...

, 1901–04, who named it "West Bay". It was remapped during 1926–29 by

Discovery Investigations The Discovery Investigations were a series of scientific cruises and shore-based investigations into the biology of whales in the Southern Ocean. They were funded by the British Colonial Office and organised by the Discovery Committee in London, ...

(DI) personnel and renamed "West Cumberland Bay". The shortened form West Bay was simultaneously used. Following the

South Georgia Survey The South Georgia Survey was a series of expeditions to survey and map the island of South Georgia, led by Duncan Carse between 1951 and 1957. Although South Georgia had been commercially exploited as a whaling station during the first half of ...

, 1951–52, the

UK Antarctic Place-Names Committee The UK Antarctic Place-Names Committee (or UK-APC) is a United Kingdom government committee, part of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, responsible for recommending names of geographical locations within the British Antarctic Territory (BAT) and ...

proposed that the name be altered to Cumberland West Bay and that all other names be rejected. This change brings together information about the whole of Cumberland Bay together in indexes.

Named features

Cumberland West Bay has a complex coastline, many of whose features have been charted and individually named. They are described here beginning at the north on the west coast of the bay, and proceeding southwest.

Northwest coast

The headland Larsen Point forms the west side of the entrance to Cumberland Bay. It was named for Captain Carl Anton Larsen, who visited Cumberland Bay in the ''

Jason Jason ( ; ) was an ancient Greek mythological hero and leader of the Argonauts, whose quest for the Golden Fleece featured in Greek literature. He was the son of Aeson, the rightful king of Iolcos. He was married to the sorceress Medea. He ...

'' in 1893–94. The Crutch is a saddle-shaped col on a ridge, located northwest of Larsen Point. It was charted and descriptively named by DI personnel in the period 1925–1929. Jason Island, named for the ship, is located north of Larsen Point. Allen Bay is a semi-circular bay wide, lying west-northwest of Larsen Point in the northern part of Cumberland West Bay. It was charted in 1926 by DI personnel on the ''Discovery'', and was named by them, probably for H. T. Allen, a member of the

Discovery Committee The Discovery Committee was a popular name for the Interdepartmental Committee for the Dependencies of the Falkland Islands established by the British Government to carry out scientific investigations (which became known as ‘Discovery Investigati ...

at that time. The next notable feature is

Jason Harbour Jason Harbour is a bay wide, lying west of Allen Bay in the north side of Cumberland West Bay, South Georgia. It was charted and named by the Swedish Antarctic Expedition, 1901–04, under Otto Nordenskiöld. The bay was previously visited by the ...

, which itself has a number of named features. Southwest of Jason Harbour, Enten Bay shallowly indents the coast. The name "Entenbucht" (duck bay) seems to have been first used on a 1907 chart of Cumberland Bay by Dr. A. Szielasko, of the Norwegian whaler ''Fridtjof Nansen'', who published an account of his natural history observations made at Cumberland Bay during the previous year. Enten Bay's east side is marked by Doubtful Point. Tweeny Point lies southwest of Doubtful Point. Both of these points were first named on a 1929 British Admiralty chart. Continuing to the west is another small bay, Carlita Bay. It was initially named Horseshoe Bay, probably during the survey of Cumberland West Bay by HMS ''Dartmouth'' in 1920. This name was later accepted for a bay close south of Cape George, less than away. In 1957, UKAPC renamed the feature after the ''Carlita'', a whale catcher built in 1907 and owned by the

Compañía Argentina de Pesca Compañía Argentina de Pesca ( en, Argentine Fishing Company) was initiated by the British-Norwegian whaler and Antarctic explorer Carl A. Larsen, and established on 29 February 1904 by three foreign residents of Buenos Aires: the Norwegian co ...

. Islet Point, first named on the 1929 Admiralty chart for the islet just off the point, marks the east side of the entrance to Carlita Bay.

Southeast coast

Mercer Bay, a small bay marked by

Geikie Glacier Geikie Glacier flows northeast to Mercer Bay, at the southwest end of Cumberland West Bay, South Georgia. It was first charted by the Swedish Antarctic Expedition, 1901–04, under Otto Nordenskiöld, who named it after Sir Archibald Geikie, a n ...

at its head, sits at the southwest end of Cumberland West Bay. The bay appears on a sketch map of Cumberland Bay by Lieutenant S. A. Duse of the Swedish Antarctic Expedition, and is first used on a chart based upon survey work by DI personnel in 1926–30. It was probably named for Lieutenant Commander G. M. Mercer,

Royal Naval Reserve The Royal Naval Reserve (RNR) is one of the two volunteer reserve forces of the Royal Navy in the United Kingdom. Together with the Royal Marines Reserve, they form the Maritime Reserve. The present RNR was formed by merging the original Ro ...

, captain of the DI research ship ''

William Scoresby William Scoresby (5 October 178921 March 1857) was an English whaler, Arctic explorer, scientist and clergyman. Early years Scoresby was born in the village of Cropton near Pickering south-west of Whitby in Yorkshire. His father, William ...

''. To the east, Teie Point separates Mercer Bay from Harpon Bay. Teie Point was named by UK-APC for the sailing vessel ''Teie'', owned by Tonsberg Hvalfangeri. To the east of Teie Point is wide Harpon Bay, first mapped by the SAE and named by UK-APC for the cargo vessel ''Harpon'', built in 1897, which had been used by the

References

{{coord, 54, 14, S, 36, 35, W, source:GNIS, display=title Bays of South Georgia