Cape Evans is a rocky cape on the west side of

Ross Island Ross Island is an island formed by four volcanoes in the Ross Sea near the continent of Antarctica, off the coast of Victoria Land in McMurdo Sound. Ross Island lies within the boundaries of Ross Dependency, an area of Antarctica claimed by New ...

Antarctica Antarctica () is Earth's southernmost and least-populated continent. Situated almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle and surrounded by the Southern Ocean, it contains the geographic South Pole. Antarctica is the fifth-largest contine ...

, forming the north side of the entrance to

Erebus Bay Erebus Bay () is a bay about wide between Cape Evans and Hut Point Peninsula, on the west side of Ross Island. The bay was explored by the British National Antarctic Expedition, 1901–04, under Robert Falcon Scott. It was named by Scott's sec ...

History

The cape was discovered by the

British National Antarctic Expedition, 1901–04 The ''Discovery'' Expedition of 1901–1904, known officially as the British National Antarctic Expedition, was the first official British exploration of the Antarctic regions since the voyage of James Clark Ross sixty years earlier (1839–184 ...

, under

Robert Falcon Scott Captain Robert Falcon Scott, , (6 June 1868 – c. 29 March 1912) was a British Royal Navy officer and explorer who led two expeditions to the Antarctic regions: the ''Discovery'' expedition of 1901–1904 and the ill-fated ''Terra Nov ...

, who named it the "

Skua The skuas are a group of predatory seabirds with seven species forming the genus ''Stercorarius'', the only genus in the family Stercorariidae. The three smaller skuas, the long-tailed skua, the Arctic skua, and the pomarine skua are called jae ...

ry" after the birds. Scott's second expedition, the British Antarctic Expedition, 1910–13, built its headquarters here, renaming the cape for Lieutenant Edward Evans,

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against F ...

, second in command of the expedition.Langner, Rainer-K. (trans. Beech, Timothy) (2007). ''Scott and Amundsen: Duel in the Ice'', p. 120. London: Haus Publishing. . Scott's headquarters building still exists and is known as

Scott's Hut Scott's Hut is a building located on the north shore of Cape Evans on Ross Island in Antarctica. It was erected in 1911 by the British Antarctic Expedition of 1910–1913 (also known as the Terra Nova Expedition) led by Robert Falcon Scott. ...

Geography

A number of features on or around Cape Evans have been charted and individually named by various Antarctic expeditions. Windvane Hill is a small hill just northeast of the extremity of Cape Evans. It was so named by the second British Antarctic Expedition because an

anemometer In meteorology, an anemometer () is a device that measures wind speed and direction. It is a common instrument used in weather stations. The earliest known description of an anemometer was by Italian architect and author Leon Battista Alberti ( ...

station was established on this site. The hill was later marked with a memorial cross. Three

lake A lake is an area filled with water, localized in a basin, surrounded by land, and distinct from any river or other outlet that serves to feed or drain the lake. Lakes lie on land and are not part of the ocean, although, like the much large ...

s - Skua Lake, Algal Lake, and Island Lake - are located on the cape. Skua Lake was named by the second British Antarctic Expedition because of the nearby skua

rookery A rookery is a colony of breeding animals, generally gregarious birds. Coming from the nesting habits of rooks, the term is used for corvids and the breeding grounds of colony-forming seabirds, marine mammals (true seals and sea lions), and ev ...

. Midway between Skua Lake and Island Lake is a small, roughly circular meltwater lake called Algal Lake. It was named by

United States Antarctic Research Program The United States Antarctic Program (or USAP; formerly known as the United States Antarctic Research Program or USARP and the United States Antarctic Service or USAS) is an organization of the United States government which has presence in the A ...

biologists David T. Mason, Charles R. Goldman and Brian J.B. Wood Jr., who studied the lake in the 1961–62 and 1962–63 seasons. The name derives from the striking mat of blue-green algal remains around the leeward edge of the lake. The final lake is Island Lake, which was apparently also named by members of the second British Antarctic Expedition.

Historic sites and monuments

Scott's Hut has been designated a Historic Site or Monument (HSM 16), following a proposal by New Zealand and the United Kingdom to the Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting. A cross on Windvane Hill, Cape Evans, was erected by the Ross Sea Party, led by Captain Aeneas Mackintosh, of Sir Ernest Shackleton's

Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition The Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition of 1914–1917 is considered to be the last major expedition of the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration. Conceived by Sir Ernest Shackleton, the expedition was an attempt to make the first land crossing ...

of 1914–1917, in memory of three members of the party who died in the vicinity in 1916:

Arnold Spencer-Smith Arnold Patrick Spencer-Smith (17 March 1883 – 9 March 1916) was an English clergyman and amateur photographer who joined Sir Ernest Shackleton's 1914–1917 Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition as chaplain on the Ross Sea party, who were ...

Aeneas Mackintosh Aeneas Lionel Acton Mackintosh (1 July 1879 – 8 May 1916) was a British Merchant Navy officer and Antarctic explorer, who commanded the Ross Sea party as part of Sir Ernest Shackleton's Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition, 1914–1917. ...

and

Victor Hayward Victor George Hayward (23 October 1887 – 8 May 1916) was a London-born accounts clerk whose taste for adventure took him to Antarctica as a member of Sir Ernest Shackleton's Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition, 1914–17. He had previo ...

. The cross has been designated a Historic Site or Monument (HSM 17), following a proposal by New Zealand and the United Kingdom to the Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting. The whole site is protected as

Antarctic Specially Protected Area An Antarctic Specially Protected Area (ASPA) is an area on the continent of Antarctica, or on nearby islands, which is protected by scientists and several different international bodies. The protected areas were established in 1961 under the Antarct ...

(ASPA) No.155 largely because of its historic significance as one of the principal sites of early human activity in Antarctica.

References

External links

Cape Evans Panoramas
– panoramic photographs of Scott's hut at Cape Evans {{Coord, 77, 38, S, 166, 24, E, source:GNIS, display=title Evans, Cape Antarctic Specially Protected Areas Historic Sites and Monuments of Antarctica