Iris Bay is a small bay immediately south of Muller Point at the east end of South Georgia, lying northwest of

Cape Vahsel Cape Vahsel () is a headland forming the eastern tip of South Georgia. It was roughly charted by Captain James Cook in 1775, remapped by the Second German Antarctic Expedition under Wilhelm Filchner Wilhelm Filchner (13 September 1877 – 7 Ma ...

, along the

embayment A bay is a recessed, coastal body of water that directly connects to a larger main body of water, such as an ocean, a lake, or another bay. A large bay is usually called a gulf, sea, sound, or bight. A cove is a small, circular bay with a na ...

between Cape Vahsel and

Cape Charlotte Cape Charlotte (located at ) is a cape that forms the southeast side of the entrance to Royal Bay on the north coast near the eastern end of South Georgia in the Atlantic Ocean. It was discovered in 1775 by a British expedition under Captain Ja ...

. The name "Sandwich Bay", for

John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich, PC, FRS (13 November 1718 – 30 April 1792) was a British statesman who succeeded his grandfather Edward Montagu, 3rd Earl of Sandwich as the Earl of Sandwich in 1729, at the age of ten. During his life ...

, was given to the whole embayment between Cape Vahsel and Cape Charlotte in 1775 by a British expedition under James Cook. The name was later restricted on maps to the small bay described, since a name for the large embayment was not considered useful. 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, reported that the name Iris Bay for the same feature is well established in use among the whalers and sealers in South Georgia, and that the name Sandwich Bay is unknown locally, so Iris Bay was approved to conform with local usage.

References

Bays of South Georgia {{SouthGeorgia-geo-stub