The Wollaston Islands () are a group of islands in
Chile
Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...
south of
Navarino Island
Navarino Island () is a Chilean island located between Isla Grande de Tierra del Fuego, to the north, and Cape Horn, to the south. The island forms part of the Commune of Cabo de Hornos, the southernmost commune in Chile and in the world, belong ...
and north of
Cape Horn
Cape Horn ( es, Cabo de Hornos, ) 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 (which are the Diego Ramírez ...
and east of the
Hoste Island
Hoste Island () is one of the southernmost islands in Chile, lying south, across the Beagle Channel, from Isla Grande de Tierra del Fuego and west of Navarino Island, from which it is separated by the Murray Channel. Hoste Island has the souther ...
. The islands are ''Grevy'', ''Bayly'', ''Wollaston'' and ''Freycinet'', as well as the islets ''Dédalo'', ''Surgidero'', ''Diana'', ''Otarie'', ''Middle'' and ''Adriana''. The islands are part of
Cabo de Hornos National Park
Cabo de Hornos National Park is a protected area in southern Chile that was designated a Biosphere Reserve by UNESCO in 2005, along with Alberto de Agostini National Park. The world's southernmost national park, it is located 12 hours by boat from ...
.
Geography
The islands are located north of the
Hermite Islands
__NOTOC__
The Hermite Islands () are the islands ''Hermite'', ''Herschel'', ''Deceit'' and ''Hornos'' as well as the islets ''Maxwell'', ''Jerdán'', ''Arrecife'', ''Chanticleer'', ''Hall'', ''Deceit (islet)'', and ''Hasse'' at almost the southe ...
and separated from them by the ''Franklin Channel''. The islets ''Terhalten'', ''Sesambre'', ''Evout'' and ''Barnevelt'' are located easterly and are not considered part of the Wollaston islands. North of the islands is Nassau Bay.
History
The islands were named between 1829 and 1831 by the British naval officer
Henry Foster, after the English scientist
William Hyde Wollaston
William Hyde Wollaston (; 6 August 1766 – 22 December 1828) was an English chemist and physicist who is famous for discovering the chemical elements palladium and rhodium. He also developed a way to process platinum ore into malleable ingo ...
. The
indigenous
Indigenous may refer to:
*Indigenous peoples
*Indigenous (ecology), presence in a region as the result of only natural processes, with no human intervention
*Indigenous (band), an American blues-rock band
*Indigenous (horse), a Hong Kong racehorse ...
name in the
Yahgan language was ''Yachkusin'', "place of islands".
Cape Horn Pilot website
/ref> The Yahgan lived throughout central Tierra del Fuego to Cape Horn. Numerous place names reflect British interests in the 19th century.
In the later 19th century, Wollaston was the site of an English South American Mission Society
The South American Mission Society was founded at Brighton in 1844 as the Patagonian Mission. Captain Allen Gardiner, R.N., was the first secretary. The name "Patagonian Mission" was retained for twenty years, when the new title was adopted. The n ...
to the Yahgan. (See Martin Gusinde Anthropological Museum#Stirling Pavilion).
After Chile and Argentina achieved independence, they asserted their claims in this area. The Boundary Treaty of 1881 between Chile and Argentina ceded the islands south of the Beagle Channel to Chile, but in 1904 Argentina claimed the islands. In 1978 Argentina started the Operation Soberanía
Operación Soberanía (Operation Sovereignty) was a planned Argentine military invasion of Chile due to the Beagle conflict. The invasion was initiated on 22 December 1978 but was halted after a few hours and Argentine forces retreated from the co ...
to occupy the islands around Cape Horn and then, in a second phase, either to stop or continue hostilities according to the Chilean reaction. The invasion was halted after a few hours. In 1982, after the invasion of the Falklands, the Argentine government planned also the invasion of the islands south of the Beagle Channel.
See also
* List of islands of Chile
This is a list of islands of Chile, as listed by the National Geospatial-Intelligence AgencyCountry Files (GNS)The data was retrieved on 19 January 2013 and thwere "ISL" and "ISLS" The country has 43,471 islands, according to the Chilean Ministr ...
* Hermite Islands
__NOTOC__
The Hermite Islands () are the islands ''Hermite'', ''Herschel'', ''Deceit'' and ''Hornos'' as well as the islets ''Maxwell'', ''Jerdán'', ''Arrecife'', ''Chanticleer'', ''Hall'', ''Deceit (islet)'', and ''Hasse'' at almost the southe ...
, the islands south of Wollaston
* Diego Ramírez Islands
The Diego Ramírez Islands ( es, Islas Diego Ramírez) are a small group of subantarctic islands located in the southernmost extreme of Chile.
History
The islands were first sighted on 12 February 1619 by the Spanish Garcia de Nodal expedition, ...
, the southernmost islands of the region
*
References
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Archipelagoes of Chile
Archipelagoes of the Pacific Ocean
Uninhabited islands of Chile
Islands of Tierra del Fuego