Hannah Point is a point on the south coast of

Livingston Island Livingston Island (Russian name ''Smolensk'', ) is an Antarctic island in the Southern Ocean, part of the South Shetlands Archipelago, a group of Antarctic islands north of the Antarctic Peninsula. It was the first land discovered south of 60 ...

in the

South Shetland Islands The South Shetland Islands are a group of Antarctic islands with a total area of . They lie about north of the Antarctic Peninsula, and between southwest of the nearest point of the South Orkney Islands. By the Antarctic Treaty of 1 ...

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 cont ...

. It forms the east side of the entrance to

Walker Bay Walker Bay is a large bay located in the south-western Western Cape province of South Africa. It is the next major bay between False Bay near Cape Town and Cape Agulhas to the south-east. The bay is famous for having some of the best land based w ...

and the west side of the entrance to South Bay. Surmounted by

Ustra Peak Ustra Peak ( bg, връх Устра, vrah Ustra, ) is a rocky peak of 195 m on the coast of Walker Bay, Livingston Island in the South Shetland Islands, Antarctica. The peak was named after the medieval Bulgarian fortress of Ustra in the Easte ...

to the north, with Liverpool Beach extending between the peak and the tip of Hannah Point. Ice-free area ca. . The area was visited by early 19th century

sealers Sealer may refer either to a person or ship engaged in seal hunting, or to a sealant; associated terms include: Seal hunting * Sealer Hill, South Shetland Islands, Antarctica * Sealers' Oven, bread oven of mud and stone built by sealers around 18 ...

frequenting nearby

Johnsons Dock Johnsons Dock is a sheltered 500 m wide cove indenting for 900 m the northwest coast of Hurd Peninsula on Livingston Island in the South Shetland Islands, Antarctica. It is part of South Bay entered north of Ballester Point. Surmounted by C ...

. The

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

base camp

Station P Station P was a British base camp at the head of Mateev Cove on the east side of Hannah Point, Livingston Island in the South Shetland Islands, Antarctica that supported survey, geology and biology field work from 29 December 1957 until 15 March ...

on the east side of Hannah Point operated from 29 December 1957 until 15 March 1958. Among the birds that make their home here are the gentoo and

macaroni penguin The macaroni penguin (''Eudyptes chrysolophus'') is a species of penguin found from the Subantarctic to the Antarctic Peninsula. One of six species of crested penguin, it is very closely related to the royal penguin, and some authorities consid ...

s as well as

kelp gull The kelp gull (''Larus dominicanus''), also known as the Dominican gull, is a gull that breeds on coasts and islands through much of the Southern Hemisphere. The nominate ''L. d. dominicanus'' is the subspecies found around South America, part ...

s. Southern giant petrels nest here as do

blue-eyed shag ''Leucocarbo'' is a genus of birds in the family Phalacrocoracidae with the members commonly known as blue-eyed shags. This is a group of closely related cormorant taxa. Many have a blue, purple or red ring around the eye (not a blue iris); othe ...

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 ...

s, and

snowy sheathbill The snowy sheathbill (''Chionis albus''), also known as the greater sheathbill, pale-faced sheathbill, and paddy, is one of two species of sheathbill. It is usually found on the ground. It is the only land bird native to the Antarctic continent. ...

s. Southern elephant seals and

Antarctic fur seal The Antarctic fur seal (''Arctocephalus gazella''), is one of eight seals in the genus ''Arctocephalus'', and one of nine fur seals in the subfamily Arctocephalinae. Despite what its name suggests, the Antarctic fur seal is mostly distributed i ...

s are among the larger life forms observed at the point. Hannah Point is one of the most popular Antarctic tourist sites frequented by

cruise ships Cruise ships are large passenger ships used mainly for vacationing. Unlike ocean liners, which are used for transport, cruise ships typically embark on round-trip voyages to various ports-of-call, where passengers may go on tours known as "sho ...

. The geographical feature is named after the British sealing vessel ''Hannah'' hailing from

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a populat ...

and wrecked in the vicinity in 1820 while operating in the South Shetlands.

Location

The point is located at which is 13.95 km northeast of

Elephant Point Elephant Point is a small predominantly ice-free promontory projecting 2 km into Bransfield Strait at the south extremity of the west half of Livingston Island in the South Shetland Islands, Antarctica. The point forms the southwest side ...

, 8.16 km west-southwest of

Ereby Point Ereby Point () is a point lying east-northeast of Hannah Point along the north side of South Bay, Livingston Island in the South Shetland Islands, Antarctica. The name "Erebys Bay" was applied to South Bay on an 1825 chart by James Weddell, "E ...

, 12.36 km west-southwest of

Hespérides Point Hespérides Point ( es, Punta Hespérides) is a rocky point of land projecting into South Bay north-northwest of Johnsons Dock, Livingston Island in the South Shetland Islands, Antarctica and forming the southwest side of the entrance to Emona ...

and 11.76 km northwest of

Miers Bluff Miers Bluff is the point forming the southwest extremity of Hurd Peninsula, the southeast side of the entrance to South Bay and the northwest side of the entrance to False Bay, on Livingston Island in the South Shetland Islands, Antarctica. Th ...

(British mapping in 1821, 1962 and 1968, Argentine in 1959 and 1980, Chilean in 1971, Spanish in 1991, and Bulgarian in 2005 and 2009).

Maps

* L.L. Ivanov et al. Antarctica: Livingston Island and Greenwich Island, South Shetland Islands. Scale 1:100000 topographic map. Sofia: Antarctic Place-names Commission of Bulgaria, 2005. * L.L. Ivanov
Antarctica: Livingston Island and Greenwich, Robert, Snow and Smith Islands
Scale 1:120000 topographic map. Troyan: Manfred Wörner Foundation, 2009.
Antarctic Digital Database (ADD).
Scale 1:250000 topographic map of Antarctica. Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR). Since 1993, regularly upgraded and updated. * L.L. Ivanov. Antarctica: Livingston Island and Smith Island. Scale 1:100000 topographic map. Manfred Wörner Foundation, 2017.

In fiction

Hannah Point is part of the mise-en-scène of the Antarctica

thriller novel Thriller is a genre of fiction, having numerous, often overlapping subgenres. Thrillers are characterized and defined by the moods they elicit, giving viewers heightened feelings of suspense, excitement, surprise, anticipation and anxiety. S ...

''The Killing Ship'' authored by

Elizabeth Cruwys Susanna Gregory is the pseudonym of Elizabeth Cruwys, a Cambridge academic who was previously a coroner's officer. She writes detective fiction, and is noted for her series of mediaeval mysteries featuring Matthew Bartholomew, a teacher of medici ...

and Beau Riffenburgh (under their joint alias Simon Beaufort) in 2016, with action spreading from a field camp at the point westwards to Villard Point on

Byers Peninsula Byers Peninsula is a mainly ice-free peninsula forming the west end of Livingston Island in the South Shetland Islands of Antarctica. It occupies , borders Ivanov Beach to the northeast and is separated from Rotch Dome on the east by the ridge of ...

via

Ivanov Beach Ivanov Beach ( bg, Иванов бряг, Ivanov bryag, ) is a mostly ice-free beach on the Drake Passage stretching in southwest–northeast direction on the southeast coast of Barclay Bay in western Livingston Island, South Shetland Islands in ...

.Did You Know … why Hannah Point is considered one of the most fragile of all Antarctic tourist landing sites?
Severn House Publishers, November 2016

Notes

References

Hannah Point.
SCAR Composite Antarctic Gazetteer * Ivanov, L
General Geography and History of Livingston Island.
In: ''Bulgarian Antarctic Research: A Synthesis''. Eds. C. Pimpirev and N. Chipev. Sofia: St. Kliment Ohridski University Press, 2015. pp. 17–28. {{ISBN, 978-954-07-3939-7 0I7A8657-Pano

Headlands of Livingston Island Tourism in Antarctica