COMPOSITE GAZETTEER OF ANTARCTICA

between 60°30'S and 60°48'S, 44°20'W and 46°40'W, comprising from W to E Coronation Island, Signy Island, Powell Island and Laurie Island, with off-liers, were sighted by Powell, 6 December 1821, and independently sighted by McLeod, 12 December 1821, from a position c. 120 km W of the islands; partially charted by Powell, 1821-22, and called Powell(')s Group probably by RH Laurie, 1822, or South-Iceland, 1822. The islands were visited by Weddell in February 1822 and further charted by him, 1822-23; named South Orkneys in contrast to the South Shetland Islands, as lying in a slightly lower latitude just as the Orkney Islands, Scotland, lie in a slightly lower latitude than the Shetland Islands (GBR chart 1839). South Orkney Islands (GBR chart 1839; APC, 1953). For further information see British Antarctic Territory Gazetteer.

A group of two larger and several smaller mountainous, barren islands covered with ice and snow and surrounded by many rocks, lying NE of the Antarctic Peninsula between 6020S and 6050S, and 4420W and 46457W. Discovered on the occasion of the joint cruise by Capt. George Powell, a British sealer in the sloop Dove, and Capt. Nathaniel Palmer, an American sealer in the sloop James Monroe, in December 1821. The islands were named Powell's Group on Powell's chart, published in England, Nov. 1, 1822. They were explored and roughly recharted by Capt. James Weddell, British sealer, in 1823. Weddell's chart carried the name South Orkney Islands, which became accepted internationally. Subsequent charts of the group were published by the French expedition under Capt. Jules Dumont d'Urville, 1837-40, and by the Norwegian whaling captain Petter Sorlle, 1912-13. A running survey of the islands was completed in 1933 by DI personnel on the Discovery II. Further surveys were made by the FIDS in the period 1947-50.