The South Georgia Islands are located in the South Atlantic Ocean, east of the tip of South America, approximately 1,000 km east of the Falkland Islands, from which they are administered. In addition to South Georgia Island and the nine South Sandwich Islands, the island group includes Shag Rocks, Black Rock, Clerke Rocks, and Bird Island.
The island was first sighted as early as 1700 by Captain Edmond Halley on board the Merchant vessel Paramour. He encountered bad weather and probably did not realize just what lay through the fog. In 1756, the Spaniard Gregorio Jerez on board Leon also came close to the island in bad weather. The first landing and exploration took place in January 1775 when Captain James Cook on board HMS Resolution arrived at the island and claimed it on behalf of King George III. Cook described the island as:
"Lands doomed by nature to perpetual frigidness: never to feel the warmth of the sun's rays; whose horrible and savage aspect I have not words to describe."
Cook was an accomplished cartographer and was the first to accurately map the island. In his reports he mentioned the number of seals that lived on the island and by 1786 the first sealing expedition had taken place. There were two main peaks in sealing on the island, the first between 1786 and 1802 and the second between 1814 and 1823. Seals were hunted to the point of near extinction.
The US annexed Wake Island in 1899 for a cable station. An important air and naval base was constructed in 1940-41. In December 1941, the island was captured by the Japanese and held until the end of World War II. In subsequent years, Wake was developed as a stopover and refueling site for military and commercial aircraft transiting the Pacific. Since 1974, the island's airstrip has been used by the US military, as well as for emergency landings. All operations on the island were suspended and all personnel evacuated in August 2006 with the approach of super typhoon IOKE (category 5), which struck the island with sustained winds of 250 kph and a 6 m storm surge inflicting major damage. A US Air Force assessment and repair team returned to the island in September and restored limited function to the airfield and facilities. The future status of activities on the island will be determined upon completion of the survey and assessment.
The Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition set out in 1914 to cross the Antarctic from a location near Vahsel Bay on the south side of the Weddell Sea, reach the South Pole and then continue to Ross Island on the opposite side of the continent. The expedition's goal had to be abandoned when the ship, Endurance, was beset by sea ice short of its goal of Vahsel Bay. It was later crushed by the pack ice. The ship's crew and the expedition personnel endured an epic journey by sledge across the Weddell Sea pack and then boat to Elephant Island.
Upon arrival at Elephant Island off the Antarctic Peninsula, they rebuilt one of their small boats and Irish-born explorer Ernest Henry Shackleton (left) with five others set sail for South Georgia to seek help. This remarkable journey in a 6.7 meter boat (the James Caird) sailed through the Drake Passage to South Georgia in the late Antarctic Fall (April and May). They landed on south side of the South Georgia and then crossed the spine of the island in a 36-hour journey. The 22 men who remained on Elephant Island were rescued by the Chilean ship Yelcho after three other failed attempts on August 30, 1916 (22 months after departing from South Georgia). Everyone from the Endurance survived. In December 1916, Shackleton embarked on a rescue mission to pick members of the Ross Sea Party. Ross Sea Party suffered casualties, but they still managed to lay food depots on the other side of the continent.
