Maurice Channel is a strait wide between

Bellingshausen Island Bellingshausen Island is one of the most southerly islands of the South Sandwich Islands, close to Thule Island and Cook Island, and forming part of the Southern Thule group. It is named after its discoverer, Russian Antarctic explorer Fabia ...

and Cook Island, in the

South Sandwich Islands The South Sandwich Islands () are a chain of uninhabited volcanic islands in the South Atlantic Ocean. They are administered as part of the British Overseas Territory of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands. The chain lies in the sub-A ...

off Antarctica. In 1820,

Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen Faddey Faddeyevich Bellingshausen or Fabian Gottlieb Benjamin von Bellingshausen ( – ) was a Russian cartographer, explorer, and naval officer of Baltic German descent, who attained the rank of admiral. He participated in the first Russi ...

indirectly indicated the existence of the strait by describing

Southern Thule Southern Thule is a group of the three southernmost islands in the South Sandwich Islands in the southern Atlantic Ocean: Bellingshausen, Cook, and Thule (Morrell). It is a largely submerged volcano of which only the three islands emerge above ...

as consisting of one high rock and three small islands. The strait was charted in 1930 by

Discovery Investigations The Discovery Investigations were a series of scientific cruises and shore-based investigations into the biology of whales in the Southern Ocean. They were funded by the British Colonial Office and organised by the Discovery Committee in London, ...

personnel on the ''

Discovery II ''Discovery II'', built in 1971, is the second of three Discovery sternwheel riverboats operated by the Riverboat Discovery company. ''Discovery II'' is still in use as a tour vessel on the Chena and Tanana rivers near Fairbanks, Alaska. Hist ...

'' and named for

Henry Gascoyne Maurice Henry Gascoyne Maurice (24 May 1874, Marlborough – 12 May 1950) was President of the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea 1920–1938 and President of the Zoological Society of London 1942–1948. He also headed the Fisheries De ...

, a member of the

Discovery Committee The Discovery Committee was a popular name for the Interdepartmental Committee for the Dependencies of the Falkland Islands established by the British Government to carry out scientific investigations (which became known as ‘Discovery Investigati ...

References

Straits of subantarctic islands Bodies of water of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands {{SouthGeorgia-geo-stub