Royal Bay is a bay, wide and indenting , entered between Cape Charlotte and Cape Harcourt along the north coast of

South Georgia South Georgia is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, South Atlantic Ocean that is part of the British Overseas Territories, British Overseas Territory of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands. It lies around east of the Falkland Islands. ...

. Like other parts of the archipelago, many birds breed here, including

king penguin The king penguin (''Aptenodytes patagonicus'') is the second largest species of penguin, smaller than but somewhat similar in appearance to the emperor penguin. King penguins mainly eat lanternfish, squid, and krill. On foraging trips, king pen ...

s, gentoo penguins, and blue-eyed cormorants.

History

Royal Bay was discovered and named by a British expedition under

James Cook Captain (Royal Navy), Captain James Cook (7 November 1728 – 14 February 1779) was a British Royal Navy officer, explorer, and cartographer famous for his three voyages of exploration to the Pacific and Southern Oceans, conducted between 176 ...

in 1775. In 1882 a German group of the International Polar Year Investigations expedition under Schrader was sent out to observe the

transit of Venus A transit of Venus takes place when Venus passes directly between the Sun and the Earth (or any other superior planet), becoming visible against (and hence obscuring a small portion of) the solar disk. During a transit, Venus is visible as ...

and was stationed at Royal Bay. They were based on the north shore of the bay in 1882–83. The group came in on the steam corvette which was the first powered vessel to reach South Georgia. Moltke Harbour, a one-mile wide bay on the northwest side of Royal Bay is named after it.USGS GNIS: Moltke Harbour
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References

* Stonehouse, B (ed.) ''Encyclopedia of Antarctica and the Southern Oceans'' (2002, ) Bays of South Georgia {{SouthGeorgia-geo-stub

History

See also

References