Hope Bay
Encyclopedia
Trinity Peninsula
Trinity Peninsula is the extreme northern portion of the Antarctic Peninsula, extending northeastward for about from a line connecting Cape Kjellman and Cape Longing. Dating back more than a century, chartmakers used various names for this portion of the Antarctic peninsula, each name having some...
, is 5 kilometres (3.1 mi) long and 3 kilometres (1.9 mi) wide, indenting the tip of Antarctic Peninsula
Antarctic Peninsula
The Antarctic Peninsula is the northernmost part of the mainland of Antarctica. It extends from a line between Cape Adams and a point on the mainland south of Eklund Islands....
and opening on Antarctic Sound
Antarctic Sound
Antarctic Sound is a body of water about long and from wide, separating the Joinville Island group from the northeast end of the Antarctic Peninsula. The sound was named by the Swedish Antarctic Expedition under Otto Nordenskiöld for the expedition ship Antarctic which in 1902, under the command...
.
The Bay was discovered on January 15, 1902 by the Swedish Antarctic Expedition
Swedish Antarctic Expedition
The Swedish Antarctic Expedition was led by Otto Nordenskjöld and Carl Anton Larsen.-Background:Otto Nordenskjöld, a Swedish geologist and geographer, organized and lead a scientific expedition of the Antarctic Peninsula...
under Otto Nordenskiöld
Otto Nordenskiöld
Nils Otto Gustaf Nordenskjöld was a Finnish and Swedish geologist, geographer, and polar explorer.-Biography:...
, who named it in commemoration of the winter spent there by J. Gunnar Andersson
Johan Gunnar Andersson
Johan Gunnar Andersson , Swedish archaeologist, paleontologist and geologist, closely associated with the beginnings of Chinese archaeology in the 1920s...
, S.A. Duse, Toralf Grunden, and José María Sobral
José María Sobral
Alférez de Navío José María Sobral was an Argentine military scientist and Antarctic explorer....
of his expedition after his ship (the Antarctic
Antarctic (ship)
The Antarctic was a Swedish steamship built in Drammen, Norway in 1871. She was used on several research expeditions to the Arctic region and to Antarctica through 1898-1903. In 1895 the first confirmed landing on the mainland of Antarctica was made from this ship.-The ship:Antarctic was a barque...
) was crushed by the ice and lost. They were eventually rescued by Argentine corvette Uruguay. The ruins of a stone hut built by members of the expedition can still be seen.
The old British Base "D" was established here in 1945. It partially burned in 1948 and was closed in 1964. On December 8, 1997 the British Antarctic Survey
British Antarctic Survey
The British Antarctic Survey is the United Kingdom's national Antarctic operation and has an active role in Antarctic affairs. BAS is part of the Natural Environment Research Council and has over 400 staff. It operates five research stations, two ships and five aircraft in and around Antarctica....
transferred the base to Uruguay, who renamed it Teniente Ruperto Elichiribehety Uruguayan Antarctic Scientific Station
ECARE
ECARE, Spanish-language acronym for Estación Científica Antártica Ruperto Elichiribehety, is a Uruguayan summer station established by the Uruguayan Antarctic Institute on Dec 22nd, 1997 in the Antarctic Peninsula....
(ECARE).
Esperanza Base
-References:*Antarctica. Sydney: Reader's Digest, 1985, p. 156-157.*Child, Jack. Antarctica and South American Geopolitics: Frozen Lebensraum. New York: Praeger Publishers, 1988, p. 73....
was established in 1952. It is operated by the Instituto Antartico Argentino
Instituto Antartico Argentino
The Instituto Antártico Argentino is the Argentine federal agency in charge of orientating, controlling, addressing and performing scientific and technical research and studies in the Antarctic....
and has an average of 55 inhabitants in winter. The base installations have displaced part of a penguin
Penguin
Penguins are a group of aquatic, flightless birds living almost exclusively in the southern hemisphere, especially in Antarctica. Highly adapted for life in the water, penguins have countershaded dark and white plumage, and their wings have become flippers...
rookery. The first known birth of any human being in Antarctica occurred here in 1978, when Emilio Palma
Emilio Palma
Emilio Marcos Palma is an Argentine national who is the first person known to be born on the continent of Antarctica. Emilio weighed 7 pounds and 8 ounces when born in Fortín Sargento Cabral at the Esperanza Base near the tip of the Antarctic peninsula...
was born to the wife of an Argentine naval officer.
Hope Bay/Esperanza was also the scene of the first ever shots fired in anger in Antarctica in 1952 when an Argentine shore party fired a machine gun over the heads of a British Antarctic Survey
British Antarctic Survey
The British Antarctic Survey is the United Kingdom's national Antarctic operation and has an active role in Antarctic affairs. BAS is part of the Natural Environment Research Council and has over 400 staff. It operates five research stations, two ships and five aircraft in and around Antarctica....
team unloading supplies from the John Biscoe. The Argentines later extended a diplomatic apology, saying that there had been a misunderstanding and that the Argentine military commander on the ground had exceeded his authority.