Stefansson Bay is a bay indenting the coast for 10 miles between Law Promontory

Law Promontory

Law Promontory in Antarctica was named after Phillip Law, who flew over and photographed this feature in February 1954.The promontory is about 28 km across, situated just west and north-west of Stefansson Bay. This feature appears to have been first mapped with an accuracy by William Scoresby...

 and Fold Island

Fold Island

Fold Island is an offshore island north of Ives Tongue, 6 mi long and 3 mi wide, which, with smaller islands south, separate Stefansson Bay to the west from William Scoresby Bay to the east. This feature was seen by Discovery Investigations personnel on the RSS William Scoresby in February 1936,...

. Mawson of the British Australian New Zealand Antarctic Research Expedition (BANZARE) applied the name to a sweep of the coast west of Cape Wilkins

Cape Wilkins

Cape Wilkins is a rocky cape at the north tip of Fold Island, forming the east side of the entrance to Stefansson Bay. Discovered on February 18, 1931, by the British Australian New Zealand Antarctic Research Expedition under Mawson. Mapped in February 1936 by DI personnel on the William Scoresby...

 which he observed on about February 18, 1931. Exploration by DI

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, which was formed in 1918...

 personnel on the William Scoresby

RRS William Scoresby

The RRS William Scoresby was an early-twentieth-century research vessel in the employ of the British scientific organisation, Discovery Investigations....

, 1936, and the Lars Christensen

Lars Christensen

Lars Christensen was a Norwegian shipowner and whaling magnate with a keen interest in the exploration of Antarctica.-Career:...

 expedition 1936-37, defined this section of the coast more accurately. It was named for Vilhjalmur Stefansson

Vilhjalmur Stefansson

Vilhjalmur Stefansson was a Canadian Arctic explorer and ethnologist.-Early life:Stefansson, born William Stephenson, was born at Gimli, Manitoba, Canada, in 1879. His parents had emigrated from Iceland to Manitoba two years earlier...

, Arctic explorer.