Several features in and around Possession Bay have been charted by various Antarctic expeditions.
Black Head is a dark, rugged promontory, 60 metres (200 ft) high, which separates Possession Bay fromCook Bay, to the north.[2] At the head of the bay, Inner Reef extends from theheadland Adventure Point on the west side of the bay to Brown Point on the east side.[4] Just south of Adventure Point is Brighton Beach, which extends to Zero Point.[5][6] Zero Point sits at the north side of Assistance Bay, a small bay within the larger Possession Bay.[7][8]
On the east side of the bay, Alert Point marks the mouth ofPurvis Glacier.[9] Outer Moraine Reef extends from Alert Point to Steep Point.[10] Brown Point sits between Steep Point and Glacier Point.[11]
The names Inner Reef, Adventure Point, Brown Point, Outer Moraine Reef, Steep Point, and Glacier Point all appear to have first been used on a 1931British Admiralty chart.[4][5][11][12][13]
Brighton Beach was named byDiscovery Investigations (DI) personnel during their 1926–30 expedition, and derives from the beach being as crowded withfauna asBrighton, a popular seaside resort on the south coast ofEngland.[6] DI personnel named Alert Point for their survey motorboatAlert.[9] The names Zero Point and Black Head appear on charts from the same expedition.[7][2]
Possession Bay can be seen on Cook's map, which is oriented south-upwards
It was discovered and named by a British expedition underCaptain James Cook in 1775.[14] Cook made the first known landing on South Georgia in this vicinity.
"Here Captain Cook displayed theBritish flag, and performed the ceremony of taking possession of those barren rocks, in the name of his Britannic Majesty, and his heirs forever. A volley of two or threemuskets was fired into the air."
Cook himself wrote in his log:
"The head of the Bay... was terminated by a huge Mass of Snow and ice of vast extent, it shewed a perpendicular clift of considerable height, just like the side or face of anice isle; pieces were continually breaking from them and floating out to sea. A great fall happened while we were in the Bay; it made a noise like Cannon. The inner parts of the Country was not less savage and horrible... the wild rocks raised their lofty summits until they were lost in the clouds, and the valleys lay buried in everlasting snow. Not a tree was to be seen nor a shrub even big enough to make a tooth-pick."
This article incorporatespublic domain material from websites or documents of theUnited States Geological Survey.