A View of Christmas Harbour, in Kerguelen’s Land

A View of Christmas Harbour, in Kerguelen’s Land
Drawing by John Webber – Engraving by James Newton

On Wednesday, December 25, 1776, Cook arrived in the Kerguelen Islands (French Southern and Antarctic Territories) and “named the place Christmas Harbour, from (our) having arrived in it on that festival.” The expedition found the landscape to be “barren and desolate in the highest degree” and “covered with penguins and other birds, and seals.” They collected fresh water and killed seals “for the sake of their fat or blubber, to make oil for our lamps, and other uses.”
(Cook 1784, 1:61-62 & 1:65-66) (3, 5)

Cook soon discovered that they were not the first to visit this distant land. An inscription was found on a piece of parchment, enclosed within a bottle and “fastened with some wire to a projecting rock on the North side of the harbor.” The inscription detailed a French expedition in 1772 and 1773. Cook “wrote on the other side of the parchment … put it again into a bottle,” and together with a British flag, left it well-placed for future viewings.
(Cook 1784, 1:63-64 & 1:65-66) (3, 5)