1840 print WOLLASTON ISLAND NEAR CAPE HORN, TIERRA DEL FUEGO, CHILE, #12 |
Print from steel engraving titled Ile de Wollaston pres du Cap Horn, published in a volume of L'Univers, Paris, approx. page size 22 x 13.5 cm, approx. image size 14 x 9 cm.
Wollaston Islands
The Wollaston Islands (Spanish: Islas Wollaston) are a group of
islands in Chile south of Navarino Island and north of Cape Horn and east of the
Hoste Island. The islands are Grevy, Bayly, Wollaston and Freycinet, as well as
the islets Dédalo, Surgidero, Diana, Otarie, Middle and Adriana. The islands are
part of Cabo de Hornos National Park.
The islands are located north of the Hermite Islands and separated from them by
the Franklin Channel. The islets Terhalten, Sesambre, Evout and Barnevelt are
located easterly and are not considered part of the Wollaston islands. North of
the islands is the Nassau Bay.
The islands were named between 1829 and 1831 by the British naval officer Henry
Foster, after the English scientist William Hyde Wollaston. The indigenous name
in the Yahgan language was Yachkusin, "place of islands". The Yahgan lived
throughout central Tierra del Fuego to Cape Horn. Numerous place names reflect
British interests in the 19th century.
In the later 19th century, Wollaston was the site of an English South American
Mission Society to the Yahgan. (See Martin Gusinde Anthropological
Museum#Stirling Pavilion).
After Chile and Argentina achieved independence, they asserted their claims in
this area. The Boundary Treaty of 1881 between Chile and Argentina ceded the
islands south of the Beagle Channel to Chile, but 1904 Argentina claimed the
islands. In 1978 Argentina started the Operation Soberanía to occupy the islands
around Cape Horn and then, in a second phase, either to stop or continue
hostilities according to the Chilean reaction. The invasion was halted after a
few hours. In 1982, after the invasion of the Falklands, the Argentine
government planned also the invasion of the islands south of the Beagle Channel.