Rugged Island (South Shetland Islands)

Rugged Island (in Spanish "Isla Rugosa", variant historical names "Lloyds Island" or "Ragged Island") is an island 3 miles long and 1 mile wide, lying west of Livingston Island in the South Shetland Islands. Rugged Island is located at coord|62|38|S|61|15|W|. Rugged Island was known to both American and British sealers as early as 1820, and the name has been well established in international usage for over 100 years.

Rugged Island was first visited in 1819 by the sealing vessel "Espirito Santo" chartered by English merchants in Buenos Aires, and commanded by Captain Joseph Herring. The ship arrived to a bay on the north coast, known today as Hersilia Cove, where its English crew landed on Christmas Day 1819, and claimed the islands for King George III. The "Espirito Santo" was joined on 23 January 1820 by the American brig "Hersilia" commanded by Captain James Sheffield (with second mate Nathaniel Palmer), the first American sealer in the South Shetlands. A narrative of the events was published by Captain Herring in the July 1820 edition of the "Imperial Magazine", London.

ee also

* Livingston Island
* South Shetland Islands
* List of antarctic and sub-antarctic islands

Map

* L.L. Ivanov et al, [http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/
] (from English Strait to Morton Strait, with illustrations and ice-cover distribution), 1:100000 scale topographic map, Antarctic Place-names Commission of Bulgaria, Sofia, 2005