Skua Island facts for kids

Skua Island is a small island located near South Georgia. You can find it just northeast of another island called Prion Island. It sits right at the entrance to a place known as the Bay of Isles.

This island is named after a type of bird called a skua. Skua birds are known for being strong flyers and hunters.

Discovering Skua Island

Skua Island was first mapped between 1912 and 1913. This was done by an American scientist named Robert Cushman Murphy. He was exploring the area on a ship called the Daisy.

Later, between 1929 and 1930, people from the Discovery Investigations (DI) group surveyed the island more closely. They were a British research team that studied whales and the ocean around Antarctica. They officially named the island "Skua Island." They chose this name because other nearby islands, like Albatross Island and Prion Island, were also named after birds by Robert Cushman Murphy.

The Story of Rescue Rock

Near Skua Island, there's a hidden rock called Rescue Rock. It's about 0.6 nautical miles (which is about 1.1 kilometers) northeast of Skua Island. You can't always see it, but sometimes waves break over it, showing where it is.

Rescue Rock was mapped in 1930 by the same DI survey team. It got its name from an interesting event. A ship that hunted whales was passing by this rock. The crew on the whale-hunting ship saw a flag waving on Skua Island. This flag was a signal for help!

It turned out that the survey team's own ship had gotten stuck on the ground at a place called Camp Bay. Because the whale catcher saw the flag near Rescue Rock, they were able to go and rescue the survey party. That's how this hidden rock got its name, "Rescue Rock."