Clerke Rocks
Encyclopedia
The Clerke Rocks are a group of small rocky islands some 35 miles (56.3 km) southeast of South Georgia that extend 5 miles (8 km) from east to west. The Clerke Rocks include The Office Boys
The Office Boys
The Office Boys is a group of rocks at the northeast end of the Clerke Rocks, lying some 40 nautical miles east-southeast of the southeast end of South Georgia. Clerke Rocks were discovered by Captain James Cook in 1775. The Office Boys were charted and probably named by DI personnel who made...

  at the northeastern end and Nobby
Nobby (Antarctica)
Nobby is a rock at the southeast end of the Clerke Rocks, lying some 40 nautical miles east-southeast of the southeast end of South Georgia. The Clerke Rocks were discovered by Captain James Cook in 1775. Nobby was probably given this descriptive name by DI personnel, who made surveys of the South...

 (Spanish: Islote Llamativo or Roca Notable) at the southeastern end of the group. The islands belong to the British Overseas Territory of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands
South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands
South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands is a British overseas territory and overseas territory of the European Union in the southern Atlantic Ocean. It is a remote and inhospitable collection of islands, consisting of South Georgia and a chain of smaller islands, known as the South Sandwich...

 and are also claimed by Argentina
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...

 as part of Tierra del Fuego Province.

The islands were discovered in 1775 by a British expedition under Captain James Cook
James Cook
Captain James Cook, FRS, RN was a British explorer, navigator and cartographer who ultimately rose to the rank of captain in the Royal Navy...

, who named them for Charles Clerke
Charles Clerke
Captain Charles Clerke RN was an officer in the Royal Navy who sailed on four voyages of exploration.Clerke started studying at the Royal Naval Academy in Portsmouth when he was 13. During the Seven Years' War he served aboard HMS Dorsetshire and HMS Bellona...

, an officer on HMS Resolution
HMS Resolution (Cook)
HMS Resolution was a sloop of the Royal Navy, and the ship in which Captain James Cook made his second and third voyages of exploration in the Pacific...

, who first saw the rocks.

As on the Shag Rocks, cormorant
Cormorant
The bird family Phalacrocoracidae is represented by some 40 species of cormorants and shags. Several different classifications of the family have been proposed recently, and the number of genera is disputed.- Names :...

s make up a large part of the bird population.

See also

  • Composite Antarctic Gazetteer
  • History of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands
    History of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands
    The history of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands is relatively recent. When European explorers found the islands, they were uninhabited, and their hostile climate, mountainous terrain, and remoteness made subsequent settlement difficult...

  • List of Antarctic islands north of 60° S
  • Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research
    Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research
    The Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research is an interdisciplinary body of the International Council for Science . It was established in February 1958 to continue the international coordination of Antarctic scientific activities that had begun during the International Geophysical Year of 1957-58...

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