McDonald Bay is open bay

Bay

A bay is an area of water mostly surrounded by land. Bays generally have calmer waters than the surrounding sea, due to the surrounding land blocking some waves and often reducing winds. Bays also exist as an inlet in a lake or pond. A large bay may be called a gulf, a sea, a sound, or a bight...

 in Davis Sea

Davis Sea

Davis Sea is an area of the sea along the coast of East Antarctica between West Ice Shelf in the west and the Shackleton Ice Shelf in the east, or between 82° and 96°E. East of it is Mawson Sea, and in the west is Cooperation Sea....

, 10 mi wide at its entrance between Adams Island and the Haswell Islands

Haswell Islands

Haswell Islands are a group of rocky coastal islands lying off Mabus Point and extending about 1.5 mi seaward. Charted by the Australasian Antarctic Expedition under Douglas Mawson , who applied the name Rookery Islands because of a large emperor penguin rookery on Haswell Island, the largest and...

, lying immediately west of Mabus Point

Mabus Point

Mabus Point is a cape on the Antarctic coast lying just south of Haswell Islands, marking the east limit of McDonald Bay. It was first charted by the Australasian Antarctic Expedition , 1911-14, under Douglas Mawson, and recharted by G.D. Blodgett in 1955 from aerial photographs taken by U.S. Navy...

 on the coast of Antarctica. Charted by the Australasian Antarctic Expedition

Australasian Antarctic Expedition

The Australasian Antarctic Expedition was an Australasian scientific team that explored part of Antarctica between 1911 and 1914. It was led by the Australian geologist Douglas Mawson, who was knighted for his achievements in leading the expedition. In 1910 he began to plan an expedition to chart...

 (AAE) under Douglas Mawson

Douglas Mawson

Sir Douglas Mawson, OBE, FRS, FAA was an Australian geologist, Antarctic explorer and Academic. Along with Roald Amundsen, Robert Falcon Scott, and Ernest Shackleton, Mawson was a key expedition leader during the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration.-Early work:He was appointed geologist to an...

, 1911-14. Named by the Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names (US-ACAN) after Commander Edwin A. McDonald, USN, Commander of the USS Burton Island, flagship of the two icebreaker

Icebreaker

An icebreaker is a special-purpose ship or boat designed to move and navigate through ice-covered waters. Although the term usually refers to ice-breaking ships, it may also refer to smaller vessels .For a ship to be considered an icebreaker, it requires three traits most...

s which supported the U.S. Navy (USN) OpWml parties which established astronomical stations along Wilhelm II, Queen Mary

Queen Mary Coast

Queen Mary Land or the Queen Mary Coast is that portion of the coast of the Australian Antarctic Territory lying between Cape Filchner, in 91° 54' E, and Cape Hordern, at 100° 30' E. It was discovered in February 1912 by the Australasian Antarctic Expedition under the leadership of Douglas...

, Knox

Knox Coast

Knox Coast, part of Wilkes Land, is a portion of the coast of Antarctica lying between Cape Hordern, at 100° 31' E, and the Hatch Islands, at 109° 16' E.-History:...

 and Budd Coast

Budd Coast

Budd Coast , part of Wilkes Land, is that portion of the coast of Antarctica lying between the Hatch Islands, at 109°16'E, and Cape Waldron, at 115°33'E. It was discovered in February 1840 by the U.S. Exploring Expedition under the leadership of Lieutenant Charles Wilkes, and named by Wilkes for...

s during the 1947-48 summer season.