Haskell Strait Place Name Report
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The Haskell Strait Place Name Proposal Report is also available in pdf (400KB).
Antarctic Place Name Report 27 March 2009 - new name
- Edward Nelson Strait or
- Marie Strait or
- Nelson Strait or
- Pony Camp Strait.
South of Ross Island, Antarctica.
General background
This proposal has been submitted by NIWA. Antarctica New Zealand has given its support to the proposal. The submitter states that “the main motivation for us is we want to refer to it in papers but also to promote the importance of oceanography”.
Edward Nelson already has a feature named after him – Nelson Cliff, at the west side of Simpson Glacier on the north coast of Victoria Land, west of Cape Adare. Edward Nelson was a biologist, not an oceanographer, but he did undertake some oceanographic measurements in the area of the proposed name.
The submitter has a preference for the full name of Edward Nelson Strait to be used, which is not in accordance with the usual rules of nomenclature when dealing with personal names – usually only the surname is used.
Within New Zealand’s area of interest, there are three Nelson names: Nelson Cliff (already mentioned), Nelson Nunatak (above the Borchgrevink Glacier Tongue), and Mount Nelson (south of Amundsen Glacier).
A pony camp is possibly incongruous with the naming of a hydrographic feature. Further evidence should be provided to confirm the exact location of where Scott set up his pony camp. Possibly another name suggestion should be sought from the submitter.
Comments from US-ACAN were sought in an email dated 28 February 2009. Any response will be tabled at the meeting.
This strait lies beneath the permanent McMurdo Ice Shelf, and is in an area of relatively high human activity on the surface of the shelf – Williams Airfield and Pegasus Airfield would be located above the strait. Therefore, some confusion may occur with those names. However, the feature is scientifically important, is of a substantial size, and therefore probably warrants naming.
Antarctic Place Name Report 16 September 2009
- Edward Nelson Strait
- or Haskell Strait
- or Joyce-Richards Strait
- (or Marie Strait or Nelson Strait or Pony Camp Strait).
South of Ross Island, Antarctica.
General background
Board’s previous meeting
At its meeting of 27 March 2009 the Board noted the following:
- that this strait lies beneath the permanent McMurdo Ice Shelf, and is in an area of relatively high human activity on the surface of the shelf, with operational airfields named Williams and Pegasus
- that the ice shelf is unlikely to revert to being an open strait with melt in the foreseeable future
- that the strait is scientifically important, is of a substantial size, and therefore probably warrants naming
- that Edward Nelson has already been commemorated with Nelson Cliff, at the west side of Simpson Glacier on the north coast of Victoria Land, west of Cape Adare
- that Pony Camp is not considered to be an appropriate geographic name for the strait
- that the US-ACAN has some reservations about naming a feature in this busy area, and has increasingly moved toward adopting a policy that naming more than one feature for an individual is not really warranted.
The Board decided to defer its decision on this proposal, and agreed to:
- discuss with the US-ACAN whether the strait might be named in association with one of the airfield names, i.e. either Williams Strait or Pegasus Strait
- consider another suitable name for the strait.
Comment from US-ACAN
Feedback from the US-ACAN, who met on 12 August 2009 was that:
- the feature should be named
- the generic term strait is appropriate for referring to the feature
- the name Edward Nelson Strait or Nelson Strait would not be appropriate as there is another feature nearby named for Nelson
- in terms of the naming the strait for either Williams Airfield or Pegasus Airfield, it was noted that such names are subject to change, and therefore, not appropriate, but since these names are subject to change then applying the associative name to the strait would preserve the name should that name of the airfield change. However, in the end it was decided another name would be more appropriate
- an appropriate name should be that of a prominent oceanographer with extensive work in the Antarctic
- a more appropriate name may be related to heroic efforts in the vicinity. Some
suggestions are:
- Wild Strait – for Ernest Wild, member of the Ross Sea Party of Shackleton’s Imperial Transantarctic Expedition (ITAE);
- Spencer-Smith Strait, for A P Spencer-Smith, member of Ross Sea Party of ITAE who died in or near the Strait on 9 March 1916; and
- Joyce-Richards Strait after Ernest Joyce and R W (Dick) Richards whose efforts saved Wild, Mackintosh, and Hayward;
- Additionally, Wild Strait could be most appropriate as he played a key role in saving Mackintosh and Hayward as well as extensive efforts to save Spencer-Smith, and so he also played a critical role in getting the depot laying party back without more fatalities.
However, these ITAE suggestions all have other features named for them:
- Frank Wild Wild Icefalls, Cape Wild, Mount Wild, and Point Wild
- Arnold P Spencer-Smith Cape Spenser-Smith
- Ernest Joyce Joyce Glacier, Lake Joyce, and Mount Joyce
- R W (Dick) Richards Richards Inlet.
US-ACAN’s suggestion for Joyce-Richards Strait might be suitable, though naming a feature after two individuals is not usual practice.
Further consultation
Feedback has been sought from Antarctica NZ, NIWA and GNS on any prominent oceanographers with significant contribution to work in Antarctica. Any feedback received will be tabled at the Board’s meeting.
New proposal by the submitter
Also, the submitter was asked to consider other name suggestions and he responded on 21 August 2009, with an updated proposal for Haskell Strait. Dr Timothy G Haskell is a well regarded and leading New Zealand Scientist, in the field of oceanography. While there is duplication with the name Haskell, none f the other features are named for Dr Timothy G Haskell, and none are for a strait, and all are geographically some distance from this proposal, so as to not cause confusion.
Duplication of Haskell
| Haskell Glacier | Not in NZ area of interest | Lt. Hugh B Haskell |
| Haskell Ridge | Darwin Glacier | T R Haskell [member of VUWAE (1962-63) expedition] |
| Mount Haskell | Not in NZ area of interest | Daniel C. Haskell |
Map
A printable version of this map is available in the Haskell Strait Place Name Proposal Report (400KB).
