Day 7

March 15th            Melchior Island (64°19′S 63°0′W)

Dallmann Bay

Sixteen of the Melchior Islands are named for the letters of the Greek alphabet. On Lambda Island is the first lighthouse built by Argentina in the Antarctic, Primero de Mayo, erected in 1942 and now proteced as a historic site.

Melchior Islands is a group of many low, ice-covered islands lying near the center of Dallmann Bay in the Palmer Archipelago. First seen but left unnamed by a German expedition under Dallmann, 1873-74. Resighted and roughly charted by the FrAE under Charcot, 1903-05. Charcot named what he believed to be the large easternmost island in the group "Ile Melchior" after Vice Admiral Melchior of the French Navy, but later surveys proved Charcot's "Ile Melchior" to be two islands, now called Eta Island and Omega Island. The name Melchior Islands has since become established for the whole island group now described, of which Eta Island and Omega Island form the eastern part. The group was roughly surveyed in 1927 by DI personnel in the Discovery, and was resurveyed by Argentine expeditions in 1942 and 1943, and again in 1948.

Dallmann Bay was a great place to observe some of the amazing Humpback Whales, bacause they came in great numbers to feed here at this time of the year.