MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Punta Arenas honors British pioneer and Magallanes explorer

The city of Punta Arenas in the extreme south of Chile honored the memory of a Royal Navy Rear Admiral who was head of a British hydrographic expedition the first directly involved in the charting of waters in the Region of Magallanes between 1826 and 1830.

Rear Admiral Phillip Parker King (1793/1856) in the early XIXth century led four expeditions on board different vessels, Adventure, Beagle and Adelaide, charting the extreme south of Chile and the Magellan Strait and his contribution is compared to that of extraordinary explorers and adventurers such as Hernando de Magallanes. Many of the names in the nautical geography of Magallanes area date back to his time, and according to Chilean historians he was also involved in observations and collecting early but most valuable information on natural sciences and ethnography. Phillips Parker King was honored by Punta Arenas city with a monolith erected at the shore of the Magellan Strait in San Juan de la Posesión Bay, in a place where once was a British cemetery and which originally was the settlement from where the distinguished Royal Navy officer organized his exploration of the region. The committee responsible for the organization of the ceremony includes representatives from Chile's Historic Commemoration Institute; the University of Magallanes, Chile's History and Geography Society; Chile's Naval and Maritime History Academy; the Maritime Heritage Corporation; the Cultural Heritage Corporation of Chile and the Chilean Navy's local garrison, Third Naval Zone.