Fortuna Glacier
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| Fortuna Glacier | |
|---|---|
| Glaciar Fortuna | |
 Fortuna Glacier | |
  Location of Fortuna Glacier in South Georgia | |
| Location | South Georgia |
| Coordinates | 54°6′S 36°51′W / 54.100°S 36.850°W |
| Thickness | unknown |
| Terminus | Fortuna Bay |
| Status | unknown |
Fortuna Glacier is a tidewater glacier at the mouth of Cumberland Bay on the island of South Georgia. It flows in a northeast direction to its terminus just west of Cape Best, with an eastern distributary almost reaching the west side of Fortuna Bay, on the north coast of South Georgia. It was named in about 1912, presumably after the whale catcher Fortuna,[1] and is notable for two major events in the 20th century.[2]
In mid-April 1915, explorer Ernest Shackleton's ship Endurance, carrying the 27 members of his Antarctic expedition, became locked in the polar ice in the Weddell Sea just off Antarctica. In the spring of 1916, as the ice warmed and drifted north, the ship was crushed. The party used the lifeboats to get to Elephant Island, a desolate, uninhabited island at the edge of the Antarctic Peninsula. There they were stranded. Shackleton and five others crammed into a lifeboat, the James Caird, sailed across the Scotia Sea for 800 miles (1,300 km), reaching South Georgia two weeks later. They landed on the island's uninhabited west side at King Haakon Bay. Poor weather prevented them from setting sail again to one of the whaling stations on the island's east side, which were the only human habitation on South Georgia. Instead they had to cross the largely unknown interior of the island. Shackleton beached his boat and with two others made his traverse of the island, crossing the Fortuna Glacier in the process. Thirty-six hours later they reached Stromness whaling station.
