Anthony de la Roché (spelled also Antoine de la Roché, Antonio de la Roché or Antonio de la Roca in some sources) was a 17th-century English maritime explorer and merchant, born in London to a French Huguenot father and an English mother, who took part in a joint venture established by English and Dutch shipowners in the Spanish port city of Cádiz in order to engage in the lucrative New World trade. During a commercial voyage between Europe and South America he was blown off course in Drake Passage, visited the island of South Georgia and sighted Clerke Rocks in 1675, thereby making the first discovery of land in the Antarctic.Headland, Robert Keith. (1984). The Island of South Georgia. Cambridge University Press. 293 pp. (Shows on p. 24 the track of La Roché's in South Georgia waters.) / 1982 concise accountICJ. (1955). Origins of the British Titles, Historic Discoveries and Acts of Annexation by British Nationals in the Period 1675-1843. Application instituting proceedings: Antarctica cases (United Kingdom v. Argentina; United Kingdom v. Chile). The Hague: International Court of Justice, 4 May 1955. In doing so he crossed the Antarctic Convergence, a natural boundary of the Antarctic region that would be described two and a half centuries later by the British Discovery Investigations and the German Meteor Expedition.
1675 voyage Discovery of Roché Island (South Georgia) and Clerke Rocks Having acquired a 350-ton ship and a bilander of 50 tons in Hamburg, with 56 men in the two vessels, La Roché obtained permission by the Spanish authorities to trade in Spanish America. He called at the Canary Islands in May 1674, and in October that year arrived in the port of Callao in the Viceroyalty of Peru by way of Le Maire Strait and Cape Horn. On the return voyage, they careened their vessels on the coast of Chiloé Island, Chile and set sail for Baía de Todos os Santos (Salvador), Brazil.
In April 1675 La Roché rounded Cape Horn and was overwhelmed by tempestuous conditions in the treacherous waters off Staten Island. With "the Winds and Currents having carried them so far to the Eastward", he failed to make Le Maire Strait as desired, nor could he round Cape Saint John, the eastern tip of Staten IslandNGA. (1993). Cape Saint John: Argentina. Geographical Names. National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, Bethesda, MD, USA. "to sail into the No. Sea by Brouwer’s Strait" (no strait actually but rather a seaway by the east of Staten Island discovered during the 1643 circumnavigation of the island by the Dutch expedition to Valdivia under Admiral Hendrik Brouwer).Roelfzema, Humphrey Hazelhoff. (2008). Hendrick Brouwer and the circumnavigation of Staten Land. Hydro International Magazine, November 2008. Accessed 2024.
Eventually, they found refuge in one of South Georgia's southern bays – possibly Drygalski Fjord or Doubtful Bay, according to Matthews and other authors – where the battered ships anchored for a fortnight.
According to La Roché's account of the events reportedly published in French in London in 1678Capt. Seixas y Lovera, Francisco de. (1690). Descripcion Geographica y Derrotero de la Region Austral Magallanica. Que se dirige al Rey nuestro señor, gran monarca de España, y sus dominios en Europa, Emperador del Nuevo Mundo Americano, y Rey de los reynos de la Filipinas y Malucas. Por mano del excelentissimo señor marques de los Velez, Gentilhombre de la Camara de su Magestad, de sus Consejos de Estado, y Guerra, y Presidente del Real, y Supremo Consejo de Indias, y de las Reales Iuntas de la Superintendencia de las Real Hazienda, y de Armadas, y Presidios. Madrid: Antonio de Zafra. Capítulo IIII: Título XIX. (Sailing Directions for the Magellanic Region, narrate the discovery of South Georgia by the Englishman Anthony de la Roché in April 1675.) / Relevant fragment and its surviving 1690 Spanish précis by the mariner, cosmographer and writer Capt. Francisco de Seixas y LoveraVicente Maroto, Isabel. (2018). Francisco de Seijas y Lobera. Real Academia de la Historia. Accessed 2024.Díaz-Fierros Viqueira, Francisco. (2012). Francisco de Seijas y Lobera: A navigator across the world's seas. Álbum da Ciencia. Culturagalega.org. Consello da Cultura Galega. Accessed 2024.Lage-Seara, Antonio. (2022.) Francisco de Seyxas: corsario, científico y aventurero. Mundiario, August 2023. (translated into English by Alexander Dalrymple, the first Hydrographer of the British Admiralty), "they found a Bay, in which they anchored close to a Point or Cape which stretches out to the Southeast with 28. 30. and 40. fathoms sand and rock."Lapérouse, Jean-François de Galaup de. (1807). A Voyage Round the World, Performed in the Years 1785, 1786, 1787, and 1788, by the Boussole and Astrolabe: Under the Command of J.-F.G. de la Pérouse. Ed. F.A.M. de la Rúa. Volume 1. London: Lackington, Allen, and Company. pp. 71–81. / French version The surrounding glaciated, mountainous terrain was described as "some Snow Mountains near the Coast, with much bad Weather."
Once the weather cleared up, they set sail and while rounding the southeast extremity of South Georgia sighted on their starboard Clerke Rocks (Seixas y Lovera's "Southern land"), a group of conspicuous rocky isletsGionco, Daniel G. (2021). Mapa de los islotes o rocas Clerke (Georgias del Sur). El Apostadero Naval Malvinas en Internet. Accessed 2024. extending 11 km in east–west direction and rising to 244 m (James Cook's "Sugar-Loaf Peak") some 60 km to the east-southeast.GSGSSI. (2020). South Georgia GIS. British Antarctic Survey. Accessed 2024.
Fleurieu and Admiralty variant routes
French naval officer, explorer and hydrographer Charles Pierre Claret de Fleurieu opined that La Roché's strait was actually Stewart Strait running between Willis Islands and Bird Island off the northwestern tip of South Georgia, traversed and mapped by Capt. James Cook in 1775, which however is 3.6 km (less than one league) wide, with no point or cape stretching out to the southeast.
For quite some time in the 20th century, the even narrower (550 m wide) nearby passage separating Bird Island from the main island of South Georgia used to appear as La Roché Strait, La-Roche-Straße or Estrecho La Roche on Admiralty charts and in other publications.Kohl-Larsen, Ludwig. (1930). An den Toren der Antarktis. Stuttgart: Strecker und Schröder. 300 pp.Pierrou, Enrique Jorge. (1970). Toponimia del Sector Antártico Argentino. Buenos Aires: Armada Nacional. 746 p.Comando de Operaciones Navales. (n.d.). Islas Georgias: Topografía, Fojas No. 3-4; Relación de cartas agregadas: Islas Willis y Pájaro. Historial 44. (Describes in detail Estrecho La Roche and mentions some possible early sightings of South Georgia; inserted chart of Willis and Bird Islands featuring La Roche Strait)Alfonso, Carlos L. (2012). La Corbeta ARA Guerrico y El Conflicto Austral Grytviken −Georgias Del Sur−, El "Ataque Frustado" y El Control Del Mar. Boletín del Centro Naval Nº 832. Buenos Aires, Enero/Abril 2012. p. 50. (Recent use of the place name Estrecho La Roche.) This version was eventually discarded due to its discord with the existing historical description, and the passage got renamed to Bird Sound.GSGSSI. (2024). South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands Gazetteer. London: UK Antarctic Place-names Committee.
Likewise, the navigable Cooper Sound separating Cooper Island from mainland South Georgia is way too narrow (exactly one kilometre wide) to qualify as a possible La Roché Strait.
Burney, Fitte and Destéfani variant routes
Royal Navy officer and author James Burney conjectured that La Roché might have visited not South Georgia but the Falkland Islands instead (known at that time as John Davis's South Land or Sebald Islands, not yet Malouines, Falklands or Malvinas), possibly anchored in the Bay of Harbours or Eagle Passage area, and upon his departure sailed east with the flat, boggy Lafonia Peninsula on his port and Beauchene Island on his starboard.
In a variant Falklands version, Argentine historian Ernesto Fitte identified La Roché Strait with the Falkland Sound separating the two main islands of the Falklands archipelago.Fitte, Ernesto J. (1968). La disputa con Gran Bretaña por las islas del Atlántico Sur. Buenos Aires: Emecé. p. 47. That passage, however, is some 90 km long – no way of disemboguing through it "in 3 Glasses" – and narrowing to less than 5 km rather than "10 leagues little more or less."
Argentine naval officer and historian Laurio Destéfani referred to the possibility of Roché Island actually being Beauchene Island itself.Destéfani, Laurio H. (1982). The Malvinas, the South Georgias and the South Sandwich Islands: the conflict with Britain. Buenos Aires: Edipress S.A. p. 111. Yet there is no land to the southeast of Beauchene, whether within visibility range or further beyond, hence no "said Passage." Furthermore, with its elevation of 70 m that island could hardly be one of the two "high lands" in Seixas y Lovera's summary.
One common drawback of Burney's conjecture and its varieties is that the Falkland Islands are not known for their "snow mountains near the coast."
Another drawback would stem from La Roché's approaching his island from the west ("the Land which they now began to see toward the East"). Indeed, in such a westerly location with respect to the Falklands he would have already been in the "North Sea", even before his two-week anchorage and before sailing his strait – something refuted by the report narrating that, on departure, "steering ENE they found themselves in the No. Sea." (According to American historian Mark Peterson, "maps from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries commonly referred to the entire Atlantic as the North Sea ... even the southernmost regions of the Atlantic, the waters to the east of Argentina and Tierra del Fuego ..."Peterson, Mark. (2005). Naming the Pacific: how Magellan’s relief came to stick, and what it stuck to. Commonplace: The Journal of Early American Life. Ed. Joshua Greenberg. Accessed 2024. (Explains the origins of the early place name North Sea in the Americas.)Teixeira, Pedro & Diego Ramírez de Arellano. (1621). Reconocimiento de los Estrechos de Magallanes y San Vicente. Madrid. (A Spanish map marking as Mar del Norte i.e. North Sea the waters off the east entrance to the Strait of Magellan; Estrecho de San Vicente being a Spanish name for Le Maire Strait given by the Bartolomé and Gonzalo García de Nodal expedition in 1619.)Hondius, Hendrik. (1633). Freti Magellanici ac novi freti vulgo le Maire. Amsterdam. (A Dutch map marking as Mar del Norte the waters off the east entrance to the Strait of Magellan.))
That a sailing ship in Drake Passage could be blown off course and find itself near South Georgia was demonstrated by the Spanish merchant ship León captained by Gregorio Jerez on a voyage in service of the French company Sieur Duclos of Saint-Malo, which ship made the second sighting of the island in June 1756.Cawley, Charles. (2015). ‘’Colonies in Conflict: The History of the British Overseas Territories’’. Cambridge Scholars Publishing. pp. 266-267. On that particular occasion, the Board of Expert Pilots in Cádiz examined the ship pilot Henri Cormer's report and concluded that the island was probably that sighted by Antoine de la Roche in 1675.Headland, Robert Keith. (2009). A Chronology of Antarctic Exploration. London: Bernard Quaritch. 716 pp. / Extract
Varnhagen-Duperrey hypothesis