Beagle Channel

{{Infobox body of water

|name = Beagle Channel

|other_name =

|image = File:090111-6 Above ビーグル水道.jpg
Partial aerial view of Beagle Channel. The Chilean Navarino Island is seen in the top-right while the Argentine part of Isla Grande de Tierra del Fuego is seen at the bottom-left.
File:Canalbeagle.png
Beagle Channel, from the Pacific to the Atlantic Ocean.

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|location = Pacific Oceans–Atlantic Ocean

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|type = Strait

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|basin_countries = Chile
Argentina

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|length = {{convert|150|mile}}

|min_width = {{convert|3|mile}}

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|cities = Ushuaia, Argentina
Puerto Williams, Chile

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| pushpin_map_alt = Location of the Beagle Channel.

| pushpin_map = Chile#Argentina#South America

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| embedded = {{Infobox mapframe |wikidata=yes |zoom=7 |coord={{WikidataCoord|display=i}}}}

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Beagle Channel ({{Langx|es|Canal del Beagle}}; Yahgan: Onašaga{{cite journal |last1=Piepke |first1=Joachim G. |last2=Striegel |first2=Angelika |title=The Last Yagan: Reminiscences of Cristina Calderón from Tierra del Fuego |journal=Anthropos |date=2017 |volume=112 |issue=2 |pages=562–568 |doi=10.5771/0257-9774-2017-2-562 |jstor=44791391 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/44791391 |access-date=17 February 2022 |issn=0257-9774|url-access=subscription }}) is a strait in the Tierra del Fuego Archipelago, on the extreme southern tip of South America between Chile and Argentina.Sergio Zagier, 2006 The channel separates the larger main island of Isla Grande de Tierra del Fuego from various smaller islands including the islands of Picton, Lennox and Nueva; Navarino; Hoste; Londonderry; and Stewart. The channel's eastern area forms part of the border between Chile and Argentina and the western area is entirely within Chile.

The Beagle Channel, the Straits of Magellan to the north, and the open-ocean Drake Passage to the south are the three navigable passages around South America between the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans.

The Beagle Channel is about {{convert|240|km|nmi mi}} long and {{convert|5|km|nmi mi|0}} wide at its narrowest point. It extends from Nueva Island in the east to Darwin Sound and Cook Bay in the Pacific Ocean in the west. Some {{convert|50|km|nmi mi|0}} from its western end, it divides into two branches, north and south of Gordon Island. The southwest branch between Hoste Island and Gordon Island enters Cook Bay. The northwest branch between Gordon Island and Isla Grande enters Darwin Sound, which connects to the Pacific Ocean by the O'Brien and Ballenero channels. The biggest settlement on the channel is Ushuaia in Argentina followed by Puerto Williams in Chile. These are amongst the southernmost settlements in the world.

Navigation

Although it is navigable by large ships, there are safer waters to the south (Drake Passage) and to the north (Strait of Magellan).{{Cite book | first = Mark | last = Laudy | editor1-last = Greenberg | editor1-first = Melanie C. | editor2-last = Barton | editor3-last = McGuinness | editor3-first = Margaret E. | contribution = The Vatican Mediation of the Beagle Channel Dispute: Crisis Intervention and Forum Building | title = Words Over War:Mediations and Arbitration to Prevent Deadly Conflict| year = 2000 | publisher = Rowman & Littlefield | location = Lanham, Md. | isbn = 978-0-8476-9893-6 | editor2-first = John H.}} Under the Treaty of Peace and Friendship of 1984 between Chile and Argentina, ships of other nations navigate with a Chilean pilot between the Strait of Magellan and Ushuaia through the Magdalena Channel and the Cockburn Channel to the Pacific Ocean, then by the Ballenero Channel, the O'Brien Channel and the northwest branch of the Beagle Channel.[https://www.un.org/Depts/los/LEGISLATIONANDTREATIES/PDFFILES/TREATIES/CHL-ARG1984PF.PDF Peace and Friendship Treaty of 1984]

Islands

The Beagle Channel is between islands covering a much larger area; to the north lies Argentine-Chilean Isla Grande de Tierra del Fuego, to the south Hoste, Navarino, and Picton and Nueva, which were claimed by Argentina until 1984. The latter two lie at the bi-national eastern entrance to the channel while the western entrance is wholly inside Chile. The western entrance of Beagle Channel is divided by Gordon Island into two channels. Some minor islands exist inside the channel among them Snipe Islet and Gable Island. Except for eastern Isla Grande de Tierra del Fuego and Gable Island all islands mentioned here belong to Chile.

History

The Yaghan peoples settled the islands along the Murray Channel, which connects to the southern side of the Beagle Channel, approximately 10,000 years before present. There are notable archaeological sites indicating such early Yaghan settlement at locations such as Bahia Wulaia on Isla Navarino, site of the Bahia Wulaia Dome Middens.C. Michael Hogan, 2008

=Mythology=

According to a Selkʼnam myth, the channel was created alongside the Strait of Magellan and Fagnano Lake in places where slingshots fell on earth during Taiyín's fight with a witch who was said to have "retained the waters and the foods".{{Cite book|title=Mitos de Chile: Enciclopedia de seres, apariciones y encantos|last=Montecino Aguirre|first=Sonia|publisher=Catalonia |year=2015|isbn=978-956-324-375-8 |page=125|chapter=Canal de Beagle |language=es}}

=Naming and Darwin visit=

The channel was named after the ship HMS Beagle during its first hydrographic survey of the coasts of the southern part of South America which lasted from 1826 to 1830. During that expedition, under the overall command of Commander Phillip Parker King, the Beagle{{'s}} captain Pringle Stokes committed suicide and was replaced by captain Robert FitzRoy. The ship continued the survey in the second voyage of Beagle under the command of captain FitzRoy, who took Charles Darwin along as a self-funding supernumerary, giving him opportunities as an amateur naturalist. Darwin had his first sight of glaciers when they reached the channel on 29 January 1833, and wrote in his field notebook "It is scarcely possible to imagine anything more beautiful than the beryl-like blue of these glaciers, and especially as contrasted with the dead white of the upper expanse of snow."Charles Darwin, Voyage of the Beagle (New York: Collier, 1909), chapter 10, p. 240.{{cite web |url=http://darwin-online.org.uk/content/frameset?viewtype=side&itemID=A345&pageseq=2 |title=An 1830s View from Outside Switzerland: Charles Darwin on the "Beryl Blue" Glaciers of Tierra del Fuego |author=Herbert, Sandra |year= 1999 |publisher=Eclogae Geologicae Helvetiae |pages=92, 339–46 |access-date=2008-12-22}}

=Beagle conflict=

Several small islands (Picton, Lennox and Nueva) up to the Cape Horn were the subject of the long-running Beagle conflict between Chile and Argentina. From the 1950s to 1970s several incidents involving the Chilean and Argentine navies occurred in the waters of the Beagle Channel, for example the 1958 Snipe incident, the 1967 Cruz del Sur incident and the shelling of Quidora the same year. See List of incidents during the Beagle conflict. By the terms of a Treaty of Peace and Friendship of 1984 between Chile and Argentina the islands are now part of Chile.

= Beagle Channel in the Fine Arts =

As a ship's painter, Conrad Martens drew and created watercolour paintings in 1833 and 1834 during the second voyage of HMS Beagle in Tierra del Fuego.Richard Keynes: The Beagle Record: Selections from the Original Pictorial Records and Written Accounts of the Voyage of H.M.S. Beagle, 1979, CUP Archives {{ISBN|0-521-21822-5}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8D1K22Rbc20 |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211211/8D1K22Rbc20| archive-date=2021-12-11 |url-status=live|title=A Voyage of Sketches: The Art of Conrad Martens |date=2014|publisher=Cambridge Digital Library |via=www.youtube.com}}{{cbignore}}

The German painter Ingo Kühl traveled three times to the Beagle Channel, where he created paintings on board a sailing yacht.{{Cite web|url=https://portal.dnb.de/opac.htm?method=simpleSearch&cqlMode=true&query=idn%3D994116454|title=Landschaften am Ende der Welt / Paisages del fin del mundo / mit einem Text von / con un texto de Antonio Skármeta|first=Ingo|last=Kühl|date=2006|publisher=I. Kühl|via=Deutsche Nationalbibliothek|access-date=16 April 2022|archive-date=11 March 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220311133535/https://portal.dnb.de/opac.htm?method=simpleSearch&cqlMode=true&query=idn%3D994116454|url-status=live}}

File:HMS Beagle by Conrad Martens.jpg|HMS Beagle at Ponsonby Sound in the Beagle Channel, by the ship's artist Conrad Martens.{{harvnb|Keynes|2001|p=[http://darwin-online.org.uk/content/frameset?viewtype=text&itemID=F1925&pageseq=259 227]}}

File: Ingo Kühl "Gletscher (Beagle Kanal)" 2005.jpg |Glacier (Beagle Channel), painted by Ingo Kühl (2005).

Fauna

Beagle Channel is a prominent area to watch rare species of dolphins.{{cite web |title=Scotia Sea: Part 5. The Great Marine Mammals |url=http://www.vulkaner.no/n/vlad/escotia5.html }} Wildlife seen in the channel include:{{cite book |last1=Lowen |first1=James |title=Antarctic Wildlife: A Visitor's Guide |date=2011 |publisher=Princeton University Press |location=Princeton |isbn=9780691150338 |pages=41–43, 78–110}}

Mammals:

Birds:

Gallery

Image:beagle-canal-panorama.jpg|Beagle Channel seen from above Puerto Williams

Image:Beagle Channel - La Isla de Los Lobos.jpg|Sea Lions Island or La Isla de Los Lobos

Image:BeagleChannelGlacier.jpg|Romanche Glacier on the north shore of the channel

Image:Beagle-Kanal Ushuaia.JPG|Beagle Channel, January 2006

Image:Farofindelmundo2.JPG| View of The Lighthouse Les Eclaireurs called End of the World near Ushuaia on the north shore of the channel