A miniature sheet containing a single £5 stamp was issued to commemorate 250th Anniversary of the possession of South Georgia by Captain James Cook in the name of Great Britain.

On 17 January, 1775, Cook wrote, “seeing the appearance of an Inlet we hauled in for it...  I landed in three different places, displayed our colours and took possession of the Country in his Majestys name under a descharge of small Arms...  I called the Bay... Possession Bay”.

The stamp shows Resolution from a painting by William Hodges.  The image on the miniature sheet shows Hodges’s painting of Possession Bay.

Ian Boreham

Originally published in Cook's Log, page 15, volume 48, number 2 (2025).