Just Making Shtuff Up.

I read about the South Sandwich Islands in my National Geographic recently. They made for some very dramatic images with all the birds and blue ice. There's basically nothing there and it was only valuable as a whaling base. Now there's just a few scientists and a crap load of birds. Its an interesting place, if only because its to remote, so read up on it if you'd like.

But what I'd like to focus on is the naming. The island chain was (re)discovered by James Cook in 1775 and named Sandwich Land. (I know it sounds like the country that Mayor McCheese would constantly defend McDonaldLand from.) Anyway, as most of us know this moniker was intended to honor the 4th Earl of Sandwich, major sponsor of Cook and proponent of sandwiches. However it was not the last time that Cook would use it. Three years later in 1778 he would discover Hawaii and name it the Sandwich Islands, prompting "South" to be appended to the original Sandwich Islands' name.

Sounds kinda like the Earl didn't really appreciate having an island chain that, ask Cook said, was "not worth the discovery" as his only namesake. So when Cook found a more appealing locale he took the name and dedicated that parcel to his benefactor. As a result the Sandwich Islands and the South Sandwich Islands are nowhere near each other. They don't even share the same ocean.

• Wikipedia: South Sandwich Islands