Frobisher Bay for the English navigator Sir Martin Frobisher, who, during his search for the Northwest Passage in 1576, became the first European to visit it. Until Hall's voyage in 1861, the Bay was thought by Europeans to be a strait separating Baffin Island from another island. The first Church of England service recorded on North American soil was a celebration of Holy Communion at Frobisher Bay in the last days of August or early September 1578. The Anglican Church of Canada's Prayer Book fixes the day of commemoration as September 3. The chaplain on Frobisher's voyage was " 'Maister Wolfall (probably
Simonsen Island Simonsen Island Simonsen Island () is one of the Rønnbeck Islands in the Svalbard archipelago. It lies in Hinlopen Strait northeast of Cape Weyprecht on Spitsbergen. The island is a low basalt cliff and its highest point is only above sea level. The closest islands are neighboring Nedrevaag Island about to the southwest and Tobiesen Island about to the northeast. The wildlife consists largely of polar bears. The island was discovered in 1867 by the Swedish-Norwegian polar explorer Nils Fredrik Rønnbeck. It is named after W. Simonsen (or Simonson), a Norwegian navigator that helped explore the Kara Sea in 1871