[2][3] The US Defense Mapping Agency's Sailing Directions for Antarctica (1976) describes Hope Bay as follows: Hope Bay is about 1 2/3 miles wide between Sheppard and Stone Points, Its northwestern and southeastern entrance points, respectively, and indents the coast to a distance of 2 1/2 miles in a southwest direction.

On the opposite side of the bay sdeveral lofty pyramidical nunataks are conspicuous on the high, rocky wall.

At the head of the bay there is a large valley glacier and lateral moraine which terminates at the water's edge in a high vertical cliff.

[4]Hope Bay was discovered on January 15, 1902 by the Swedish Antarctic Expedition (SwedAE) under Otto Nordenskiöld, who named it in commemoration of the winter spent there by J. Gunnar Andersson, S.A. Duse, and Toralf Grunden of his expedition, after his ship (the Antarctic) was crushed by the ice and lost.

The ruins of a stone hut built in January 1903 by members of the Swedish expedition can still be seen; it has been designated a Historic Site or Monument (HSM 39), following a proposal by Argentina and the United Kingdom to the Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting.

An Argentine shore party fired a machine gun over the heads of a British Antarctic Survey team unloading supplies from the John Biscoe.

[8] The bay has been identified as an Important Bird Area (IBA) by BirdLife International because it supports one of the largest Adélie penguin colonies in Antarctica with around 125,000 pairs.

Other birds nesting at the site include gentoo penguins, brown skuas, Antarctic terns, Wilson's storm-petrels, kelp gulls and snowy sheathbills.

A nunatak 1 nautical mile (1.9 km; 1.2 mi) west of Sheppard Point, standing above the coastal ice cliffs on the north shore of Hope Bay.

A point marking the north side of the entrance to Hope Bay, at the northeast end of Antarctic Peninsula.

A large, flat-topped mountain, 1,000 metres (3,300 ft) high, having steep cliffs on the northeast side, standing 2.5 nautical miles (4.6 km; 2.9 mi) west-southwest of the head of Hope Bay.

A steep-sided rocky col between Mount Taylor and Blade Ridge, 1.5 nautical miles (2.8 km; 1.7 mi) southwest of the head of Hope Bay.

A sharp rock ridge marked by three peaks, the highest 575 metres (1,886 ft), forming the northwest wall of Depot Glacier near the head of Hope Bay.

A pyramidal peak, 445 metres (1,460 ft) high, forming the northeast end of Blade Ridge at the west side of the head of Hope Bay.

Mapped in 1948 and 1955 by the FIDS and so named by them because the flat ice floor of the glacier's upper half, surrounded by the steep slopes of Twin Peaks, Mount Taylor and Blade Ridge, resembles an arena.

A small ridge of hills, with numerous glacial striae, extending from the head of Hope Bay 1 nautical mile (1.9 km; 1.2 mi) northeast along the southeast shore.

A small lake lying 0.5 nautical miles (0.93 km; 0.58 mi) north of Mount Flora, close east of the head of Hope Bay.

A mountain, 520 metres (1,710 ft) high, containing a well-defined cirque which faces NE, standing 0.5 nautical miles (0.93 km; 0.58 mi) southeast of the head of Hope Bay.

The summit, 125 metres (410 ft) high, of a moraine just east of Lake Boeckella and 0.5 nautical miles (0.93 km; 0.58 mi) south of Hut Cove.

A small cove immediately west of Seal Point along the south side of Hope Bay.

A small cove in the east part of Hope Bay between Seal Point and Grunden Rock.

A group of jagged rocks lying near the center of Hut Cove in the east part of Hope Bay.

[29] This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the United States Geological Survey.