Stock Photo - Views of the Beagle Channel, South America The Beagle Channel is a strait separating islands of the Tierra del Fuego Archipelago, in extreme southern South America It separates Isla Grande de Tierra del Fuego from the islands Nueva, Picton, Navarino, Hoste, Londonderry, Stewart Islands and other smaller to the south Its eastern portion is part of the border between Chile and Argentina, but the western part is completely within Chile The west end is the Darwin Sound and the east end is Nueva Island 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 Although it is navigable by large ships, there are safer waters to the south Drake Passage and to the north Strait of Magellan The Beagle Channel is about 150 miles 240 km long and is about three miles 5 km wide at its narrowest point To the west the Darwin Sound connects it to the Pacific Ocean The biggest settlement on the channel is Ushuaia in Argentina followed by Puerto Williams in Chile, two of the southernmost settlements of the world