South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands
South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands (SGSSI) is a British overseas territory in the southern Atlantic Ocean. It is a remote and inhospitable collection of islands, consisting of South Georgia – which measures approximately 100 miles (160 km) by 18 miles (29 km) and is by far the largest island in the territory – and a group of smaller islands known as the South Sandwich Islands.
There is no native population on any of the islands, and the only present inhabitants are the British Government Officer, scientists, and support staff from the British Antarctic Survey who maintain scientific bases at Bird Island and at the capital, King Edward Point, as well as museum staff at nearby Grytviken.
The British claim to sovereignty of South Georgia dates from 1775, and that of the South Sandwich Islands from 1908. The territory of "South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands" was formed in 1985; previously it had been governed as part of the Falkland Islands Dependencies. Argentina claimed South Georgia in 1927, and the South Sandwich Islands in 1938. Argentina maintained a naval station, Corbeta Uruguay, on Thule Island in the South Sandwich Islands from 1976 until 1982 when it was closed by the Royal Navy. The Argentine claim over South Georgia contributed to the 1982 Falklands War, during which Argentine forces briefly occupied the Island, and remains unresolved to this day (see also Sovereignty of the Falkland Islands).
South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands are a collection of bleak and remote islands in the South Atlantic Ocean. Most of the islands, rising steeply from the sea, are rugged and mountainous.
The South Georgia Group (Spanish name Georgias del Sur) lies about 1,390 kilometers (864 mi) east-southeast of the Falkland Islands, at 54°-55°S, 36°-38°W. It comprises South Georgia Island itself (by far the largest island in the territory), along with the islands that immediately surround it and some remote and isolated islets to the west and east-southeast. It has a total land area of 3,756 square kilometers (1,450 sq mi), including satellite islands (but excluding the South Sandwich Islands which form a separate island group).
South Georgia Island, also called Pepys Island (San Pedro in Spanish), lies at 54°15′00″S, 36°45′00″W Coordinates: 54°15′00″S, 36°45′00″W and has an area of 3,528 km². It is mountainous and largely barren. Eleven peaks rise to over 2,000 meters (6,562 ft) high, their slopes furrowed with deep gorges filled with glaciers (Fortuna Glacier being the largest). The highest peak is Mount Paget at 2,934 meters (9,626 ft).
Geologically, the island consists of gneiss and argillaceous schists, with no trace of fossils, showing that the island is, like the Falkland Islands, a surviving fragment of some greater land-mass now vanished, most probably indicating a former extension of the Andean system.
The South Sandwich Islands (Spanish name: Islas Sandwich del Sur) comprise 11 mostly volcanic islands (excluding tiny satellite islands and rocks nearby those main islands), with some active volcanoes. They form an island arc running from north to south in the region 56°18'–59°27'S, 26°23'–28°08'W, about 450 miles (724 km) south east of South Georgia.
The northernmost of the South Sandwich Islands form the Traversay Islands and Candlemas Islands groups, while the southernmost make up Southern Thule. The three largest islands – Saunders, Montagu and Bristol – lie between the two. The Islands' highest point is Mount Belinda (1,370 m / 4,495 ft) on Montagu Island.
The South Sandwich Islands are uninhabited, though a permanently manned Argentine research station was located on Thule Island from 1976 to 1982 (for details, see "History" section above). There are automatic weather stations on Thule (Morrell) Island and Zavodovski. To the northwest of Zavodovski Island is the Protector Shoal, a submarine volcano.
Grytviken
Grytviken (Swedish for 'Pot Cove'; Grytvika/Grytviken in Norwegian) is the principal settlement in the United Kingdom territory of South Georgia in the South Atlantic. It was so named by a 1902 Swedish surveyor who found old English pots used to render seal oil at the site. It is the best harbour on the island, consisting of a bay (King Edward Cove) within a bay (Cumberland East Bay). The site is very sheltered, provides a substantial area of flat land suitable for building on, and has a good supply of fresh water.
History of South Georgia
The Island of South Georgia is said to have been first sighted in 1675 by Anthony de la Roché, a London merchant, and was named Roche Island on some early maps. It was sighted by a commercial Spanish ship named León operating out of Saint-Malo on 28 June or 29 June 1756, and in 1775 by Captain James Cook, who, after dismissing his find as "not worth the discovery", went on to survey and map the island, make the first landing, claim the territory for the Kingdom of Great Britain, and name it "the Isle of Georgia" in honour of King George III. British arrangements for the government of South Georgia were first established under the 1843 British Letters Patent.
In 1882 a German expedition sent out to observe the transit of Venus was stationed at Royal Bay on the south-east side of the island.
Throughout the 19th century South Georgia was a sealers' base and, in the following century, a whalers' base until whaling ended in the 1960s. The first land-based whaling station, and first permanent habitation, was established at Grytviken in 1904 by Norwegian Carl Anton Larsen. It operated through his Argentine Fishing Company which, "protected by the Argentine laws and under its flag, settled in Grytviken". The station remained in operation until 1965.
From 1905 the Argentine Meteorological Office cooperated in maintaining the meteorological observatory at Grytviken under the British lease requirements of the whaling station until these changed in 1949.
In 1908 the United Kingdom established constitutional arrangements for its possessions in the South Atlantic listed by a Letters Patent as "the groups of islands known as South Georgia, the South Orkneys, the South Shetlands, and the Sandwich Islands, and the territory known as Graham's Land, situated in the South Atlantic Ocean to the south of the 50th parallel of south latitude, and lying between the 20th and the 80th degrees of west longitude". In 1917 the Letters Patent were modified, applying the "sector principle" used in the Arctic; the new scope of the Falkland Islands Dependencies was extended to comprise "all islands and territories whatsoever between the 20th degree of west longitude and the 50th degree of west longitude which are situated south of the 50th parallel of south latitude; and all islands and territories whatsoever between the 50th degree of west longitude and the 80th degree of west longitude which are situated south of the 58th parallel of south latitude", thus reaching the South Pole. It was not until 1948 that an interpretation was conceived to allege that the original 1908 Letters Patent might have encompassed parts of the South American mainland as well as the Falklands, making the latter dependencies of themselves.
From 1909 an administrative centre and residence was established at King Edward Point on South Georgia, near the whaling station of Grytviken. A permanent local British administration and resident Magistrate exercised effective possession, enforcement of British law, and regulation of all economic, scientific and other activities in the territory, which was then governed as the Falkland Island Dependencies.
Argentina claimed South Georgia in 1927.
During World War II, the Royal Navy deployed an armed merchant vessel to patrol South Georgian and Antarctic waters against German raiders, along with two four-inch shore guns (still present) protecting Cumberland Bay and Stromness Bay, manned by volunteers from among the Norwegian whalers. The base at King Edward Point was expanded as a research facility in 1949/1950 by the British Antarctic Survey (until 1962 called Falkland Islands Dependencies Survey).
The Falklands War was precipitated on 19 March 1982 when a group of Argentinians, posing as scrap metal merchants, occupied the abandoned whaling station at Leith Harbour on South Georgia. On April 3 the Argentine troops attacked and occupied Grytviken. Among the commanding officers of the Argentine Garrison was Alfredo Astiz, a Captain in the Argentine Navy who, years later, was convicted of felonies committed during the Dirty War in Argentina.
The island was recaptured by British forces on 25 April (Operation Paraquat). From 1985, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands ceased to be administered as a Falkland Islands Dependency and became a separate territory. The King Edward Point base, which had become a small military garrison after the Falklands war, returned to civilian use in 2001 and is now operated by the British Antarctic Survey.
History of South Sandwich Islands
The southern eight islands of the Sandwich Islands Group were discovered by James Cook in 1775; the northern three by Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen in 1819. They were named "Sandwich Land" by Cook after the 4th Earl of Sandwich, 1st Lord of the Admiralty. The word "South" was added to distinguish them from the "Sandwich Islands", now known as "Hawaii".
The United Kingdom formally annexed the South Sandwich Islands in 1908, grouping them with other British-held territory in Antarctica as the Falkland Islands Dependencies.
Argentina challenged British sovereignty in the South Sandwich Islands on several occasions, and claimed the Islands in 1938. From January 25, 1955 through summer of 1956 Argentina maintained the summer station Teniente Esquivel at Ferguson Bay on the Southeastern coast of Thule Island. From 1976 to 1982, Argentina maintained a naval base named Corbeta Uruguay, at Port Faraday, in the lee (southern East coast) of the same island. Although the British discovered the presence of the Argentine base in 1978, no effort was made to remove them until after the Falklands War. The base was eventually removed on June 20, 1982.