Thursday, June 23rd, 2005. Operation South Georgia.
Peter Bray, 48, from Bridgend, south Wales, who recently won a bravery medal for saving the lives of his crewmates on a expedition in the Atlantic, is now preparing for a week-long trip in the South Atlantic. The Operation South Georgia expedition members will be Nigel Dennis, 49, from Holyhead, north Wales, and Geoff Allen, 40, from Falmouth, and Hadas Feldman, 33, from Israel.
The team tackling South Georgia, which is 800 miles south east of the Falkland Islands, are heading for the South Atlantic in November, just as the Antarctic winter will be approaching. Mr Bray estimated it could take a week to paddle around the 5,600 square kilometre island, weather permitting.
South Georgia lies in the South Atlantic Ocean, about 1390 km south by east of the Falkland Islands, in 54-55°S, 36-38°W. It has a land area of 3756 km2, including satellite islands, but excluding the South Sandwich Islands which form a separate island group. The main island itself, also called Pepys Island, or San Pedro in Spanish, has an area of 3528 km2. It is mountainous, with 11 peaks over 2,000 m high, their slopes furrowed with deep gorges filled with glaciers, Fortuna Glacier being the largest. Geologically, it 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 island group consists of the main island of South Georgia, some satellite islands, including Bird Island, Annekov Island, Cooper Island, Pickersgill Islands, Welcome Islands, Willis Islands, as well as the Shag Rocks, including Black Rock, 250 km to the West, and the Clerke Rocks 74 km in the Southeast.
The climate in the islands is variable, with mostly westerly winds throughout the year interspersed with periods of calm; nearly all precipitation falls as snow. Most of the islands, rising steeply from the sea, are rugged and mountainous; South Georgia is largely barren and has steep, glacier-covered mountains; the South Sandwich Islands are of volcanic origin with some active volcanoes. Mount Paget on South Georgia is 2,934 m high. The islands have prevailing weather conditions that generally make them difficult to approach by ship; they are also subject to active volcanism. The north coast of South Georgia has several large bays, which provide good anchorage; reindeer, introduced early in the 20th century, live on South Georgia.
Anthony de la Roche, a London merchant sighted the island in 1675 and it was named Pepys Island by William Dampier in 1684. It was rediscovered in 1775 by Captain James Cook. Throughout the nineteenth century it was a sealers’ base and, in the following century, a whalers’ base until whaling ended mid-century. The first land-based whaling station, Grytviken, was set up in 1904 and was in operation until 1965. All seven whaling stations, all on the North coast with its sheltered harbours, starting in the West: Prince Olav Harbour, Stromness , Husvik, Grytviken, Godthul and Ocean Harbour.
During World War II (Autumn 1943 - Autumn 1944) the island housed a small (14 people) Norwegian military garrison to protect the island from Japanese invasion.
The Falklands War was precipitated on 19 March 1982 when a group of Argentineans, posing as scrap metal merchants, occupied South Georgia at an abandoned whaling station at Leith Harbor. The commander of the Argentinian Garrison was Alfredo Astiz, a Captain in the Argentine Navy who, years later, was convicted of felonies committed during the Dirty War in Argentina. He renamed the island Isla San Pedro when he proclaimed Argentine authority over South Georgia on April 2. The island was recaptured by British forces on 25 April in Operation Paraquet.
The research station at King Edward Point, near the former Norwegian whaling station of Grytviken, originally established up in 1949/1950 by the British Antarctic Survey, until 1962 called Falkland Islands Dependencies Survey, became a small military garrison after the Falklands War. This returned to civilian use in 2001 and is operated by the British Antarctic Survey.
[Ignacio Wenley Palacios]
in Expedition
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