1.
Leith
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Leith /ˈliːθ/, Scottish Gaelic, Lìte, is a district to the north of the city of Edinburgh at the mouth of the Water of Leith. The earliest surviving references are in the royal charter authorising the construction of Holyrood Abbey in 1128. The medieval settlements of Leith had grown into a burgh by 1833, historically part of Midlothian, Leith is sited on the coast of the Firth of Forth and lies within the council area of the City of Edinburgh. The port remains one of its most valuable enterprises, handling over 1.5 million tonnes of cargo a year in 2003, previous to the bridge being built in the late 15th century, Leith had settlements on either side of the river, lacking an easy crossing. South Leith was larger and was controlled by the lairds of Restalrig and it was based on trade and had many merchants houses and warehouses. This was where ships offloaded their cargoes at The Shore where they were collected by Edinburgh merchants, leithers were explicitly forbidden by statute to participate directly in the trade at the port, to ensure that landed goods were not sold elsewhere. North Leith was smaller but proportionately richer, coming under the jurisdiction of Holyrood Abbey and it was effectively a fishing village consisting of one street, now Sandport Street and Quayside Lane. Burgage plots ran down to the river from each house and this has traditionally been the shipbuilding side of Leith with several wet and dry docks built over time. The first dry dock in Scotland was built here in 1720, a small peninsula of land on the east bank also came under the same jurisdiction on what is now Sheriff Brae/Sheriff Bank. The first bridge to both banks of the river was built in 1493 by Abbot Bellenden, who controlled the church at North Leith. The bridge was a bridge, the revenue supplementing the churchs income. Reputedly Leiths oldest building, it was demolished in 1780 to allow ships to sail further upstream, the earliest evidence of settlement in Leith comes from several archaeological digs undertaken in the Shore area in the late 20th century. Amongst the finds were medieval wharf edges from the 12th century and this date fits with the earliest documentary evidence of settlement in Leith - the foundation charter of Holyrood Abbey. Leith has played a long and prominent role in Scottish history, as the major port serving Edinburgh, it has been the stage on which many significant events in Scottish history have taken place. Mary of Guise ruled Scotland from Leith in 1560 as Regent while her daughter, Mary, Mary of Guise moved the Scottish Court to Leith, to a site that is now Parliament Street, off Coalhill. According to the 18th-century historian William Maitland, her palace was situated on Rotten Row, now Water Street. Artifacts from the residence are held by the National Museum of Scotland. In June 1560, Mary of Guise died, and the Siege of Leith ended with the departure of the French troops in accordance with the Treaty of Leith, also known as the Treaty of Edinburgh
2.
Stromness Bay
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Stromness Bay is a bay 3 miles wide, entered between Cape Saunders and Busen Point on the north coast of South Georgia. Stromness Bay, like Leith Harbour takes its name from a location in Scotland, Stromness and this is partially because both places called Stromness were whaling centres. The headland forming the southeast side of the entrance to Stromness Bay is named Busen Point and it was probably first seen in 1775 by Captain James Cook, and named in about 1912, presumably by Norwegian whalers who frequented its harbours. Its historical significance is that it represents the destination of Ernest Shackletons epic rescue journey in 1916, during the Second World War the whaling stations were closed excepting Grytviken and Leith Harbour. Most of the British and Norwegian whaling factories and catchers were destroyed by German raiders, the resident British Magistrates attended to the island’s defence throughout the War. e. to Grytviken and Leith Harbour respectively. These batteries were manned by volunteers from among the Norwegian whalers who were trained for the purpose, the three whaling stations, Husvik, Stromness and Leith Harbour were linked by a rough track along the beach. During the whaling era, whalers from Stromness and Husvik would use it to get to Leith Harbour to use the islands one cinema, Stromness Whaling Station Husvik Leith Harbour Scottish placenames in other countries This article incorporates public domain material from the United States Geological Survey document Stromness Bay
3.
Husvik
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Husvik is a former whaling station on the north-central coast of South Georgia Island. It was one of three stations in Stromness Bay, the other two being Stromness and Leith Harbour. Husvik initially began as a floating, offshore factory site in 1907, in 1910, a land station was constructed and remained operational until 1930, business resumed again between 1945 and 1960. Husvik Harbour was also the site of the introduction of reindeer to South Georgia in 1925. The three whaling stations, Husvik, Stromness, and Leith, were linked by a track along the beach. During the whaling era, whalers from Stromness and Husvik would use it to get to Leith Harbour to use the cinema, the track can still be used, but in some places is rendered impassable by aggressively territorial fur seals during their breeding season. The freezer plant was dismantled and moved to Grytviken in 1960, afterwards, scientists from the British Antarctic Survey used the whaling managers villa as a temporary shelter when doing work in the area until the mid-1990s. More recent inhabitants include the BSES expedition of December 2003, who used it as a camp for a number of scientific. Visitors must stay 200 m from the buildings and structures, access to the Managers Villa was prohibited in 2011 when the boundary of the 200m Prohibited Area was formalised in legislation. The jetty is within the 200 m danger area so is not usable, a colony of blue-eyed shags nests on its end each year. In the southern summer of 2005/6, the South Georgia Heritage Trust hired a team of Norwegian craftsmen to restore some of the buildings at Husvik. In March 2006, the Managers Villa, a known as the Radio Shack. Admiralty Peak is close to the station, South of Husvik is a whalers cemetery where 34 men were buried between 1924 and 1959. Brain Island an island at the side of Husvik Harbor. South Georgia Heritage Trust, Photos at Husvik
4.
Stromness, South Georgia
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Stromness is a former whaling station on the northern coast of South Georgia Island in the South Atlantic. It was the destination of Ernest Shackletons rescue journey in 1916 and it is the central of three harbours in the west side of Stromness Bay, South Georgia. The name Fridtjof Nansen or Nansen appeared for this harbour on some early charts, the name Stromness comes from the town of that name in Orkney, Scotland. In 1907 a floating factory was erected in Stromness Harbour, the station being built in 1912. From 1912 until 1931 Stromness operated as a station, the first manager of which was Petter Sørlle. In 1931 it was converted into a repair yard with a machine shop. It remained operational until 1961 when the site was abandoned, shackleton, along with Tom Crean and Frank Worsley, then trekked across South Georgias mountainous and glaciated interior in an effort to reach help on the populated northern shore of the island. After 36 hours of crossing the interior they arrived at the Stromness administration center which also was the home of the Norwegian whaling stations manager and this building has been dubbed the Villa at Stromness because it represents relative luxury compared to its surroundings. All men were rescued from Elephant Island, in the decades following its closure, Stromness has been subject to damage from the elements and many of its buildings have been reduced to ruins. However, recent efforts have made to restore the Villa. Outside of Stromness is a whalers cemetery with 14 grave markers. Research stations in Antarctica Stromness Bay This article incorporates public domain material from the United States Geological Survey document Stromness, South Georgia
5.
Whaling
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Whaling is the hunting of whales for their usable products like meat, oil and blubber. Its earliest forms date to at least circa 3000 BC, various coastal communities have long histories of subsistence whaling and harvesting beached whales. By the late 1930s, more than 50,000 whales were killed annually In 1986, contemporary whaling is subject to intense debate. Pro-whaling countries, notably Japan, Norway, and Iceland, wish to lift the ban on certain whale stocks for hunting, anti-whaling countries and environmental groups oppose lifting the ban. Whaling began in times and was initially confined to coastal waters. Early whaling affected the development of disparate cultures – such as Norway. The Basques were the first to catch whales commercially, and dominated the trade for five centuries, spreading to the far corners of the North Atlantic and even reaching the South Atlantic. Although prehistoric hunting and gathering is considered to have had little ecological impact. Whale oil is used today and modern commercial whaling is primarily done for food. The primary species hunted are the common minke whale and Antarctic minke whale, recent scientific surveys estimate a population of 103,000 in the northeast Atlantic. International cooperation on whaling began in 1931 and culminated in the signing of the International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling in 1946. Its aim is to, provide for the conservation of whale stocks. The International Whaling Commission was set up under the ICRW to decide hunting quotas, non-member countries are not bound by its regulations and conduct their own management programs. The IWC voted on July 23,1982, to establish a moratorium on commercial whaling beginning in the 1985–86 season. Since 1992, the IWCs Scientific Committee has requested that it be allowed to give proposals for some whale stocks. At the 2010 meeting of the International Whaling Commission in Morocco, Japan, Norway and Iceland have urged the organisation to lift the ban. A coalition of anti-whaling nations has offered a plan that would allow these countries to continue whaling. Their plan would also completely ban whaling in the Southern Ocean, opponents of the compromise plan want to see an end to all commercial whaling, but are willing to allow subsistence-level catches by indigenous peoples
6.
South Georgia Island
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South Georgia is an island in the South Atlantic that is part of the British Overseas territory of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands. South Georgia is 167.4 kilometres long and 1.4 to 37 km wide. The Island of South Georgia is said to have been first sighted in 1675 by Anthony de la Roché, a London merchant and it was sighted by a commercial Spanish ship named León operating out of Saint-Malo on 28 June or 29 June 1756
7.
Christian Salvesen
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Christian Salvesen was a Scottish whaling, transport and logistics company with a long and varied history, employing 13,000 staff and operating in seven countries in western Europe. Since December 2007 it has been a wholly owned subsidiary of French-listed transport group Norbert Dentressangle, Christian Frederik Salvesen was born in Mandal, Vest-Agder, Norway. Christian Salvesen was the son of Norwegian merchant shipowner, Thomas Salvesen, Christian Salvesen joined the partnership after migrating from Mandal in 1851. In 1868 Christian Salvesen, together with Wilhelm August Thams founded the mining company Ørkedals Mining Company and bought a number of mines around Løkken. In 1872, Christian Salvesen left the partnership and set up Christian Salvesen & Co. based in Leith, initially the company operated as shipping and forwarding agents, shipbrokers and timber merchants. Christian Salvesen & Co. began buying steamers in the 1880s, in 1883 Christian Salvesen, delegated management of shipping operations to his eldest sons, Thomas and Frederick, who became partners in the firm. In the early 1900s, the company developed significant interests in whaling, initially in the Arctic and they established and operated from a base at Leith Harbour on the island of South Georgia, to the south east of the Falkland Islands. In the years 1950-1962 the whaling ships Southern Harvester and Southern Venturer belonged to the company and these ships were floating factories, and the core of a whaling expedition. Each expedition consisted of a factory as well as a team of whale-catchers which were equipped with an onboard hangar which housed a Westland Whirlwind which was used for whale spotting. One of the companys whale-catchers, Southern Actor, now lies at the museum in Sandefjord, Norway. As the boom in whaling ended after World War II, Salvesen moved into the commercial trawler business and it traded primarily in housebuilding, general food freezing and oil before moving back into the transport business by buying Swift Services. Christian Salvesens house stood at Goldenacre in Edinburgh, on Ferry Road opposite Inverleith Row and his offices were on the south side of Bernard Street, Leith, in a building that doubled as the Norwegian Consulate for Edinburgh. He is buried in Rosebank Cemetery on Pilrig Street in Leith, Christian Salvesens whaling ships brought the first penguins back to Edinburgh and donated them to Edinburgh Zoo. Edinburgh therefore became the first zoo in the world to house penguins, the Salvesen family lost many sons and nephews during World War I. Partly as a result of this they built several housing developments, most on Scottish Veterans Garden City principles, Earl Haig Gardens off East Trinity Road in Edinburgh. For injured and retired army personnel, with memorial tablets over the doors to several of the Salvesen family killed in the conflict such as 2nd Lt Edward Maxwell Salvesen. Salvesen Gardens in Muirhouse, Edinburgh, for army personnel, Salvesen Crescent also in Muirhouse, for retired lighthouse keepers. Salvesens exited the industry in 1963, thus ending whaling in Scotland
8.
Edinburgh
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Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 local government council areas. Located in Lothian on the Firth of Forths southern shore, it is Scotlands second most populous city and the seventh most populous in the United Kingdom. The 2014 official population estimates are 464,990 for the city of Edinburgh,492,680 for the authority area. Recognised as the capital of Scotland since at least the 15th century, Edinburgh is home to the Scottish Parliament and it is the largest financial centre in the UK after London. Historically part of Midlothian, the city has long been a centre of education, particularly in the fields of medicine, Scots law, literature, the sciences and engineering. The University of Edinburgh, founded in 1582 and now one of four in the city, was placed 17th in the QS World University Rankings in 2013 and 2014. The city is famous for the Edinburgh International Festival and the Fringe. The citys historical and cultural attractions have made it the United Kingdoms second most popular tourist destination after London, attracting over one million overseas visitors each year. Historic sites in Edinburgh include Edinburgh Castle, Holyrood Palace, the churches of St. Giles, Greyfriars and the Canongate, Edinburghs Old Town and New Town together are listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, which has been managed by Edinburgh World Heritage since 1999. It appears to derive from the place name Eidyn mentioned in the Old Welsh epic poem Y Gododdin, the poem names Din Eidyn as a hill fort in the territory of the Gododdin. The Celtic element din was dropped and replaced by the Old English burh, the first documentary evidence of the medieval burgh is a royal charter, c. 1124–1127, by King David I granting a toft in burgo meo de Edenesburg to the Priory of Dunfermline. In modern Gaelic, the city is called Dùn Èideann, the earliest known human habitation in the Edinburgh area was at Cramond, where evidence was found of a Mesolithic camp site dated to c.8500 BC. Traces of later Bronze Age and Iron Age settlements have found on Castle Rock, Arthurs Seat, Craiglockhart Hill. When the Romans arrived in Lothian at the end of the 1st century AD, at some point before the 7th century AD, the Gododdin, who were presumably descendants of the Votadini, built the hill fort of Din Eidyn or Etin. Although its location has not been identified, it likely they would have chosen a commanding position like the Castle Rock, Arthurs Seat. In 638, the Gododdin stronghold was besieged by forces loyal to King Oswald of Northumbria and it thenceforth remained under their jurisdiction. The royal burgh was founded by King David I in the early 12th century on land belonging to the Crown, in 1638, King Charles Is attempt to introduce Anglican church forms in Scotland encountered stiff Presbyterian opposition culminating in the conflicts of the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. In the 17th century, Edinburghs boundaries were defined by the citys defensive town walls
9.
Grytviken
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Grytviken is a settlement on the island of South Georgia, part of a British Overseas Territory in the South Atlantic. It was so named in 1902 by the Swedish surveyor Johan Gunnar Andersson who found old English try pots used to seal oil at the site. It is the best harbour on the island, consisting of a bay within a bay, the site is quite sheltered, provides a substantial area of flat land suitable for building, and has a good supply of fresh water. The settlement at Grytviken was established on 16 November 1904 by the Norwegian sea captain Carl Anton Larsen and it was phenomenally successful, with 195 whales taken in the first season alone. The whalers used every part of the animals – the blubber, meat, bones and viscera were rendered to extract the oil, Elephant seals were also hunted for their blubber. Around 300 men worked at the station during its heyday, operating during the summer from October to March. A few remained over the winter to maintain the boats and factory, every few months a transport ship would bring essential supplies to the station and take away the oil and other produce. The following year the Argentine Government established a meteorological station, Carl Anton Larsen, the founder of Grytviken, was a naturalised Briton born in Sandefjord, Norway. His family in Grytviken included his wife, three daughters and two sons, Larsen chose the whaling stations site during his 1902 visit while in command of the ship Antarctic of the Swedish Antarctic Expedition led by Otto Nordenskjöld. One of those try-pots, having the inscription ‘Johnson and Sons, Wapping Dock, managers and other senior officers of the whaling stations often had their families living together with them. Several more children have been born on South Georgia, recently even aboard visiting private yachts, even now, the shore around Grytviken is littered with whale bones and the rusting remains of whale oil processing plants and abandoned whaling ships. Grytviken is closely associated with the explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton, Shackletons Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition set out from London on 1 August 1914, to reach the Weddell Sea on 10 January 1915, where the pack ice closed in on their ship, Endurance. The ship was broken by the ice on 27 October 1915, the 28 crew members managed to flee to Elephant Island off Antarctica, bringing three small boats with them. Shackleton and five men managed to reach the southern coast of South Georgia in the James Caird. They arrived at Cave Cove, and camped at Peggotty Bluff, from Grytviken, Shackleton organised a rescue operation to bring home the remaining men. He again returned to Grytviken, but posthumously, in 1922 he had died unexpectedly from a heart attack at the beginning of another Antarctic expedition. His widow chose South Georgia as his resting place. His grave is located south of Grytviken, alongside those of whalers who had died on the island, on 27 November 2011, the ashes of Frank Wild, Shackletons right-hand man, were interred on the right side of Shackletons grave-site
10.
Ocean Harbour
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Ocean Harbour is a deeply indented bay on the north coast of South Georgia which is entered 1.5 miles west-northwest of Tijuca point. It was a whaling station between 1909–1920. At one point, South Georgia was the capital of the world. The names New Fortune Bay and Neufortuna Bay, probably for the whaling catcher Fortuna, were used for this site in 1922 by Filchner, following the German Antarctic Expedition, 1911-12. The name Ocean Harbour is approved for this feature on the basis of local usage, old sealing trypots can still be seen here, and there is also the wreck of the Bayard here, a 1300 tonne,67 m long, iron hulled boat, built in 1864. She was moored at the station at 1911, when a gale blew her loose across the bay. Ocean Harbour was the site of the first introduction of reindeer to South Georgia by Pescas whaling station manager Carl Anton Larsen, Ocean Harbour has a small cemetery with eight graves including the oldest known grave on the island - that of Frank Cabrial of the sealer Francis Allen. The marker has gone some of the others are still marked. This article incorporates public domain material from the United States Geological Survey document Ocean Harbour
11.
Prince Olav Harbour
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Prince Olav Harbour is small harbour in the south west portion of Cook Bay, entered between Point Abrahamsen and Sheep Point, along the north coast of South Georgia. Throughout the 19th century South Georgia had first been a base and, in the following century. Prince Olav Harbour was the site of one of the seven main whaling bases established on South Georgia, Prince Olav Harbour was the location of a former Norwegian whaling station operational dating from 1911. The whaling station was initially a floating factory site, a station being set up in 1916. The whaling station continued as a station until March 1931. The name was in use as early as 1912 and was given by Norwegian whalers for Crown Prince Olav of Norway, the Brutus was deliberately beached at the Harbour to serve as a coaling station. It was built in Glasgow in 1883, and weighed 1,700 tonnes and it was originally known as the Sierra Pedrosa. It was towed from Cape Town, Brutus Island in the harbour is named after it. History of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands This article incorporates public domain material from the United States Geological Survey document Prince Olav Harbour, plan of the Prince Olav Harbour whaling station Abandoned Whaling Station Prince Olav Harbour - South Georgia Prince Olav Harbour Whaling station
12.
Japan
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Japan is a sovereign island nation in Eastern Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies off the eastern coast of the Asia Mainland and stretches from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea, the kanji that make up Japans name mean sun origin. 日 can be read as ni and means sun while 本 can be read as hon, or pon, Japan is often referred to by the famous epithet Land of the Rising Sun in reference to its Japanese name. Japan is an archipelago consisting of about 6,852 islands. The four largest are Honshu, Hokkaido, Kyushu and Shikoku, the country is divided into 47 prefectures in eight regions. Hokkaido being the northernmost prefecture and Okinawa being the southernmost one, the population of 127 million is the worlds tenth largest. Japanese people make up 98. 5% of Japans total population, approximately 9.1 million people live in the city of Tokyo, the capital of Japan. Archaeological research indicates that Japan was inhabited as early as the Upper Paleolithic period, the first written mention of Japan is in Chinese history texts from the 1st century AD. Influence from other regions, mainly China, followed by periods of isolation, from the 12th century until 1868, Japan was ruled by successive feudal military shoguns who ruled in the name of the Emperor. Japan entered into a period of isolation in the early 17th century. The Second Sino-Japanese War of 1937 expanded into part of World War II in 1941, which came to an end in 1945 following the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Japan is a member of the UN, the OECD, the G7, the G8, the country has the worlds third-largest economy by nominal GDP and the worlds fourth-largest economy by purchasing power parity. It is also the worlds fourth-largest exporter and fourth-largest importer, although Japan has officially renounced its right to declare war, it maintains a modern military with the worlds eighth-largest military budget, used for self-defense and peacekeeping roles. Japan is a country with a very high standard of living. Its population enjoys the highest life expectancy and the third lowest infant mortality rate in the world, in ancient China, Japan was called Wo 倭. It was mentioned in the third century Chinese historical text Records of the Three Kingdoms in the section for the Wei kingdom, Wa became disliked because it has the connotation of the character 矮, meaning dwarf. The 倭 kanji has been replaced with the homophone Wa, meaning harmony, the Japanese word for Japan is 日本, which is pronounced Nippon or Nihon and literally means the origin of the sun. The earliest record of the name Nihon appears in the Chinese historical records of the Tang dynasty, at the start of the seventh century, a delegation from Japan introduced their country as Nihon
13.
Nippon Suisan Kaisha
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Nippon Suisan Kaisha Ltd. more commonly known as Nissui, is a marine products company based in Japan. It had annual revenues of US$5.1 billion in 2014, the company was established in 1911, and is a commercial fishing and marine product procurement corporation. Its goal is to “Establish a global chain of marine products. ”The company is the second-largest of its kind in Japan after Maruha Nichiro Holdings and owns Gorton’s. The company is listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange and is constituent of the Nikkei 225 stock index and its main competitors are Maruha Nichiro and Kyokuyo Co. Ltd. Its former headquarters, built in Tobata in 1929, is now an exhibit center, in 2005, the company divested its whaling fleet following controversy for its role in the modern global whaling industry. As of 2013 the Company has 61 subsidiaries and 44 associated companies across Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Asia, Europe, Ltd. founded 2009 - TN Fine Chemicals Co. Ltd
14.
Reindeer in South Georgia
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Reindeer in South Georgia are an example of an animal which has been introduced outside its native range. The reindeer, a species of deer adapted to arctic and subarctic climates, was introduced to the island of South Georgia by Norwegian whalers in the early 20th century. The reason for the introduction was to provide both recreational hunting and fresh meat for the people working in the whaling industry on the island at the time. The first introduction was made by the brothers C. A. and L. E, three males and seven females from Hemsedal in southern Norway were released at Ocean Harbour on the Barff Peninsula, on the northern coast of South Georgia. These formed the basis of what came to be called the Barff herd which, a 1976 population estimate of 1900 head indicated subsequent decrease, though with some range expansion to Royal Bay. A second introduction was made in 1912 by the Christian Salvesen Company, two male and three female reindeer were left at Leith Harbour in Stromness Bay, also on the north coast of the island. By 1918 they had increased to 20 animals, but the herd was killed by an avalanche that year. The third introduction took place in 1925, three males and four females were released at Husvik Harbour in Stromness Bay. These became the nucleus of what became known as the Busen herd, the source of the animals was the same as that of the Barff herd. The Barff herd was relatively isolated from human access and increased rapidly in size before it outgrew its resources and declined in numbers. The Busen herd, however, was more accessible to the human population of South Georgia, its size was kept relatively low by regular hunting until whale processing declined. Little hunting or any other control of the reindeer has occurred. An accurate count during the eradication of 2013-15 showed that earlier estimates of numbers were very low - nearly 7,000 were killed. In 1971 the Royal Navy ship HMS Endurance collected eight deer from Corral Bay on the Barff peninsula with the intention to taking them to Isla Navarinho in Tierra del Fuego, all but one died on the voyage and thus the project failed. Their first offspring were produced in 2003, Falkland Island resident Jerome Poncet collected some young deer during two expeditions in 2002 and 2003, using his yacht Golden Fleece, which had a shelter built on the stern deck. He successfully introduced 31 young deer to Beaver Island in the Falkland Islands, in this way,7,500 kg of meat products was recovered. In addition,1,555 reindeer of the Barff herd were shot, in January 2014 a further 3,140 animals were shot in the Barff peninsula area between Barff Point and Royal Bay. No meat could be recovered to a standard, though some was butchered for local consumption
15.
Avalanche
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An avalanche is a rapid flow of snow down a sloping surface. Avalanches are typically triggered in a zone from a mechanical failure in the snowpack when the forces on the snow exceed its strength. After initiation, avalanches usually accelerate rapidly and grow in mass, if the avalanche moves fast enough some of the snow may mix with the air forming a powder snow avalanche, which is a type of gravity current. Slides of rocks or debris, behaving in a way to snow, are also referred to as avalanches. The remainder of this article refers to snow avalanches, the load on the snowpack may be only due to gravity, in which case failure may result either from weakening in the snowpack or increased load due to precipitation. Avalanches that occur in this way are known as spontaneous avalanches, Avalanches can also be triggered by other loads such as skiers, snowmobilers, animals or explosives. Seismic activity may trigger the failure in the snowpack and avalanches. A popular myth is that avalanches can be triggered by loud noise or shouting, Avalanches are not rare or random events and are endemic to any mountain range that accumulates a standing snowpack. Avalanches are most common during winter or spring but glacier movements may cause ice, there is no universally accepted classification of avalanches—different classifications are useful for different purposes. Avalanches can be described by their size, their potential, their initiation mechanism, their composition. Most avalanches occur spontaneously during storms under increased load due to snowfall, the second largest cause of natural avalanches is metamorphic changes in the snowpack such as melting due to solar radiation. Other natural causes include rain, earthquakes, rockfall and icefall, artificial triggers of avalanches include skiers, snowmobiles, and controlled explosive work. Avalanche initiation can start at a point with only an amount of snow moving initially. A snowpack will fail when the load exceeds the strength, the load is straightforward, it is the weight of the snow. However, the strength of the snowpack is much more difficult to determine and is extremely heterogenous and it varies in detail with properties of the snow grains, size, density, morphology, temperature, water content, and the properties of the bonds between the grains. These properties may all metamorphose in time according to the humidity, water vapour flux, temperature. The top of the snowpack is also influenced by incoming radiation. One of the aims of research is to develop and validate computer models that can describe the evolution of the seasonal snowpack over time
16.
World War II
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World War II, also known as the Second World War, was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945, although related conflicts began earlier. It involved the vast majority of the worlds countries—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing alliances, the Allies and the Axis. It was the most widespread war in history, and directly involved more than 100 million people from over 30 countries. Marked by mass deaths of civilians, including the Holocaust and the bombing of industrial and population centres. These made World War II the deadliest conflict in human history, from late 1939 to early 1941, in a series of campaigns and treaties, Germany conquered or controlled much of continental Europe, and formed the Axis alliance with Italy and Japan. Under the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact of August 1939, Germany and the Soviet Union partitioned and annexed territories of their European neighbours, Poland, Finland, Romania and the Baltic states. In December 1941, Japan attacked the United States and European colonies in the Pacific Ocean, and quickly conquered much of the Western Pacific. The Axis advance halted in 1942 when Japan lost the critical Battle of Midway, near Hawaii, in 1944, the Western Allies invaded German-occupied France, while the Soviet Union regained all of its territorial losses and invaded Germany and its allies. During 1944 and 1945 the Japanese suffered major reverses in mainland Asia in South Central China and Burma, while the Allies crippled the Japanese Navy, thus ended the war in Asia, cementing the total victory of the Allies. World War II altered the political alignment and social structure of the world, the United Nations was established to foster international co-operation and prevent future conflicts. The victorious great powers—the United States, the Soviet Union, China, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union and the United States emerged as rival superpowers, setting the stage for the Cold War, which lasted for the next 46 years. Meanwhile, the influence of European great powers waned, while the decolonisation of Asia, most countries whose industries had been damaged moved towards economic recovery. Political integration, especially in Europe, emerged as an effort to end pre-war enmities, the start of the war in Europe is generally held to be 1 September 1939, beginning with the German invasion of Poland, Britain and France declared war on Germany two days later. The dates for the beginning of war in the Pacific include the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War on 7 July 1937, or even the Japanese invasion of Manchuria on 19 September 1931. Others follow the British historian A. J. P. Taylor, who held that the Sino-Japanese War and war in Europe and its colonies occurred simultaneously and this article uses the conventional dating. Other starting dates sometimes used for World War II include the Italian invasion of Abyssinia on 3 October 1935. The British historian Antony Beevor views the beginning of World War II as the Battles of Khalkhin Gol fought between Japan and the forces of Mongolia and the Soviet Union from May to September 1939, the exact date of the wars end is also not universally agreed upon. It was generally accepted at the time that the war ended with the armistice of 14 August 1945, rather than the formal surrender of Japan
17.
Germany
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Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a federal parliamentary republic in central-western Europe. It includes 16 constituent states, covers an area of 357,021 square kilometres, with about 82 million inhabitants, Germany is the most populous member state of the European Union. After the United States, it is the second most popular destination in the world. Germanys capital and largest metropolis is Berlin, while its largest conurbation is the Ruhr, other major cities include Hamburg, Munich, Cologne, Frankfurt, Stuttgart, Düsseldorf and Leipzig. Various Germanic tribes have inhabited the northern parts of modern Germany since classical antiquity, a region named Germania was documented before 100 AD. During the Migration Period the Germanic tribes expanded southward, beginning in the 10th century, German territories formed a central part of the Holy Roman Empire. During the 16th century, northern German regions became the centre of the Protestant Reformation, in 1871, Germany became a nation state when most of the German states unified into the Prussian-dominated German Empire. After World War I and the German Revolution of 1918–1919, the Empire was replaced by the parliamentary Weimar Republic, the establishment of the national socialist dictatorship in 1933 led to World War II and the Holocaust. After a period of Allied occupation, two German states were founded, the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic, in 1990, the country was reunified. In the 21st century, Germany is a power and has the worlds fourth-largest economy by nominal GDP. As a global leader in industrial and technological sectors, it is both the worlds third-largest exporter and importer of goods. Germany is a country with a very high standard of living sustained by a skilled. It upholds a social security and universal health system, environmental protection. Germany was a member of the European Economic Community in 1957. It is part of the Schengen Area, and became a co-founder of the Eurozone in 1999, Germany is a member of the United Nations, NATO, the G8, the G20, and the OECD. The national military expenditure is the 9th highest in the world, the English word Germany derives from the Latin Germania, which came into use after Julius Caesar adopted it for the peoples east of the Rhine. This in turn descends from Proto-Germanic *þiudiskaz popular, derived from *þeudō, descended from Proto-Indo-European *tewtéh₂- people, the discovery of the Mauer 1 mandible shows that ancient humans were present in Germany at least 600,000 years ago. The oldest complete hunting weapons found anywhere in the world were discovered in a mine in Schöningen where three 380, 000-year-old wooden javelins were unearthed
18.
Commerce raiding
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It is also known, in French, as guerre de course and, in German, Handelskrieg, from the nations most heavily committed to it historically as a strategy. Commerce raiding was heavily criticised by the naval theorist A. T, mahan, who regarded it as a distraction from the destruction of the enemys fighting power. Nevertheless, commerce raiding was an important part of strategy from the Early Modern period through the Second World War. Usually, commerce raiding is chosen by a naval power against a stronger. The best protection against a commerce raiding strategy is for merchant vessels to sail in convoy, the first sort of commerce raiding was for nations to commission privateers. This quickly became a commercial enterprise, with privateer vessels, often in groups, being outfitted by venture capital. A privateer was distinguished from a pirate by the letter of marque, privateers formed a large part of the total military force at sea during the 17th and 18th centuries. In the First Anglo-Dutch War, English privateers attacked the trade on which the United Provinces entirely depended, Dutch privateers and others also attacked British trade, whether coastal, Atlantic, or Mediterranean, in the Second and Third Anglo-Dutch wars. During the Nine Years War, French policy strongly encouraged privateers, including the famous Jean Bart, to attack English, england lost roughly 4,000 merchant ships during the war. In the following War of Spanish Succession, privateer attacks continued, parliament passed an updated Cruisers and Convoys Act in 1708, allocating regular warships to the defence of trade. In the War of Austrian Succession, the Royal Navy was able to more on defending British ships. Britain lost 3,238 merchantmen, a fraction of her merchant marine than the enemy losses of 3,434. During Britains wars against revolutionary and Napoleonic France, the Royal Navy dominated the seas, France adopted a guerre de course strategy by licensing civilian privateers to seize British shipping. British East Indiamen of the time were heavily armed to protect themselves against such raids, at the cost of considerable speed. Some East Indiamen, such as the Arniston, were able to fend off these attacks in other parts of the world, others. U. S. and British privateers also actively raided each others shipping during the War of 1812, during the American Civil War, the Confederate Navy operated a fleet of commissioned Confederate States Navy commerce raiders. These differed from privateers as they were state-owned ships with orders to destroy enemy commerce rather than privately owned ships with letters of marque and these included Sumter, Florida, Alabama, and Shenandoah. Most of the used in this period were built in Britain
19.
Allies of World War II
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The Allies of World War II, called the United Nations from the 1 January 1942 declaration, were the countries that together opposed the Axis powers during the Second World War. The Allies promoted the alliance as seeking to stop German, Japanese, at the start of the war on 1 September 1939, the Allies consisted of France, Poland and the United Kingdom, and dependent states, such as the British India. Within days they were joined by the independent Dominions of the British Commonwealth, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Poland was a minor factor after its defeat in 1939, France was a minor factor after its defeat in 1940. China had already been into a war with Japan since the Marco Polo Bridge Incident of 1937. The alliance was formalised by the Declaration by United Nations, from 1 January 1942, however, the name United Nations was rarely used to describe the Allies during the war. The leaders of the Big Three – the UK, the Soviet Union, in 1945, the Allied nations became the basis of the United Nations. The origins of the Allied powers stem from the Allies of World War I, Germany resented signing Treaty of Versailles. The new Weimar republics legitimacy became shaken, by the early 1930s, the Nazi Party led by Adolf Hitler became the dominant revanchist movement in Germany and Hitler and the Nazis gained power in 1933. The Nazi regime demanded the cancellation of the Treaty of Versailles and made claims to German-populated Austria. The likelihood of war was high, and the question was whether it could be avoided through strategies such as appeasement, in Asia, when Japan seized Manchuria in 1931, the League of Nations condemned it for aggression against China. Japan responded by leaving the League of Nations in March 1933, after four quiet years, the Sino-Japanese War erupted in 1937 with Japanese forces invading China. The League of Nations condemned Japans actions and initiated sanctions on Japan, the United States, in particular, was angered at Japan and sought to support China. In March 1939, Germany took over Czechoslovakia, violating the Munich Agreement signed six months before, Britain and France decided that Hitler had no intention to uphold diplomatic agreements and responded by preparing for war. On 31 March 1939, Britain formed the Anglo-Polish military alliance in an effort to avert a German attack on the country, also, the French had a long-standing alliance with Poland since 1921. The Soviet Union sought an alliance with the powers. The agreement secretly divided the independent nations of eastern Europe between the two powers and assured adequate oil supplies for the German war machine, on 1 September 1939, Germany invaded Poland, two days later Britain and France declared war on Germany. Then, on 17 September 1939, the Soviet Union invaded Poland from the east, a Polish government-in-exile was set up and it continued to be one of the Allies, a model followed by other occupied countries. After a quiet winter, Germany in April 1940 invaded and quickly defeated Denmark, Norway, Belgium, Britain and its Empire stood alone against Hitler and Mussolini
20.
Magistrate
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The term magistrate is used in a variety of systems of governments and laws to refer to a civilian officer who administers the law. In ancient Rome, a magistratus was one of the highest ranking government officers, in other parts of the world, such as China, a magistrate was responsible for administration over a particular geographic area. Today, in some jurisdictions, a magistrate is an officer who hears cases in a lower court. In other jurisdictions, magistrates may be volunteers without formal training who perform a judicial role with regard to minor matters. In ancient Rome, the word referred to one of the highest offices of state. Analogous offices in the authorities, such as municipium, were subordinate only to the legislature of which they generally were members. Ex officio, often a combination of judicial and executive power, in Rome itself, the highest magistrates were members of the so-called cursus honorum -career of honors. They held both judicial and executive power within their sphere of responsibility, and also had the power to issue ius honorarium, the Consul was the highest Roman magistrate. Roman magistrates were not lawyers, but were advised by jurists who were experts in the law, the term was maintained in most feudal successor states to the western Roman Empire. The term chief magistrate applied to the highest official, in sovereign entities the head of state and/or head of government and these were referred as administrative magistrates to distinguish them from the judiciary magistrates. The President of Portugal is considered the Supreme Magistrate of the Nation, in Mexicos Federal Law System, a magistrado is a superior judge, hierarchically beneath the Supreme Court Justices. The magistrado reviews the cases seen by a judge in a term if any of the parties disputes the verdict. For special cases, there are magistrados superiores who review the verdicts of special court, magistrates/JPs are limited to issuing sentences of no longer than six months for one offence and up to twelve months consecutively for multiple offences. A wide range of legal matters is within the remit of magistrates. However, commission areas were replaced with Local Justice Areas by the Courts Act 2003, meaning no longer need to live within 15 miles, although, in practice. Thus, every magistrate in England and Wales may act as a magistrate anywhere in England or Wales, there are two types of magistrates in England and Wales, justices of the peace and district judges who hold office as members of the professional judiciary. According to requirements, around 50% of magistrates are women, over 41% of magistrates are retired from employment while others may be self-employed or able to arrange leave from their employment. No formal qualifications are required, but magistrates require intelligence, common sense, integrity, membership is widely spread throughout the area covered and drawn from all walks of life
21.
Royal Navy
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The Royal Navy is the United Kingdoms naval warfare force. Although warships were used by the English kings from the medieval period. The modern Royal Navy traces its origins to the early 16th century, from the middle decades of the 17th century and through the 18th century, the Royal Navy vied with the Dutch Navy and later with the French Navy for maritime supremacy. From the mid 18th century it was the worlds most powerful navy until surpassed by the United States Navy during the Second World War. The Royal Navy played a key part in establishing the British Empire as the world power during the 19th. Due to this historical prominence, it is common, even among non-Britons, following World War I, the Royal Navy was significantly reduced in size, although at the onset of the Second World War it was still the worlds largest. By the end of the war, however, the United States Navy had emerged as the worlds largest, during the Cold War, the Royal Navy transformed into a primarily anti-submarine force, hunting for Soviet submarines, mostly active in the GIUK gap. The Royal Navy is part of Her Majestys Naval Service, which includes the Royal Marines. The professional head of the Naval Service is the First Sea Lord, the Defence Council delegates management of the Naval Service to the Admiralty Board, chaired by the Secretary of State for Defence. The strength of the fleet of the Kingdom of England was an important element in the power in the 10th century. English naval power declined as a result of the Norman conquest. Medieval fleets, in England as elsewhere, were almost entirely composed of merchant ships enlisted into service in time of war. Englands naval organisation was haphazard and the mobilisation of fleets when war broke out was slow, early in the war French plans for an invasion of England failed when Edward III of England destroyed the French fleet in the Battle of Sluys in 1340. Major fighting was confined to French soil and Englands naval capabilities sufficed to transport armies and supplies safely to their continental destinations. Such raids halted finally only with the occupation of northern France by Henry V. Henry VII deserves a large share of credit in the establishment of a standing navy and he embarked on a program of building ships larger than heretofore. He also invested in dockyards, and commissioned the oldest surviving dry dock in 1495 at Portsmouth, a standing Navy Royal, with its own secretariat, dockyards and a permanent core of purpose-built warships, emerged during the reign of Henry VIII. Under Elizabeth I England became involved in a war with Spain, the new regimes introduction of Navigation Acts, providing that all merchant shipping to and from England or her colonies should be carried out by English ships, led to war with the Dutch Republic. In the early stages of this First Anglo-Dutch War, the superiority of the large, heavily armed English ships was offset by superior Dutch tactical organisation and the fighting was inconclusive
22.
Cumberland Bay
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It was discovered and named in 1775 by a British expedition under James Cook. In the Second World War the whaling stations were closed except Grytviken, most of the British and Norwegian whalers and factory ships were destroyed by German merchant raiders, and the remainder were called up to serve under Allied command. The resident British Magistrates attended to the defence throughout the War. They were manned by volunteers from among the Norwegian whalers who were trained for the purpose, stonehouse, B, ed. Encyclopedia of Antarctica and the Southern Oceans. This article incorporates public domain material from the United States Geological Survey document Cumberland Bay
23.
Military volunteer
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A military volunteer is a person who enlists in military service by free will, and is not a mercenary or a foreign legionnaire. Volunteers often enlist to fight in the forces of a foreign country. Military volunteers are essential for the operation of volunteer militaries, many armies, including the U. S. Army, formerly distinguished between United States Volunteers enlisted during a war, and regulars who served on long-term basis. Troops raised as state militia were always volunteers, while U. S. troops could be volunteers or regulars, the rank of an officer in a volunteer unit was separate from his rank as a regular, and usually higher. When the volunteer forces were disbanded at the end of the war, for instance, George Armstrong Custer became a brigadier general of volunteers during the American Civil War, but when the war ended, he reverted to captain. Volunteer rank should not be confused with brevet rank, the move to a volunteer over conscription force for a national military appears to improve, at least for the United States, the professionalism of its standing armed forces. Military volunteer Foreign volunteers Sar-El, national project for volunteers for Israel SAF Volunteer Corps, volunteer scheme for the Singapore Armed Forces
24.
Falklands War
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It began on Friday,2 April 1982, when Argentina invaded and occupied the Falkland Islands in an attempt to establish the sovereignty it had claimed over them. On 5 April, the British government dispatched a naval force to engage the Argentine Navy. The conflict lasted 74 days and ended with the Argentine surrender on 14 June 1982, in total,649 Argentine military personnel,255 British military personnel, and three Falkland Islanders died during the hostilities. The conflict was an episode in the protracted confrontation over the territories sovereignty. Argentina asserted that the islands are Argentine territory, and the Argentine government thus characterised its military action as the reclamation of its own territory, the British government regarded the action as an invasion of a territory that had been a Crown colony since 1841. Falkland Islanders, who have inhabited the islands since the early 19th century, are descendants of British settlers. The conflict has had an effect in both countries and has been the subject of various books, articles, films, and songs. Patriotic sentiment ran high in Argentina, but the outcome prompted large protests against the military government. In the United Kingdom, the Conservative Party government, bolstered by the outcome, was re-elected the following year. The cultural and political weight of the conflict has had less effect in Britain than in Argentina, diplomatic relations between the United Kingdom and Argentina were restored in 1989 following a meeting in Madrid, Spain, at which the two governments issued a joint statement. No change in either countrys position regarding the sovereignty of the Falkland Islands was made explicit, in 1994, Argentinas claim to the territories was added to its constitution. In December 1981 there was a change in the Argentine military regime, bringing to office a new junta headed by General Leopoldo Galtieri, Brigadier Basilio Lami Dozo. Anaya was the architect and supporter of a military solution for the long-standing claim over the islands. Such action would also bolster its dwindling legitimacy, the newspaper La Prensa speculated in a step-by-step plan beginning with cutting off supplies to the islands, ending in direct actions late in 1982, if the UN talks were fruitless. The Royal Navy ice patrol vessel HMS Endurance was dispatched from Stanley to South Georgia in response, the Argentine military junta, suspecting that the UK would reinforce its South Atlantic Forces, ordered the invasion of the Falkland Islands to be brought forward to 2 April. Britain was initially taken by surprise by the Argentine attack on the South Atlantic islands, despite repeated warnings by Royal Navy captain Nicholas Barker, on 2 April 1982, Argentine forces mounted amphibious landings off the Falkland Islands. The invasion was met with a defence organised by the Falkland Islands Governor Sir Rex Hunt. Word of the invasion first reached Britain from Argentine sources, a Ministry of Defence operative in London had a short telex conversation with Governor Hunts telex operator, who confirmed that Argentines were on the island and in control
25.
Argentina
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Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a federal republic in the southern half of South America. With a mainland area of 2,780,400 km2, Argentina is the eighth-largest country in the world, the second largest in Latin America, and the largest Spanish-speaking one. The country is subdivided into provinces and one autonomous city, Buenos Aires. The provinces and the capital have their own constitutions, but exist under a federal system, Argentina claims sovereignty over part of Antarctica, the Falkland Islands, and South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands. The earliest recorded presence in the area of modern-day Argentina dates back to the Paleolithic period. The country has its roots in Spanish colonization of the region during the 16th century, Argentina rose as the successor state of the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata, a Spanish overseas viceroyalty founded in 1776. The country thereafter enjoyed relative peace and stability, with waves of European immigration radically reshaping its cultural. The almost-unparalleled increase in prosperity led to Argentina becoming the seventh wealthiest developed nation in the world by the early 20th century, Argentina retains its historic status as a middle power in international affairs, and is a prominent regional power in the Southern Cone and Latin America. Argentina has the second largest economy in South America, the third-largest in Latin America and is a member of the G-15 and it is the country with the second highest Human Development Index in Latin America with a rating of very high. Because of its stability, market size and growing high-tech sector, the description of the country by the word Argentina has to be found on a Venice map in 1536. In English the name Argentina probably comes from the Spanish language, however the naming itself is not Spanish, Argentina means in Italian of silver, silver coloured, probably borrowed from the Old French adjective argentine of silver > silver coloured already mentioned in the 12th century. The French word argentine is the form of argentin and derives of argent silver with the suffix -in. The Italian naming Argentina for the country implies Argentina Terra land of silver or Argentina costa coast of silver, in Italian, the adjective or the proper noun is often used in an autonomous way as a substantive and replaces it and it is said lArgentina. The name Argentina was probably first given by the Venitian and Genoese navigators, in Spanish and Portuguese, the words for silver are respectively plata and prata and of silver is said plateado and prateado. Argentina was first associated with the silver mountains legend, widespread among the first European explorers of the La Plata Basin. The first written use of the name in Spanish can be traced to La Argentina, a 1602 poem by Martín del Barco Centenera describing the region, the 1826 constitution included the first use of the name Argentine Republic in legal documents. The name Argentine Confederation was also used and was formalized in the Argentine Constitution of 1853. In 1860 a presidential decree settled the name as Argentine Republic
26.
Special forces
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Special forces and special operations forces are military or police units trained to conduct special operations. The term special forces in the United States refers to the U. S. Armys forces, in Russian-speaking countries special forces are typically called spetsnaz, an acronym for special purpose. Likewise, Russian speakers refer to special forces of nations as spetsnaz, for example. Special Forces would be referred to as amerikanski spetsnaz in Russian, other significant roles lay in reconnaissance, providing essential intelligence from near or among the enemy and increasingly in combating irregular forces, their infrastructure and activities. Hamilcar Barca in Sicily had specialized troops trained to launch several offensives per day, in the late Roman or early Byzantine period, Roman fleets used small, fast, camouflaged ships crewed by selected men for scouting and commando missions. In Japan, ninjas were used for reconnaissance, espionage and as assassins, bodyguards or fortress guards, during the Napoleonic wars, rifle and sapper units were formed that held specialised roles in reconnaissance and skirmishing and were not committed to the formal battle lines. The British Indian Army deployed two special forces during their wars, the Corps of Guides formed in 1846 and the Gurkha Scouts. During the Second Boer War the British Army felt the need for specialised units became most apparent. This unit was formed in 1900 by Lord Lovat and early on reported to an American, Major Frederick Russell Burnham, after the war, Lovats Scouts went on to formally become the British Armys first sniper unit. Additionally, the Bushveldt Carbineers, formed in 1901, can be seen as an unconventional warfare unit. Modern special forces emerged during the Second World War, in 1940, the British Commandos were formed following Winston Churchills call for specially trained troops of the hunter class, who can develop a reign of terror down the enemy coast. A staff officer, Lieutenant Colonel Dudley Clarke, had already submitted such a proposal to General Sir John Dill, Dill, aware of Churchills intentions, approved Clarkes proposal and on 23 June 1940, the first Commando raid took place. The Special Service Brigade was quickly expanded to 12 units which became known as Commandos, each Commando had a lieutenant colonel as the commanding officer and numbered around 450 men. In December 1940 a Middle East Commando depot was formed with the responsibility of training and supplying reinforcements for the Commando units in that theatre, in February 1942 the Commando training depot at Achnacarry in the Scottish Highlands was established by Brigadier Charles Haydon. Under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Charles Vaughan, the Commando depot was responsible for training complete units, the training regime was for the time innovative and physically demanding, and far in advance of normal British Army training. The depot staff were all hand picked, with the ability to any of the volunteers. Training and assessment started immediately on arrival, with the volunteers having to complete an 8-mile march with all their equipment from the Spean Bridge railway station to the commando depot, exercises were conducted using live ammunition and explosives to make training as realistic as possible. Physical fitness was a prerequisite, with cross country runs and boxing matches to improve fitness, speed and endurance marches were conducted up and down the nearby mountain ranges and over assault courses that included a zip-line over Loch Arkaig, all while carrying arms and full equipment
27.
Corbeta Uruguay base
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Corbeta Uruguay base was an Argentine military outpost established in November 1976 on Thule Island, Southern Thule, in the South Sandwich Islands. The base was established by the military dictatorship governing Argentina to reinforce its territorial claims on British-held territory in the South Atlantic, the British government became aware of the base in December 1976 but sought a diplomatic solution to the issue until 1982. Early in the Falklands War,32 special forces troops from Corbeta Uruguay were brought by the Argentine Navy ship Bahía Paraiso to South Georgia, after the Argentine garrison at Corbeta Uruguay surrendered, Thule Island was emptied and the facility left unmanned. In December 1982, it was demolished by the Royal Navy after a patrolling warship discovered that someone had taken down the Union Flag from the base flagpole. The name honoured the Argentine corvette ARA Uruguay that rescued Otto Nordenskjöld and his crew in 1903 in the Antarctic Peninsula and this ship is now a floating museum, permanently berthed in Puerto Madero, Buenos Aires. History of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands La Corbeta Uruguay at Ciber-N@utica
28.
Argentine Navy
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The Navy of the Argentine Republic or Argentine Navy is the navy of Argentina. It is one of the three branches of the Armed Forces of the Argentine Republic, together with the Army and the Air Force, each ship of the Argentine Navy is designated with the prefix ARA before its name. The Argentine Navy day is celebrated on May 17, anniversary of the victory achieved in 1814 in the Battle of Montevideo over the Spanish fleet during the war of Independence. The Argentine Navy was created in the aftermath of the May Revolution of May 25,1810, the navy was first created to support Manuel Belgrano in the Paraguay campaign, but it was sunk by ships from Montevideo, and did not take part in that conflict. Renewed conflicts with Montevideo led to the creation of a second fleet, as Buenos Aires had little maritime history, most men in the navy were from other nations, such as the Irish-born admiral William Brown, who directed the operation. As the cost of maintaining a navy was too high, most of the Argentine naval forces were composed of privateers, Brown led the Argentine navy in further naval conflicts at the War with Brazil and the Anglo-French blockade of the Río de la Plata. In the 1870s the Argentine Navy began modernizing itself, the most powerful ships at this time included the Italian-built Garibaldi and her sister ships, General Belgrano, Pueyrredón, and San Martín, each at over 6,000 tons. Three older ironclads, Almirante Brown, Independencia, and Libertad dated from the 1880s, the navys ships were built primarily in Italy, Britain, France, and Spain and were operated by over 600 officers and 7760 seamen. These were supported by a battalion of marines and an artillery battery, Argentina remained neutral in both world wars. In 1940, Argentinas navy was ranked the eighth most powerful in the world, a ten-year building programme costing $60 million had produced a force of 14,500 sailors and over a thousand officers. A naval air force was also in operation, in the postwar period, Naval Aviation and Marine Corps units were put under direct Navy command. With Brazil, Argentina is one of two South American countries to have operated two aircraft carriers, the ARA Independencia and ARA Veinticinco de Mayo, the Navy also took part in all military coups through the 20th century. During the last dictatorship, Navy personnel were involved in the Dirty War of the late 1970s in which thousands of people were kidnapped, tortured and killed by the forces of the Military Junta, the Naval Mechanics School, known as ESMA, was a notorious centre for torture. Among their more well-known victims were the Swedish teenager Dagmar Hagelin and French nuns, Alice Domon and this fleet was supported by several ELMA tankers and transports as well as two ice breakers/polar ships. New German MEKO class destroyers, corvettes and Thyssen-Nordseewerke submarines were still under construction at the time, despite leading the invasion of the Falkland Islands, in both strategic and tactical aspects the Argentine fleet played only a small part in the subsequent conflict with the Royal Navy. The ARA San Luis submarine also played a role, nearly sinking the frigate HMS Arrow on 10 May. The submarine ARA Santa Fe, after a resupply mission, was attacked and disabled off South Georgia. She was later scuttled by the British, also, the submarine force greatly reinforced their assets with the introduction of the Thyssen-Nordseewerke class
29.
Submarine
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A submarine is a watercraft capable of independent operation underwater. It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability, the term most commonly refers to a large, crewed vessel. It is also used historically or colloquially to refer to remotely operated vehicles and robots, as well as medium-sized or smaller vessels, such as the midget submarine. The noun submarine evolved as a form of submarine boat, by naval tradition, submarines are usually referred to as boats rather than as ships. Although experimental submarines had been built before, submarine design took off during the 19th century, Submarines were first widely used during World War I, and now figure in many navies large and small. Civilian uses for submarines include marine science, salvage, exploration and facility inspection, Submarines can also be modified to perform more specialized functions such as search-and-rescue missions or undersea cable repair. Submarines are also used in tourism, and for undersea archaeology, most large submarines consist of a cylindrical body with hemispherical ends and a vertical structure, usually located amidships, which houses communications and sensing devices as well as periscopes. In modern submarines, this structure is the sail in American usage, a conning tower was a feature of earlier designs, a separate pressure hull above the main body of the boat that allowed the use of shorter periscopes. There is a propeller at the rear, and various hydrodynamic control fins, smaller, deep-diving and specialty submarines may deviate significantly from this traditional layout. Submarines use diving planes and also change the amount of water, Submarines have one of the widest ranges of types and capabilities of any vessel. Submarines can work at greater depths than are survivable or practical for human divers, modern deep-diving submarines derive from the bathyscaphe, which in turn evolved from the diving bell. In 1578, the English mathematician William Bourne recorded in his book Inventions or Devises one of the first plans for an underwater navigation vehicle and its unclear whether he ever carried out his idea. The first submersible of whose construction there exists reliable information was designed and built in 1620 by Cornelis Drebbel and it was propelled by means of oars. By the mid-18th century, over a dozen patents for submarines/submersible boats had been granted in England, in 1747, Nathaniel Symons patented and built the first known working example of the use of a ballast tank for submersion. His design used leather bags that could fill with water to submerge the craft, a mechanism was used to twist the water out of the bags and cause the boat to resurface. In 1749, the Gentlemens Magazine reported that a design had initially been proposed by Giovanni Borelli in 1680. By this point of development, further improvement in design stagnated for over a century, until new industrial technologies for propulsion. The first military submarine was the Turtle, a hand-powered acorn-shaped device designed by the American David Bushnell to accommodate a single person and it was the first verified submarine capable of independent underwater operation and movement, and the first to use screws for propulsion
30.
ARA Santa Fe (S-21)
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ARA Santa Fe was an Argentine Balao-class submarine which was lost during the Falklands War. Built during the Second World War, the served in United States Navy as USS Catfish before being commissioned into the Argentine Navy in 1971. She served until 1982 when she was captured by the British at South Georgia after being damaged and subsequently sank along a pier. The submarine was raised, towed out of the bay and scuttled in waters in 1985. The submarine was built during the Second World War by the Electric Boat Company of Groton, commissioned into the US Navy as USS Catfish, the submarine entered service in March 1945. As Catfish the submarine took part in the stages of the Pacific war against Japan. Afterwards she served in the US Seventh Fleet in the Pacific Ocean seeing service in the Korean War, after this period, the boat was given a Guppy II conversion. In 1971, Catfish was decommissioned and sold to Argentina, where she was renamed ARA Santa Fe, in 1982, Santa Fe took part in the Falklands War alongside San Luis, the only two operative submarines in the Argentine Navy. Santa Fe supported the Argentine invasion by landing tactical divers at Yorke Bay, later, she departed from the islands and stayed on station in the naval submarine base at the city of Mar del Plata as a large British task force approached the South Atlantic. On 12 April, Santa Fe was ordered to ferry a party of marines, based at Puerto Belgrano and she departed from Mar del Plata in the early hours of 17 April. The threat of Santa Fe forced the British ships to keep at a distance as they landed troops on the island, Santa Fe accomplished the resupply mission and landed the marines on 25 April. Members of the Argentine garrison had salvaged a crippled BAS launch and this attack caused extensive internal damage, including the splitting of a ballast tank, the dismounting of electrical components and shocks to the machinery. As the submarine struggled to return to Grytviken on the surface, Plymouth launched a Westland Wasp HAS.1 helicopter, and Brilliant launched a Westland Lynx HAS.2. The Lynx dropped a Mk 46 torpedo, which failed to strike home, the Wessex also fired on Santa Fe with its GPMG. The Wasp from HMS Plymouth and two other Wasps launched from Endurance fired AS-12 air-to-surface anti-ship missiles at the submarine, scoring hits. The crew abandoned the submarine at the jetty at King Edward Point on South Georgia and surrendered, along with the Argentine garrison. Brilliants diving officer, Lt. Chris Sherman, went down to place a charge to disable the submarine further, artuso was shot because it was believed that he was trying to sabotage the vessel. After the conflict ended, Santa Fe was considered to be worthless as a war prize because she was non-standard, obsolete, badly damaged, as a result, the submarine was temporarily raised by the British, towed into deep water and scuttled on 10 February 1985
31.
Garrison
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Garrison is the collective term for a body of troops stationed in a particular location, originally to guard it, but now often simply using it as a home base. The garrison is usually in a city, town, fort, castle, garrison town is a common expression for any town that has a military base nearby. Garrison towns were used during the Arab Islamic conquests of Middle Eastern lands by Arab-Muslim armies to increase their dominance over indigenous populations. In Ireland, Association football has historically been termed the game or the garrison sport for its connections with British military serving in Irish cities. In Israel, a unit is a regular unit defending a specified Israeli zone in need of protection from attack from combatants. Israeli garrison units placed in the territories of West Bank are recognized under UN Resolution 242 as occupied pending peaceful recognition by all regional combatants. It was an old custom in ancient Italy to send out colonies for the purpose of securing new conquests, the Romans, having no standing army, used to plant bodies of their own citizens in conquered towns as a kind of garrison
32.
Alfredo Astiz
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He was known as El Ángel Rubio de la Muerte, and had a reputation as a notorious torturer. He was discharged from the military in 1998 after defending his actions in a press interview and he was a member of GT3.3.2 based in the Naval Mechanics School in Buenos Aires during the Dirty War of 1976–1983. The school was adapted as a detention and torture center for political prisoners. As many as 5,000 political prisoners were interrogated, tortured and murdered in the ESMA during those years. GT3.3.2 was involved in some of the 8,961 deaths, none of the twelve was seen alive again outside detention and all were believed killed, rumored to be among the bodies washed up on beaches south of Buenos Aires in late 1977. At the beginning of the 1982 Falklands War, Astiz surrendered with his team to British forces, Astiz refused to answer any questions. The UK did not think it had grounds to hold or prosecute him, as he was suspected for crimes committed in Argentina that were not then defined as against international law, and repatriated him. In 1986 and 1987, Argentina passed the Pardon Laws, providing a kind of amnesty to military, in 1990, a French court convicted Astiz in absentia for the kidnapping of Duquet and Domon, and sentenced him to life imprisonment. After the Argentine Supreme Courts 2005 ruling that the Pardon Laws were unconstitutional and that year Astiz was detained on charges of kidnapping and torture. The prosecution of charges against Astiz included murder, together with numerous other defendants associated with ESMA, Astiz was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment in Argentina for crimes against humanity on 26 October 2011. Under Lieutenant Commander Jorge Eduardo Acosta, the GT3.3.2 was based in the Naval Mechanics School in Buenos Aires during the Dirty War. About 5,000 political prisoners were interrogated, tortured, and murdered in the ESMA, or elsewhere by its personnel, during those years. During the Dirty War, Astiz specialized as an officer with GT3.3.2 in infiltrating human rights groups in Argentina. He used the name of Gustavo Niño. He stayed with a long enough to identify key members. Prisoners were taken to the detention camp at ESMA and interrogated under torture for information about other members. Most detainees were murdered by the military or death squads, Astiz was believed to have kidnapped and tortured hundreds of people during 1976 and 1977. Among these were several nationals of countries, whose cases received international attention as their governments tried to find them
33.
Flensing
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Flensing is the removing of the blubber or outer integument of whales. English whalemen called it flenching, while American whalemen called it cutting-in, in Spitsbergen, in the first half of the 17th Century, the processing of whales was primarily done ashore. Where the whale was flensed differed between the English and Dutch, the English brought the whale to the stern of the ship, where men in a boat cut strips of blubber from the whales back. These were tied together and rowed ashore, where they were cut into pieces to be boiled into oil in large copper kettles. The Dutch eschewed this system, bringing the whales into the shallows at high-tide and this latter method proved much less time-consuming and more effective. Both parties only cut off the blubber and the head, leaving the rest of the carcass to polar bears, in Japan the whole carcass was utilized. During the open-boat whaling era in Japan whales were winched ashore by large capstans, there, men with flensing knives would not only cut up the blubber into long strips with the assistance of these capstans, but also cut up the viscera and bones to make various products. Shore whaling flensing methods elsewhere differed little from the European whaling mentioned above, cutting-tackles were suspended from an elevated beam, allowing the whalemen to roll the carcass over in the water for flensing similar to a whaleship. On Norfolk Island humpback whales were flensed in the shallows along a rocky beach, Men sliced the blubber from the lean with the assistance of a winch. By the 1630s whaling had spread offshore and into the ice floes west of Spitsbergen. Here whales were flensed alongside the ship, the cut into small pieces and put into casks to either be boiled into oil at a station ashore, or, by late century. At about the same time Basque whalers began trying-out oil aboard ship, but this appears to have met limited success, American whaleships also adopted this method. The whale, whether it be a baleen or toothed whale, was brought to the starboard side of the ship tail-first. A cutting-stage was lowered over the carcass consisting of three heavy planks where men with long-handled cutting spades could stand to cut in the whale, the blubber was cut in strips called blanket pieces in a circular fashion. For a baleen whale the sides of the lips were cut off and its upper jaw. For a sperm whale the tooth-studded lower jaw was wrenched off, the blanket pieces were hoisted down into the blubber room, where men cut the pieces into smaller horse pieces about four feet by six inches. These in turn were made into bible leaves, which were put into the two try-pots to be boiled into oil, the baleen, meanwhile, was pulled from the gum, washed with sand and water, polished, and put into bundles. Flensing at stations in the modern era differed little from earlier methods
34.
South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands
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South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands is a British overseas territory in the southern Atlantic Ocean. It is a remote and inhospitable collection of islands, consisting of South Georgia, South Georgia is 165 kilometres long and 1 to 35 km wide and is by far the largest island in the territory. The South Sandwich Islands lie about 700 kilometres southeast of South Georgia, the total land area of the territory is 3,903 square kilometres. There is no permanent population on the islands, the United Kingdom claimed sovereignty over South Georgia in 1775 and the South Sandwich Islands in 1908. The territory of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands was formed in 1985, Argentina claimed South Georgia in 1927 and claimed the South Sandwich Islands in 1938. Argentina maintained a 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, Argentina continues to claim sovereignty over South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands. The Island of South Georgia is said to have been first sighted in 1675 by Anthony de la Roché, a London merchant and it was sighted by the commercial Spanish ship León operating out of Saint-Malo on 28 June or 29 June 1756. At one time it was confused with Pepys Island, which was discovered by Dampier and Cowley in 1683, captain James Cook circumnavigated the island in 1775 and made the first landing. He claimed the territory for the Kingdom of Great Britain, British arrangements for the government of South Georgia were established under the 1843 British Letters Patent. In 1882–1883, a German expedition for the First International Polar Year was stationed at Royal Bay on the southeast side of the island, the scientists of this group observed the transit of Venus and recorded waves produced by the 1883 eruption of Krakatoa. Seal hunting at South Georgia began in 1786 and continued throughout the 19th century, the waters proved treacherous and a number of vessels were wrecked there, such as Earl Spencer, in late 1801. South Georgia became a base for whaling beginning in the 20th century, a Norwegian, Carl Anton Larsen, established the first land-based whaling station and first permanent habitation at Grytviken in 1904. It operated through his Argentine Fishing Company, which settled in Grytviken, the station remained in operation until 1965. Whaling stations operated under leases granted by the Governor of the Falkland Islands, one was called a charnel house boiling wholesale in vaseline by an early 20th-century visitor. With the end of the industry, the stations were abandoned. Apart from a few preserved buildings such as the museum and church at Grytviken, in 1908, the United Kingdom issued further Letters Patent that established constitutional arrangements for its possessions in the South Atlantic. The Letters Patent covered South Georgia, the South Orkneys, the South Shetlands, the South Sandwich Islands, in 1909, an administrative centre and residence were established at King Edward Point on South Georgia, near the whaling station of Grytviken
35.
King Edward Point
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King Edward Point is the capital of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, on the northeastern coast of the island of South Georgia. It is located at 54°17′S 36°30′W in Cumberland East Bay and it is sometimes confusingly referred to as Grytviken, which is the site of the disused whaling station, nearby at the head of King Edward Cove. It is the smallest capital city in the world by population, the area was explored by the Swedish Antarctic Expedition of 1901-04 under Otto Nordenskiöld. It was named around 1906 after King Edward VII of the United Kingdom, since 1909, King Edward Point has been the residence of a British Magistrate administering the island. In 1925, the government of the United Kingdom established a laboratory there as part of the Discovery Investigations. On 1 January 1950, the ownership was assumed by the Falkland Islands Dependencies Survey. The station was manned from 1 January 1952 to 13 November 1969, the British Antarctic Survey provided the British presence at the station until 1982. At the beginning of the Falklands War on 3 April 1982, Argentine forces occupied South Georgia and they were soon expelled during Operation Paraquet and British military forces occupied the point. A series of civilian Marine Officers was appointed to carry out customs and fisheries duties for the South Georgia Government from 1991, on 22 March 2001, the British Antarctic Survey reopened the station on behalf of the Government of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands. Most of the old, dilapidated buildings were destroyed to make way for new ones, with the exception of Discovery House, currently nine BAS personnel overwinter at the station, rising to around 18 in summer. Two Government Officers plus partners are stationed on KEP, overlapping by about three months during the winter fishing season. Summer staff from the Museum at Grytviken are also accommodated at KEP, the continued occupation of the station serves a political purpose as well, it helps to maintain British sovereignty against Argentinas claim for ownership of the territory. Grytviken King Edward point British Antarctic Survey Research Station King Edward Point, South Georgia
36.
British Overseas Territories
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The 14 British Overseas Territories are territories under the jurisdiction and sovereignty of the United Kingdom. They are the parts of the British Empire that have not been granted independence or have voted to remain British territories. These territories do not form part of the United Kingdom and, with the exception of Gibraltar, are not part of the European Union, though the Cyprus SBAs are subject to EU law and use the Euro. Most of the territories are internally self-governing, with the UK retaining responsibility for defence. The rest are either uninhabited or have a population of military or scientific personnel. They share the British monarch as head of state, the term British Overseas Territory was introduced by the British Overseas Territories Act 2002, replacing the term British Dependent Territory, introduced by the British Nationality Act 1981. Prior to 1 January 1983, the territories were referred to as British Crown Colonies. With the exceptions of the British Antarctic Territory and South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands and the British Indian Ocean Territory, the Territories retain permanent civilian populations. Permanent residency for the 7,000 or so living in the Sovereign Base Areas of Akrotiri. Collectively, the Territories encompass a population of about 250,000 people, the vast majority of this,660,000 square miles, constitutes the British Antarctic Territory. The current minister responsible for the Territories excluding the Falkland Islands, Gibraltar and the Sovereign Base Areas is Baroness Anelay, Minister of State for the Commonwealth, the other three territories are the responsibility of Sir Alan Duncan MP, Minister of State for Europe and the Americas. The first, unofficial, colony was Newfoundland, where English fishermen routinely set up camps in the 16th century. It is now a province of Canada known as Newfoundland and Labrador and it retains strong cultural ties with Britain. English colonisation of North America began officially in 1607 with the settlement of Jamestown, st. Georges town, founded in Bermuda in that year, remains the oldest continuously inhabited British settlement in the New World. Bermuda and Bermudians have played important, sometimes pivotal, but generally underestimated or unacknowledged roles in the shaping of the English and British trans-Atlantic Empires. These include maritime commerce, settlement of the continent and of the West Indies, separate self-governing colonies federated to become Canada, Australia, South Africa, and Rhodesia. These and other large self-governing colonies had become known as Dominions by the 1920s, the Dominions achieved almost full independence with the Statute of Westminster. Through a process of following the Second World War, most of the British colonies in Africa, Asia
37.
Operation Paraquet
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Operation Paraquet was the code name for the British military operation to recapture the island of South Georgia from Argentine military control in April 1982 at the start of the Falklands War. This view prompted the expression Kill Paraquat before it kills us, the operation, a subsidiary of the main Operation Corporate was successful, leading to the island being restored to British control on 25 April 1982. Major General Jeremy Moore of the Royal Marines was told to provide a Commando company group for a secret mission, originally selecting 45 Commando who had recently completed jungle warfare training, the final selection was 42 Commando who had recently been on a winter deployment to Norway. The second-in-command of 42 Commando, Major Guy Sheridan, a mountaineer, was selected to be Landing Force Commander. M Company of 42 Commando, commanded by Captain Chris Nunn, was augmented by specialists from the Reconnaissance Troop, the Support Company, signals and medics, a total of 132 men. Sheridan requested the support of the Royal Marine Mountain and Arctic Warfare Cadre, in the event, the whole of D Squadron comprising not only the Mountain Troop, but also 16 Troop,18 Troop and 17 Troop along with the Squadron HQ all joined the force at Ascension. Finally,2 Troop, Special Boat Squadron and, as requested by Sheridan, the addition of the extra troops caused some difficulty in the already crowded accommodation in the available ships. The task group sailed from Ascension on 11 April, pausing to redistribute the SAS troops between ships on the 13 April, finally,6 SBS were embarked in the submarine HMS Conqueror. This group, known as CTG317.9, was commanded by Captain Brian Young of Antrim. The task group met with HMS Endurance on 14 April and on the day, received written orders for the operation from Admiral Fieldhouse dated 12 April. Conqueror was first on the scene and carried out a survey of key areas of the South Georgia coast, the Argentine submarine forces consisted of four boats. Two were modern type 209 submarines and two were GUPPY conversions of United States World War II fleet submarines, one of the latter, ARA Santa Fe, was the only submarine to see combat during the conflict. Her sensors were unreliable, and the capacity of her aged batteries was much reduced from their original design. Santa Fe transported troops while orders to remain undetected, not to attack any ships. Storm conditions prevented use of the snorkel, which placed unexpected demands on the batteries, the reinforcements were successfully landed at Grytviken under moonless cloud cover in the pre-dawn hours of 25 April. Santa Fe was underway by 05,00, but was discovered by Antrims Wessex helicopter before she could submerge, the Wessex was joined by task force Wasp and Lynx helicopters, which fired at least six AS-12 missiles at the submarine. Santa Fe returned to Grytviken in sinking condition while her crew fired at the helicopters with rifles, sweden and France requested Astizs extradition from the British authorities after learning about his capture, but his captors rejected the petition. An Argentine prisoner of war, Navy Petty Officer Felix Artuso and he is buried at Grytviken Cemetery
38.
South Georgia Museum
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The South Georgia Museum is situated in Grytviken, near the administrative centre of the UK overseas territory of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands. The museum occupies the renovated and converted managers villa built in 1916, the museum has become a popular tourist venue, visited by cruise ship or yacht tourists. For several years Tim and Pauline Carr served as museum curators, the museum is now managed by the South Georgia Heritage Trust. The museum displays include a bronze bust of Duncan Carse by British sculptor Jon Edgar, Carse was influential in the mapping of South Georgia and the islands Mount Carse is named after him. The collection of the museum can be viewed online, an occasional artist-in-residence position is supported by the museum. Previous artists to have been resident at the museum include the British sculptor Anthony Smith, history of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands Grytviken Norwegian Lutheran Church Tim and Pauline Carr. Antarctic Oasis, Under the Spell of South Georgia
39.
Invasion of South Georgia
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The scrap workers had been infiltrated by Argentine marines posing as civilian scientists. At the same time, the Argentine crew had to report to the top BAS commander in Grytviken, briatore replied that the mission had the approval of the British embassy in Buenos Aires. Eventually, the Argentine captain ordered the lowering of the flag, the BAS commander sent a message to the Governor of the Falkland Islands, Rex Hunt. After consulting London, Hunt was instructed to dispatch HMS Endurance to South Georgia with a detachment of 22 Royal Marines. Aware of the contract, the Argentine Navy conceived of a plan to hijack Davidoffs business in South Georgia, the action was code named Operation Alpha. Marchessi assessed Leith facilities on board the Panamanian registered yacht Caiman, the failure of the Argentines to comply with the diplomatic formalities prompted Whitehall to opt for a small-scale intervention. In the meantime, a formal protest was issued by the British embassy in Buenos Aires, the Argentine Foreign Ministers response appeared to defuse the crisis, the note asserted that the Buen Suceso would soon be leaving, and that the mission had no official sanction at all. By the morning of 22 March Buen Suceso left Leith harbour, however, in the afternoon, a BAS observation post detected the presence of Argentine personnel and passed the information to London. In consequence, the Foreign Office chose to order HMS Endurance to evacuate any Argentine personnel remaining in South Georgia, in addition, upon arrival at Leith, Endurance found the Antarctic Survey ship ARA Bahía Paraíso at anchor. This vessel landed a party of 10 naval commandos picked up from South Orkney Islands, facing the potential for military action, the Foreign Office sought some sort of compromise. The Argentine intention, however, was that the arrival of any of its citizens to South Georgia should follow the agreed on the communications treaty of 1971. Governor Rex Hunt strongly rejected this extension of the agreement, valid only for the Falklands jurisdiction, costa Mendez left things in a limbo, both countries were then on the brink of conflict. Shortly before the Argentine landings on the Falklands, Bahía Paraíso and Endurance were playing a game around South Georgia, until 31 March. The British plan was that Martin would be in charge until the Argentine forces showed any hostile intentions, if that occurred, Acting Lieutenant Keith Mills, the most senior officer of the Royal Marines party, would take command. Mills received a message from HMS Endurance relaying instructions from London that he should make only a token resistance to any Argentine violation of British territory. He allegedly replied sod that, Ill make their eyes water, meanwhile, the Argentine navy ordered the corvette ARA Guerrico to join Bahía Paraíso at Leith, equipped with two helicopters and carrying 40 marines, along with Astizs team. The aim was the capture of Grytviken, the group would be called Grupo de Tareas 60.1, under the command of Captain Trombetta, on board Bahía Paraíso. Endurance, some miles offshore, would provide communication between the small British detachment and London, the new rules of engagement authorized Mills to fire in self defence, after warning
