The Island of South Georgia
December 18, 2009 by John38
The island of South Georgia, an inhospitable frozen wasteland of glaciers, snow-capped mountains and freezing winds, lies in the southern Atlantic Ocean east of Tierra del Fuego.
This remote Antarctic island is part of the British territory of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands. The British claim to sovereignty of South Georgia dates from 1775 when Captain Cook landed here and dismissed the island as not worth discovering. Argentina also claimed the island in 1027, an unresolved dispute which contributed to the 1982 Falklands war when Argentine forces briefly occupied South Georgia.
In 1916 Ernest Shackleton became stranded on Elephant Island to the south-west, while on his Imperial Straits Antarctic Expedition, Shackleton and a small group of men left the rest of the party to summon help and ended up, after an arduous journey, at King Haakon Bay on the south coast of South Georgia.
They then managed to make it overland to reach help at Stromness whaling station, which led to the rescue of the remaining men. Daring a later expedition in 1922, Shackleton died on board a ship off South Georgia and he is buried on the island at Grytviken.
There is no permanent human population on South Georgia, only the British Government Officer, research scientists and museum staff at Grytviken, but there are enormous populations of penguins, the largest colonies anywhere on earth, with around 400,000 breeding pairs of king penguins, two million pairs of the macaroni penguins and large colonies of four other species.
Visitors come here to watch penguin couples overcome the extreme climatic conditions and nurture their precious eggs through hatching and the vulnerable chick stage into fully fledged members of the colony. The charming creatures work tirelessly together avoiding the seals that lurk in the shallows waiting to pounce and protecting their young from ferocious skua gulls who will snatch one and tear it to shreds.
When he landed here in the 18th century, Captain Cook noted the huge seal and whale populations around the island, but just two hundred years later both had been hunted nearly to extinction. South Georgia is, however, home to 95 per cent of the world’s southern fur seals, half the southern elephant seals, 250,000 Albatrosses, including the massive Wandering Albatross, and up to ten million other seabirds, making a trip here a totally unique experience.
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Tierra del Fuego
u might find it hard to believe but im actually related to Shackleton! Seriously, my last name is also Shackleton. my dad and i also have a whole bunch of books about Sir Ernest Shackleton.
Reuters – The BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is a matter between the United States and a private company and will not hurt U.S. relations with the British government, a State Department spokesman said on Thursday.
It pissed me off when i’m playing Empire total war as Great Britain. Because Freakin French and Spanish wouldn’t leave me the FUCK alone.
Hmmm…the most beautiful island on earth? Let me see now.
The beaches of alabaster-white sand on the spice island of Zanzibar in the Indian Ocean take some beating. Moon Island on Lake Titicaca in Bolivia is kind of special too. Then again, a cultural dip into the history of Bandar Seri Begawan in Brunei on Borneo after a trek in the kelabit Highlands comes to mind too. As does a starry night on Tierra del Fuego in Patagonia. Or either half of New Zealand for that matter. I won't even start on Iceland, Singapore, Corsica or Tobacco Quay off the coast of Guyana.
But you know, there is a distillery on Jura that turns the water up there into something just a little bit special. So, you know, you might just be right there…
They could be spying or building its army back up. They could also be trying to regain their position as a supreme power which they lost with the fall of the USSR.
Elephant Island -
South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands (SGSSI) is a British overseas territory in the southern Atlantic Ocean. This territory is a remote and inhospitable collection of islands, consisting of South Georgia and a chain of smaller islands, the South Sandwich Islands. South Georgia is about 170 KM long and 2 to 40 KM wide and is by far the largest island in the territory. The South Sandwich Islands lie about 640 KM to the south-east of South Georgia. The total land area of the territory is 3,903 square KM.
There is no native population on any of the islands, and the only present inhabitants are the British Government Officer, Deputy Postmaster, scientists, and support staff from the British Antarctic Survey who maintain scientific bases at Bird Island and at the capital, King Edward Point, as well as museum staff at nearby Grytviken.
The British claim to sovereignty of South Georgia dates from 1775, and that of the South Sandwich Islands from 1908. The territory of "South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands" was formed in 1985; previously it had been governed as part of the Falkland Islands Dependencies. Argentina claimed South Georgia in 1927, and the South Sandwich Islands in 1938.
Argentina maintained a naval station, Corbeta Uruguay, at Port Faraday on Thule Island in the South Sandwich Islands from 1976 until 1982 when it was closed by the Royal Navy. The Argentine claim over South Georgia contributed to the 1982 Falklands War, during which Argentine forces briefly occupied the Island, and remains unresolved to this day.
The Island of South Georgia is said to have been first sighted in 1675 by Anthony de la Roché, a London merchant, and was named Roche Island on some early maps, Pepys Island on others. It was sighted by a commercial Spanish ship named León operating out of Saint-Malo on 28 June or 29 June 1756.[3]
In 1775 Captain James Cook circumnavigated the island, made the first landing, claimed the territory for the Kingdom of Great Britain, and named it "the Isle of Georgia" in honour of King George III. British arrangements for the government of South Georgia were first established under the 1843 British Letters Patent.
In 1882 a German expedition sent out to observe the transit of Venus, was stationed at Royal Bay on the south-east side of the island.
Throughout the 19th century South Georgia was a sealers' base and, in the following century, a whalers' base until whaling ended in the 1960s. The first land-based whaling station, and first permanent habitation, was established at Grytviken in 1904 by Norwegian Carl Anton Larsen. It operated through his Argentine Fishing Company, which settled in Grytviken.[4][5] The station remained in operation until 1965.
Whaling stations operated under leases granted by the (British) Governor of the Falkland Islands. The seven stations, all on the north coast with its sheltered harbours were, starting from the west:
Prince Olav Harbour (from 1911–1916 factory ship and small station, land-based station 1917–1931)
Leith Harbour (1909–1965)
Stromness (from 1907 factory ship, land-based station 1913–1931, repair yard to 1960/1961)
Husvik (from 1907 factory ship, land-based station 1910–1960, not in operation 1930–1945)
Grytviken (1904–1964)
Godthul (1908–1929, only a rudimentary land base, main operations on factory ship)
Ocean Harbour (1909–1920)
With the end of the whaling industry the stations were abandoned. Apart from a few preserved buildings such as the museum and church at Grytviken, only their decaying remains survive.
South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands are a collection of bleak and remote islands in the South Atlantic Ocean. Most of the islands, rising steeply from the sea, are rugged and mountainous. At higher elevations the islands are permanently covered with ice and snow.
[edit]South Georgia Group
The South Georgia Group (Spanish name Georgias del Sur) lies about 1,390 kilometres (864 mi) east-southeast of the Falkland Islands, at 54°–55°S, 36°–38°W. It comprises South Georgia Island itself (by far the largest island in the territory), along with the islands that immediately surround it and some remote and isolated islets to the west and east-southeast. It has a total land area of 3,756 square kilometres (1,450 sq mi), including satellite islands (but excluding the South Sandwich Islands which form a separate island group).
[edit]Islands in the South Georgia Group
South Georgia Island, also called Pepys Island (San Pedro in Spanish), lies at 54°15′S 36°45′WCoordinates: 54°15′S 36°45′W and has an area of 3,528 km². It is mountainous and largely barren. Eleven peaks rise to over 2,000 metres (6,562 ft) high, their slopes furrowed with deep gorges filled with glaciers (Fortuna Glacier being the largest). The highest peak is Mount Paget in the Allardyce Range at 2,934 metres (9,626 ft).
Geologically, the island consists of gneiss and argillaceous schists, with no trace of fossils, showing that the island is, lik
Just finished yard work…as says, "It's hotter than 5 gallons of hell boiled down to a pint" in South Georgia.
First off, I like McChrystal and I think that he shouldn't have resigned.
Yes, the Revolutionary war was a rebellion against the British, but so was the Civil War, does that make the south right? It's the victor that always rights history, no matter who is right or wrong.
Transnational Issues > Disputes > International
in 2002, Gibraltar residents voted overwhelmingly by referendum to reject any “shared sovereignty” arrangement between the UK and Spain; the Government of Gibraltar insists on equal participation in talks between the two countries; Spain disapproves of UK plans to grant Gibraltar greater autonomy; Mauritius and Seychelles claim the Chagos Archipelago (British Indian Ocean Territory), and its former inhabitants since their eviction in 1965; most Chagossians reside in Mauritius, and in 2001 were granted UK citizenship, where some have since resettled; in May 2006, the High Court of London reversed the UK Government's 2004 orders of council that banned habitation on the islands; UK rejects sovereignty talks requested by Argentina, which still claims the Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas) and South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands; territorial claim in Antarctica (British Antarctic Territory) overlaps Argentine claim and partially overlaps Chilean claim; Iceland, the UK, and Ireland dispute Denmark's claim that the Faroe Islands' continental shelf extends