Historical Sites – January 10-26

Antarctica has a pretty recent history focusing on exploration, whaling, military and research, and most recently, tourism. Up to about 1900, exploration was the main focus of the area and the peninsula was one of the stopping off points for groups heading to the South Pole.

From 1905 until 1930, whaling of the southern herds was the main activity in the area, after most of the northern whale herds had been killed off. We visited a number of old whaling stations and even spent a couple of days tied up to a partially sunken whaling ship.

During World War II and for about 20 years after, this area was a strategic military location, as it was the gateway between the Pacific and the Atlantic. We ended up staying overnight at Port Lockroy, which is an old British Research station. Initially, these stations were located for military purposes, after the Germans started to spend time here during the war. This station has been restored and is being maintained as a “living museum”, with many food stuffs that are 50 or more, years old. Even now, it appears that many countries use “scientific research” as an excuse for maintaining military operations.

We visited a number of research bases run by various countries with various budgets. The largest budget was the American (Palmer) base. We weren’t allowed to see any scientific studies, so it is hard to say what they actually do there – they did provide us with lunch though and the burgers were great! One of the smallest budgets must go to the Ukrainian base. They were very involved in the Russian base in past years, but with the collapse of USSR, they didn’t have a place to go to continue their research.

Thankfully, the British stepped in and “sold” the Ukrainian’s one of their bases for one pound, about 20 years ago. Since then, the Ukrainians have continued the research initiated by the Brits as well as begun their own research – apparently all on a shoestring. The award for the “Most Original Funding Strategy” also goes to the Ukrainians, who make their own vodka from local icebergs. The vodka is then sold to cruise ship tourists for US$5 a shot…in total, they would see nearly 100 small cruise ships every summer. $$$. Why didn’t we think of this during all those years that we spent fundraising for ringette?? Beats the heck out of bottle drives, garbage pick-up and chicken catching!