Isla de los ESTADOS
POST HISTORY

SAN JUAN DEL SALVAMENTO

Coinciding with the inauguration of the facilities of the sub-prefecture and lighthouse in San Juan del Salvamento (1), Correos y Telégrafos includes this distant destination, among the places where he sent correspondence, as indicated in his Report of 1884, using transport of the "Villarino" Navy, which already carried out the Patagonian coastal communications driving passengers and cargo. It also had a post office on board, manned by an employee, responsible for delivering and receiving correspondence in the towns and places served.

By decree of April 23, 1890, the national government appointed Dr. Mario Cornero Governor of Tierra del Fuego, who, while he was in Buenos Aires awaiting the Senate's agreement, which would take place on June 10 and then be able to travel in the middle the following month, he worries about knowing the reality and needs in his new destination. Thus, among various initiatives and procedures that it carries out, to provide greater advances and comforts to the Fuegian territory, it obtains the installation of the postal service in its territory, through the creation by resolution of July 25, 1890 of three post offices located in, Ushuaia, San Sebastián and San Juan del Salvamento; these last two on an ad-honorem basis.

"El Factor de Correos", of the following August 10, publishes:

"Creation of offices in San Juan de Salvamento, Ushuaia and San Sebastián, having to be managed, respectively, by Messrs. Francisco Villarino, Arturo Coronado and José Porcel".

As in other cases that occurred at that time: Port Santa Cruz, Port Deseado and Río Gallegos, when a post office was installed in each of them, the sub-prefect of the local Sub-prefecture was appointed as administrator or manager, taking advantage of the presence of the aforementioned official , which belonged to the national government.

Although in this circumstance it is not mentioned, the spirit of those previous resolutions was still in force, where referring to the convenience of this type of appointment, it was expressed "because the budget did not allocate an item for the creation of a post office in that locality, and that its population is so scarce that it does not require it either. "

Cornero, in the "Memory of the Government of Tierra del Fuego" raised to the Minister of the Interior, signed on April 15, 1891, reports in the chapter "Post Office"

"There was also no direct communication with Buenos Aires in Tierra del Fuego. We were tributaries of Chile, as the letters went to and from Punta Arenas, where they were franked with the stamps of that Republic, foreign employees intervening in all postal operations. The irregularity could not subsist and it was enough for me to point it out to the General Director of Posts and Telegraphs, Dr. Zeballos, for it to be corrected on the spot, creating the offices of Ushuaia, San Sebastián and Isla de los Estados "...." These post offices they already provide important services "...... the inauguration of the service in Ushuaia took place on January 6.

These last data are important, because they clearly determine that the frigate captain Francisco Villarino was the first person in charge of the brand new post, since it is documented that he had been serving as sub-prefect in San Juan del Salvamento since 1886, remaining in his position at least until May 1891.

According to the historian Belza, on August 5, 1890, Cornero decided to install a police office in Port Cook, appointing the clerk Colombres as acting officer. Always referring to Cornero, he asserts "On February 6, 1891, he inaugurated the postal service from the Ushuaia office and later had it organized in San Sebastián and Isla de los Estados by means of the police."

In the case of San Sebastián, it is real, because Porcel was a local police commissioner at the time of his appointment as manager of the post office. But we have serious doubts about the island of the States, because the appointment made by a power superior to the Governor, had fallen to Villarino, the national authority of the only populated center on the island, who was still there when the service began, resulting in It is unlikely that said resolution would not be respected, changing it for another person, located in a deserted area, and far from the previous one where the location had been expressly set.

Sick, Villarino died in Buenos Aires on October 29, 1891, at the age of 55, leaving a wife and two married daughters. Little is known about him, but it is enough to know that he was one of those first and hard-working sailors who helped to establish sovereignty in our South.

Through a resolution signed two days later by President Pellegrini, he appointed Frigate Captain Carlos Méndez as his predecessor, another veteran of the stormy southern seas, who remained in the post until October 1897, when he passed with same functions as Río Gallegos. In his place, temporarily in charge, was the military auxiliary, frigate lieutenant Santiago Cressi, appearing in the magazine lists, that the post of subprefect was vacant.

The latter shows that the provisions of the decree of February 26, 1896, which provided for the transfer of Méndez, were not complied with at the time, appointing Lieutenant Tomás Alegre as his replacement.

Both in the lists of Post and Telegraph offices for the years 1895 and 1896, as well as in the General Budget of the Argentine Republic for 1895, San Juan del Salvamento is mentioned as the only existing post office on the island.

So far we have found few traces of the way the postal service worked there. To begin with, its location could be in the sub-prefect's office or the room that served as an office. It also needed little physical space, only the essential to store the few items that were provided in those circumstances: the postmark, postage stamps, some envelopes and bags to send the letters to their destination, and some other stationery.

Regarding the personnel designated to perform as manager, appealing to similar known cases, we can affirm that, not always the appointments were made in a timely manner, because in general they were late, because, due to the vicissitudes of the service, who was appointed had left towards another destination and, in reality, another person was still attending the post office, perhaps without the immediate knowledge of the distant Post Office in Buenos Aires, which had available in this regard; all damaged by the delays of the ships that were arriving spacedly, to communicate the news. It was also the practice that the appointments were made in the person of the head of the Subprefecture, who could carry out the position personally, or do it through a subordinate, who also supplanted him when the holder had to be absent.

Another problem in this scenario has been that not all personnel movements were duly recorded. Loss of documents, lack of timely communications and also on occasions, ignorance, disregard for what happened in distant and almost deserted places, gave rise to events in which there were postal offices that both appeared and disappeared, without leaving traces in the bulletins or records , because their treatment had only been carried out in a procedure or file, which over time was destroyed because the regulatory filing period had expired.

The notable writer Roberto Payró, when visiting San Juan del Salvamento in 1898, remembered in "La Australia Argentina" the presence of "a red post of the post", that is, a pillar mailbox, one of those existing outside the postal buildings for deposit the correspondence, although in this case it states "naturally that neither in Ushuaia nor in San Juan they are used; but they produce such a good effect ......", which is not surprising, if we take into account the few annual visits of the ships that transported correspondence and, consequently, the letters were dispatched directly at the office almost upon their departure, when they were not entrusted to known crew or passengers, to be delivered at destination more quickly and safely, and saving to pay the postage.

With Payró comes the new subprefect, the frigate lieutenant Luis Demartini, taking over immediately on the same day, March 9. At that time, he was temporarily in charge of the assistant Nicanor Fernández.

A late decree of May 30, 1898, makes this change official for the Post Office, appointing Luis Demartini in San Juan del Salvamento with seniority as of March 31, instead of Carlos Méndez.

Demartini is replaced by Lieutenant Elías Romero, appointed by decree of September 9 of the same year, who remains until April 1899, when Lieutenant Zoilo Romero begins to appear as sub-prefect.

His brief management coincides with days of change on the island. The climate was so inclement, the environment so harsh and the resources so scarce, that by March 1899 the transfer ordered some time ago to bring the Subprefecture and Military Prison from San Juan del Salvamento to Port Cook ended. Only the Punta Lasserre lighthouse was left up.

With the change of location, it is also possible that it was the name of the post office, for "Island of the States", as it is mentioned later, although until now we have not found the administrative resolution providing it. Nor can we fail to express our doubt in this regard, and that this name was the result of a mistake, since it was common to name either San Juan del Salvamento or Isla de los Estados, referring to the same and only place. Even in the Postal Guide of 1903, with data from the previous year, only San Juan del Salvamento appears.

In addition, without determining a date, Seguro H. Richardson is mentioned as the first person in charge of "Isla de los Estados." Despite the search carried out in the magazine lists of the Subprefecture, the National Census of 1895 and other sources, so far we have not found that person acting in the area.

With the transfer of the Subprefecture and Presidio to Port Cook, we noticed a continuous movement of personnel, who spent a short time in that destination.

By decree of July 15, 1899, Army Major Juan Grandón was appointed head of the Presidio, and the Subprefecture was limited to its tasks. In addition, by decree of January 27, 1900, various measures are established on the Prefecture, among them Article 2, where it orders "....... and the Subprefecture of Isla de los Estados, which will be called hereinafter "Faro and Presidio Station" ..... In the 1900 magazine lists, only Lieutenant Zoilo Romero is mentioned as the only personnel, while the assistant Augusto de la Serna records his transfer to the Subprefecture of Río Gallegos from the January 1. The following year, Romero is mentioned as "in charge of building the lighthouse that will be erected on New Year's Island."

Our uncertainty is, what happened to the postal service then? . While he remained in San Juan del Salvamento, the appointments fell to the subprefect. When moving to Port Cook, the situation is modified with the prompt disappearance of that authority, replaced by officers of the Navy and the Army, who are constantly changing in the custody of the prisoners, the last of whom will be the Second Lieutenant Valladares, and the ensign Clodomiro Matheu to whom the events of December 1902 happened.

Perhaps one of the last in charge of the post office was the assistant of the Sub-prefecture Augusto de la Serna, who by resolution of October 23, 1901 "is laid off from the post of post office manager of 25th category in Isla de los Estados" with seniority at 1st. October of the previous year. In fact, he had been transferred to Río Gallegos from the 1st. January 1900, having spent a few months in Port Cook. It is striking that a replacement was not appointed, as was usual in these cases.

We know that de la Serna belonged to the Sub-prefecture of Río Gallegos, from there he went to Bahía Thetis in 1893, where he was registered in 1895, indicating that he was 29 years old, native of Entre Ríos and that he lived with his wife and a daughter. In 1898 Payró found him as head of the Punta Lasserre lighthouse, dedicating a few lines to him in his book. He remained there until his transfer to Port Cook.

On September 30, 1902, the Punta Lasserre lighthouse was closed and the next day the one installed on Observatorio Island, in the New Year group of islands, was inaugurated.

Shortly after the transfer of the Presidio to Ushuaia began, during which the bloody uprising and the escape of prisoners took place on December 6, 1902, among whose excesses was to destroy the documentation of the establishment, and perhaps what could still exist of the post office.

By resolution of September 10 of the same year, the Post Office ordered the closure of the "Isla de los Estados" and "San Juan del Salvamento" post offices, in both cases because "this place has been depopulated since the beginning of the year, for which reason they do not work since then".

In the 1906 postal staff reorganization book, San Juan del Salvamento begins to appear again as a courier, without being able to establish the resolution and date that ordered its reopening to public service, and that never came to fruition, perhaps by warning Years later, this situation, "because it was unnecessary", was closed by resolution of July 26, 1916. Perhaps this could be related to the installation around 1904 of an oil factory and collection of amphibian skins belonging to the Del Viso firm, from Buenos Aires. Aires, which worked for some time, but in Port Cook. However, business did not go well and it was abandoned. Here we also do not find an administrative indication that links both facts.

ISLA DE AÑO NUEVO

Despite lacking a post office, the personnel stationed on the Observatory island were communicated by post through the Navy ships that put them in contact with the outside world, allowing them to receive and dispatch their correspondence. In those years, the naval transports "Santa Cruz", "Guardia Nacional" and "1o. De Mayo", as well as other occasional ones, were known and anxiously awaited visitors in each of their southern voyages.

In the annual report of 1910, the Fuegian governor Fernández Valdés reports "the budget assigns to this territory the following post offices ..... third category San Juan de Salvamento ...... where there is no inhabitant", and later He adds "The" Piedrabuena "transport of the National Navy at the service of the government maintains communications between Punta Arenas, Ushuaia, Beagle ports, New Year's Eve. The radiographic stations are finished and the one in Cabo Vírgenes should be finished in these days".

This last paragraph referred to the program that the Navy had been developing to incorporate into its fleet the modern radiotelegraphy system, of great strategic value, which would allow them to communicate directly with each other, bases and ships.

Until then, in Patagonia there was only the National Telegraph to Cabo Vírgenes, inaugurated in January 1903, with offices all along the Atlantic coast. At that time it had been a great advance, but it still forced ships to approach land, when they needed to send and receive news. The new system advantageously made them independent in every way. As the existing radiotelegraphy equipment had limited ranges, it was necessary to create coastal stations, in the points considered most useful and appropriate, especially in the extreme south of Patagonia: Cabo Vírgenes, Ushuaia and New Year.

When choosing one of the New Year's islands, its advantageous location was taken into account, as well as the fact that its own facilities already existed, which in addition to the lighthouse, included the observatory, whose scientific data, especially meteorological data, would be very useful if they were sent daily to Buenos Aires.

The construction of the radiotelegraph station was in charge of the Navy radiotelegraphy inspector, Lieutenant Pedro L. Padilla, who arrived on January 8, 1910. It included its corresponding tower for the antenna, 40 meters high above the ground. and 70 above sea level. To raise it, it was necessary to dig more than 2 meters in the layer of peat, until finding firm ground, where to lay the foundations of the tower. Its radio range was estimated between 500 to 700 kilometers. At the end of February it began to make its first communications, obtaining excellent results, higher than expected, since it received dispatches transmitted directly by the Port Militar, near Bahía Blanca, located 1,770 kilometers away.

In addition to the official service, also in June it began to provide public service to the personnel stationed there, as well as those belonging to the Navy ships, and occasional travelers who went ashore, and needed to use it, for which they had to pay the telegraphic fee internal established by Correos y Telégrafos. These private telegrams were transmitted to the Cabo Vírgenes station, where they were transferred to the Post and Telegraph office of the same place, who routed them to their destination.

By resolution of February 10, 1915, the post called "New Year Island" was created, whose first manager was José Paz, who reviewed as 1st auxiliary. of the observatory, which was closed two years later. There is no known data on any subsequent processors. Here we note the error of the assigned name, because we know that the "New Year's Island" does not exist as such, on the contrary, it is the one assigned to a group of islands, to which the Observatory island belongs, where it was actually installed, and whose name should have been imposed.

The post office operated for several years, still appearing in the Post and Telegraph guide published in January 1930. By resolution of the following December 24, it was closed as of October 3 of the same year. This occurred because previously the personnel who continued to attend to the lighthouse and the radiotelegraph station, one of whose members was also in charge of the Post Office, had been permanently withdrawn.

THE ISLA DE LOS ESTADOS IN PHILATELIA

POSTMARKS

They are of great rarity. For the reasons already explained, very little correspondence was dispatched, franked and postmarked at the post office. Until now, only one 5-cent stamp is known, where it was stamped "N DEL SALVAME", a fragment of "SAN JUAN DEL SALVAMENTO", and is in the philatelic collection of Dr. M. Guido Pinasco Acuña. The stamp was in circulation between 1889 and 1892, and therefore the application was made in the early days of the post. The postmark model corresponds to those manufactured and used in the last decade of the 19th century.

The other testimony is a postcard illustrated with a seaweed, which has a 5-cent postage stamp, issued in 1917, on which was applied the double circle postmark "NEW YEAR ISLAND / OCT 16, 1917 / (TIERRA DEL FIRE)". It belongs to the collection of the philatelist Eduardo Premoli.

MEMORANDUM

We consider the presence of Manuel García Fernández at the head of the General Directorate of Posts and Telegraphs during the period 1898-1904, as one of the most fruitful in using postal stationery (cards, memoranda and postal letters, which have the stamp printed or expressed in some way its franking value), to spread inside and outside the country patriotic motifs, landscapes and those aspects that allowed us to show our degree of progress.

At that time, the printing of postal values ​​was carried out through contracts with the South American Bank Note Company based in Buenos Aires, which always cared and stood out for performing very good quality work.

As in previous years, at the request of the postal authorities, on September 16, 1901, President Roca signed the resolution ordering that memoranda be issued to be used in the sending of congratulations and greetings on the occasion of the upcoming Christmas and New Year holidays.

They were printed in the values ​​of 5 and 15 cents, on heavy glossy paper. On the obverse, they carry the Head of Liberty, by Oudiné, in yellow-green for 5 ctvs., And blue for 15 ctvs.

For the reverse, provided by the Argentine Photographic Society, 54 different views were used in two series: 17 from the Argentine Navy and 37 from landscapes. Each of the landscape views was printed in two different colors: some in brown, greenish yellow, and others in green, lilac gray.

In total, 709,000 of 5 ctvs., And 154,000 of 15 ctvs. Were printed, going on sale on December 5, 1901.

Of the 15 ctv. Species, 108,126 units were resealed in November 1902 to reduce the value to 5 ctv., Going on sale the following month.

Among the landscapes, there is a photograph of "ISLAND OF THE STATES - VANCOUVER".

Therefore, from this view, between different values ​​and colors, there are 6 different pieces.

A SPECIAL POSTMARK

It was applied in Buenos Aires in May 1984, ordered by the National Postal and Telegraph Company, on the occasion of the centenary of the installation of the Subprefecture on the island of the States.

THE LIGHTHOUSE END OF THE WORLD-I

Correo Argentino put up for sale on May 31, 1997 a series of stamps illustrated with Argentine lighthouses, including one dedicated to the "San Juan de Salvamento Lighthouse", with a value of 75 cents, drawn by Néstor Martín and printed by the Sociedad del Estado Casa de Moneda in Buenos Aires, by the offset procedure, on paper without watermark and in four colors, cytochrome. The illustration it contains does not correspond to the one that really existed, because although the building is the same, it never had the elevated lighthouse that is assigned there.

THE LIGHTHOUSE END OF THE WORLD-II

For its part, the French Post dedicated a stamp of 3 French francs and the equivalent of 0.46 euro, to "Le Phare du Bout du Monde" ("Lighthouse at the End of the World"), put up for sale on January 1, 2000. It was designed by Claude Andréotto and printed in heliogravure, using the colors beige, yellow, blue, white and black. The illustration shows the lighthouse, as well as a reproduction of it, built in La Rochelle (France).

NOTE

(1) Although we find it named indistinctly "San Juan de Salvamento" or "San Juan del Salvamento", we always use the last one, as it is the correct place name, except when we transcribe quotation marks, where we respect the original spelling.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

General Archive of the Nation. Buenos Aires. Historical Archive of Correo Argentino. Buenos Aires. Naval Historical Studies Department. Buenos Aires. BELZA, Juan E. "On the island of fire". 3 volumes. Buenos Aires 1974/77. BELZA, Juan E. "Romancero of the Fuegian place name". Buenos Aires 1978. BORGIALLLI, Carlos. "Memories of a goblin that sailed on the South coast: Captain Villarino" in "La Argentina Austral" (Compilation 1929-1968). Volume III. BRUMATTI, Humberto "The Mail in the Island of the States" in "Patagonian Magazine" No. 50. Buenos Aires, July-September 1991. "Caras y Caretas" No. 603. Buenos Aires 04.23.1910. DELUCA, Antonio. "Stamps and other Argentine postal and telegraphic values". Volume II. Buenos Aires 1941. "The Correos Factor" No. 95. Buenos Aires, 10.08.1890. GARCÍA BASALO, J. Carlos. "Military prison on the island of the States" in "Everything is history" No. 366. Buenos Aires, January 1998. "La Nación". Buenos Aires. Collection. "The Press". Buenos Aires. Collection. "Memory of the Government of Tierra del Fuego". Buenos Aires 1891. PAYRÓ, Roberto J. '"La Astralia Agentina". 2 volumes. Buenos Aires 1908. PREMOLI, Eduardo "The Post Office in Tierra del Fuego" in "Magazine of Philately" No. 226/227. Madrid (Spain), February-March 1988. "National Registry of the Argentine Republic" - Years 1895, 1898 and 1900. ROUSSEAUX, Pref. Gral. (RE) Andrés R. We thank you for the generous contribution of your research and notes on the personnel who worked in the Subprefecture, on the island of the States.

VAIRO, Lic. Carlos Pedro. "The island of the States and the lighthouse of the end of the world".