Ice Lady Expedition

2003

MARITIME HISTORY AND ARCHEOLOGY

HISTORICAL WHALE SETTLEMENTS STUDY EXPEDITION IN ARGENTINA ANTARCTICA

ANTARCTIC CAMPAIGN JANUARY 2003

The Austral Patagonian Ship Association, together with the Ushuaia Maritime Museum and the Naval Museum of the Nation, carried out an expedition in January 2003 through the islands of the Antarctic Peninsula aboard the itinerant museum ship "Ice Lady Patagonia". The data presented here correspond partially to the Report presented to the International Council of Museums, the International Congress of Maritime Museums and national and international non-governmental organizations, competent in Antarctic activity and Maritime History.

The authors of this work are Lic. Guillermo May, Lic. Carlos Pedro Vairo and CN Horacio Molina Pico

RESUME

The Asociación Buque Austral Patagónico, in conjunction with the Ushuaia Maritime Museum and the Naval Museum of the Nation, developed an expedition to study the settlements between January 6 and 24, 2003 through the itinerant museum ship “Ice Lady Patagonia”. Historic whalers in the Antarctic Peninsula, in order to contribute to the conservation and knowledge of the heritage, and promote the rescue of the cultural memory related to such activity.

The research proposal and its historical support, the works of formulation of the evaluated inventory of the existing cultural testimonies and the studies of the office and interpretation practiced are outlined, and conclusions and recommendations are presented.

INDEX

Introduction Historical Background
Route and dates Development of the Expedition
Isla 25 de Mayo (King George) Deception Island
Nansen Islands Half Moon Island
Port Charcot Port Lockroy
Analysis and Evaluations Detail of the vessels
Conclusions and Recommendations Photographs

Copyright reserved by the authors - Deposit 74.481 - Authorized the total or partial citation of texts and the copy of figures and diagrams, with exact mention of the title and authors. Any other reproduction by any method whatsoever is prohibited.

Extracted from the publication HISTORIA Y ARQUEOLOGIA MARITIMA http://www.histarmar.com.ar/SubArch/BallenerosBase.php by Carlos Mey - Tel .: (5411) 4792-2326 Fax (5411) 4733-6647 - Martínez - Argentina

2006

HISTORICAL WHALE SETTLEMENTS STUDY EXPEDITION IN ARGENTINA ANTARCTICA

ANTARCTIC CAMPAIGN JANUARY

Note from the magazine "Welcome on board" Year XVII - Nº 168. May / June 2006 Text: Black HormigaPhotos: Juan Pablo Pereda

THE SURPRISING ANTARCTICA The ship left Buenos Aires on January 16, 2006 and with only one technical stopover in Puerto Pirámides (Golfo Nuevo) to embark the team of the head diver Ricardo "Pinino" Orri, and a short exploration, without anchoring, of San Gregorio Bay and Leones Island, on the 25th we were in Ushuaia, after a navigation without major news, rather hard weather and the use of a lot of sail when the NW was given.

EL DRAKE
On January 27 we left the Ushuaia dock at night and at 0145 on 28 we entered Almanza to leave the Mackinlay pass free for Marco Polo, who also left that night for Antarctica; at the end of that day anchored in Spanish Port due to uncertain forecasts to face the Drake. For a ship like the Ice Lady Patagonia, with a cruising speed of around 10 knots, it is convenient to wait for what is called a meteorological window between two forecasts of strong winds, to cover the 460 miles (plus the 65 between our anchorage and the latitude from the cape) between the Hornos area and the entrance to the Larrea Strait, in South Shetland, with relative comfort and greater safety. They had predicted it for the last hours of the 29th. The information came from direct telephone communications -by satellite- with Marina de Río Grande and through SSB communications with the SARA (Navy Amateur Radio Service) attended on the occasion by Norberto E161 , Saúl EO83 and Arnaldo B027, who summarized Marina's forecast for our area once a day. What we found when we lost the protection of the coast showed us that we had gone too far ahead and that the SW was still blowing hard, making it difficult to maintain the ideal course and making life on board very uncomfortable, since that type of hull rolls severely. The first experience showed that all those who did not know if they got dizzy knew that they did get dizzy. At night the intensity decreased and on the 30th it decidedly calmed down to about 13 knots and borned the ENE, allowing us to open sails and see Smith Island and the Larrea Strait at 0900 on the 31st. of the Drake, as usual, and that only a few appeared almost on the coast of the islands. experience of directing one in other times.

INQUIRIES IN THE SHETLAND

The illusion upon arriving in Antarctica is that you are going to step on ground that has never been trodden by a human foot. And in the case of finding beings of our species, isolated in those distant regions, it is expected to find them eager for the warm human contact of fraternal sailors like us. Our first intention was to explore the extreme west of Livingston Island, to relieve some very old stone huts that had served as a refuge for the first sea lion hunters, which the primitive wolves stationed for long periods on the coast. With that intention, we anchored in a protected bay on whose beach the first thing we saw were some orange tents and shortly after, when we had already launched our boats, a harsh, very Hispanic voice harshly rebuked us on VHF, telling us that this place was reserved for an investigation. on the nesting of the cormorants and that we did not have special authorization, we should go immediately from there. Hallelujah, we told ourselves, we are still on Planet Earth. But by then a contingent had made landfall on the stony beach and the boat was back on board. A character who did not want to give his name, although he called himself the head of that group, harshly scolded those who had disembarked, emphasizing that they - those from the camp - used to relieve themselves in bags so as not to pollute (he said it in clearer Spanish and precise) and that the disembarked people were trampling everything without authorization. We were able to establish communication with ours and we went to re-embark them, but that beach was and had probably been the only point of descent to reach the eastern point and look for the huts, because when with Vairo's boat another place was sought by sea adequate, a barrier of steep rocks prevented it. So we were left without the scheduled checks and headed to another less populated destination: the island of the Penguins, at the opposite end of the Shetland, to the east, on the island 25 de Mayo. It was a truly remote place and we went down a contingent to survey and document a long stony coastline strewn with whale bones, an unmistakable temporary slaughterhouse, as there is not an abundance of suitable platforms out there. There was also a large colony of penguins, marked as a reserve on the course. At the moment when one of the expedition members got too close to the penguins, a number of rubber bands appeared with hordes of tourists in orange suits, coming from a Russian ship that had anchored on the other side of the mountain, all photographing the reckless incursion of the crew of the Ice Lady. Loneliness and isolation were definitely not going to be a reality in this new Antarctica and any misstep by our people would be conveniently and internationally documented. Incidentally, the crew member who approached the penguins, who did not hear the warnings of the rest because the radio was turned off to save batteries, deserved the first title of "tarantar" (Antarctic moron) that was instituted on this trip. As we resumed our journey we were presented with an unusual spectacle: an inverted iceberg. Don't get it wrong. It was one that he had knocked over and whose submerged part was facing up. That is quite common, except that in this case what it showed was dark green, almost black. A black iceberg is, certainly and without racist connotations, something very strange. The phenomenon was apparently due to the composition of the ice and bacteria and algae within its mass. But it was remarkable; it looked like a hard stone, the kind that are carved, called rock crystal or, less poetically, it resembled the entrails of a prehistoric monster. The image hunters on board gave us a concert of "clicks" with those electronic machines that work like machine guns that almost melted the immodest iceberg fret in the air.

WARM ENCOUNTER

The programmed sweep of the Shetlands, from East to West, that we had proposed, was followed by Puerto Visca, at the bottom of Lasserre Bay, always on the 25 de Mayo Island, a very suitable place to anchor due to its little relative depth, surrounded by two important glaciers and protecting the Brazilian base Ferraz. The warning ARA Suboficial Castillo, stationed in the region, and the Brazilian polar ship Ary Rongel were already there. Running over debris of ice, of which there was a lot, we went down, with prior permission (now they sometimes grant it and ask first how many are going to disembark) to the Brazilian base where we were personally received by his boss, Frigate Captain Dastos, who He welcomed us and assigned us a guide for every eight or ten of us, who took us to know the base, the entire base, even its most recondite laboratories, in each of which the researcher stood up, we he greeted us and explained his work to us. The tour culminated with a coffee and cookies in the comfortable dining room and a gift T-shirt for the most conspicuous. It was the best welcome and the most prosperous and organized base that we visited, much improved since 2003. In it was one of the whalers' cargo barges, very well preserved. The place had been an English factory and on its green moss beach Jacques Cousteau assembled, with bones scattered there, a complete skeleton, probably the most portrayed in the world. The return to the ship was a bit wet and freezing, because she had risen NE of 30 knots and the ice had pressed against the coast, while she was snowing a little. On the morning of the 2nd we stayed in Puerto Visca, waking up the wait with a camera visit to the ARA Suboficial Castillo notice, where we were very pleasantly received by its commander, Lieutenant Commander Marcelo Dalle Nogare, and his staff, while another of our team He inspected the Ecuadorian base that was not active and the Peruvian Machu Pichu that was; the reception was very friendly, pisco sour included. In the afternoon we approached the Polish Arctowski base, where only Vairo came down with a small entourage because they had visitors. In its vicinity, a whaling station once operated, of which many vestiges remain, some of them preserved in a small museum. As we were informed that an old prohibition to enter the nearby bay -because it was a nesting place for penguins- had already been lifted (we did not want another ornithological mess), and that it was believed that there were remains of a sunken whaler, we entered In what is surprisingly called Escurra Bay, we were exploring and diving the area until the next day, unfortunately without results. The place is notable for a practically pyramidal island that rises from the sea with shores that you cannot climb even with your nails. Thirty-six clean crew members was too much for the ship's desalination plant and there was the threat of harsh rationing if we did not manage to reinforce the reserves of fresh water, which, as is known, is the least abundant in Antarctica, by the way in its liquid form, except to go to very rare streams and ship it in barrels, as was done before, since the bases obtain it with high energy cost and there are no docks where to lay a hose. The close presence of the aforementioned ship of the Argentine Navy, a very sailor notice built in North America in the 1940s, whose mission there was the support and safety of the navigators and the care of the ecology, a task in which he takes turns with a ship Chilean for the same purpose during the summer, he induced us to ask if they could give us water. The immediate answer was affirmative and a short time later, in front of the Feraz base, we embraced each other. A hose was passed and, as is also customary, since the best technicians were on hand, we asked them to take a look at the Furuno radar, which was getting sick and, of course, at the desalination plant. In this one they recommended that the salt water be preheated so that it would have better performance and the radar had no easy remedy (anyway we had another, fortunately the best). The meeting was used for an exchange of camaraderie meetings in both ships and we remained moored there all night, until four cubic meters passed us, which, in truth, were very welcome and did not require more increases during the rest of the trip. In these remote areas, news arrives piecemeal, by radio, by satellite phone or by email. A day later someone reported in the Ice Lady that the news had appeared in La Nación that they had given us help in Antarctica (confusing the term with "logistical and technical support", which was the one used by the Navy) and that we were "a ship of Argentine passengers ". The first reaction of several crew members was "urgently warn our wives that we are perfectly fine lest they start spending on account with credit cards", which was not interpreted very clearly and someone sent a letter to the newspaper stating that No one had given us any support, all of which created a logical malaise in the Navy, which deserved a denial and not an escalation, but the denial, always due to these communications delays, did not come out or did not arrive and the mess was unfortunately unfinished

COLD MEETING

We were waiting for the next stop, the Jubany base of the Argentine Antarctic Institute, with great enthusiasm, in part because we would finally meet compatriots who make headlines in those regions and maintain the necessary Argentine presence, of such old date, that the country deserves . The scale had several programmed objectives: one of them was the first worldwide and regional audition of the "Cantata for Water" that Mónica Cosachov had created and was going to perform there, composed for piano, two violins, viola, cello, mezzo soprano and children's choir and that it had to be transmitted by satellite through the antenna to assemble on the ground carried by the Ice Lady, all sponsored by Green Cross International, an entity of which we carried, as I said before, the representation. The other, for us, was the contact with people from our country, to see again the plaque that we had given in the previous trip and, in my particular case, to see the pennant and the plaque that I had worn on the Pequod in 1987 again. José Tejo (Pepe Antena, for us) disembarked first and set about building the famous satellite dish. What I say next is very personal, that is, I do not wish to involve the association in these opinions. As soon as I set foot on the ground, in view of the three-pointed hill that characterizes the place, no one received me. After some digging, I found the base chief, who appeared in a paint-stained smock, explaining that he had a lot of work to do. I informed him who we were and about the entire Green Cross / Cosachov operation. He had not the slightest idea of ​​anything, he was not informed and his comment was that he could not accommodate so many people, after which, claiming that he was very busy, he "freed" us to visit the base without further help, guide. or explanations or much warmth and he went to his chores. Once again I felt like I was on Planet Earth, this time on Argentine soil and, without being able to avoid it, I compared the reception with that of the Brazilians. A fleeting image of Bastardillo in Antarctic garb crossed my mind. Fortunately I knew the base (it was the fourth time I got there) and the first thing that caught my attention was the lack of snow. If it hadn't been for a bit of mud, it looked like a town in the dry zone of our North: pure stone. The buildings had been augmented with a German laboratory and other facilities, which no one invited us to visit. Quite the contrary, characters who spoke among themselves and ignored us, as if we were passengers on a bus that had made a stop along the way, came and went. I entered the dining room under the suspicious and somewhat aggressive look of the cook, I looked for the plates and the souvenirs. There was nothing. They had been replaced by photos of visiting ships. After inquiring around, I found the radio house, where they kept the stamp of the base to postmark my envelopes and there I was attended by a surly operator who without saying a word, looked for the stamp, stamped the envelopes and turned to your cubicle. Would these people have so many visits so that they took us so little the note? The divers had better luck. They found a colleague who showed them the hyperbaric chamber, unique in the area and very important in case of accidents. Pepe Antena ran into a glacier that stood between his device and the satellite, which was barely rising a few degrees above the horizon and had to disarm it without a signal. I returned to the Ice Lady -home, sweet home- by the way without anyone saying goodbye to us, to enjoy the beautiful view of the bay, the Castle that had arrived and the Puerto Deseado, the Argentine hydrographic ship that with its beautiful orange stamp was from a few days ago. Those of Green Cross hinted to prolong the wait to attend the famous concert, but the Admiralty of the Ice Lady informed that we could not delay because we would not fulfill our scientific program. Luckily that was the decision, because on my return I found out that the maneuver had gone rough. That day, February 5, when we were in Jubany, Mónica Cosachov and her team were still in Buenos Aires. They flew at night and arrived in Marambio, fortunately taking the instruments with them, played and recorded the "Cantata for Water", plus some works by Mozart and Beethoven, and returned eight hours later. The singing children did not manage to leave Buenos Aires and what the Irízar brought (I no longer remember what it was) did not reach Jubany either because it was five days late due to the ice in the Wedell Sea area. With the Green Cross members that we had taken away, in Jubany no one was left connected to the cultural fact, which must have cheered up the busy head of the base. I was left thinking that if Juan Sebastián Bach wrote the famous "Cantata del café", added to that of Mónica's water, the inevitable third was sung (a cantata sung and that by definition is sung, is it the same as a cantata cubed? ) waiting for author: "Cantata for Wine", with texts by Polish oenologist Charna Mròvka.

THE VEDETTE WHALE

To save time we crossed the Fleet Sea at night and approached the islands of the Danco coast through the Orleáns channel, little frequented and scarce of drilling and very early we anchored in Mikkelsen port, south of Trinidad island, where, in addition to visiting the Argentine refuge Caillet Bois, we wanted to check if there were any remains of whalers. It is a small bay, very stony and with sloping hills. The refuge was not inhabited, although it was accessible and we left jars of dulce de leche as a national folkloric contribution. Pinino defined donation with a simple sentence: "Won't it be too much?" The investigations did not give results because no traces of whaling were found. A new diploma of "tarantar" (this time collective) won the refuge, when disembarking and letting go of the boat that had to be fished adrift. Our course from there penetrated the Gerlache Strait, where the best landscapes of Antarctic hills begin. Shortly after navigating the area, we witness the best spectacle that the human eye can expect in those cold regions. I think that whales are so intelligent that they not only communicate with each other with those beautiful moans that are characteristic of them, but also learn everything from what on the surface we call radio-corridors and that down there they must circulate through the convergence of the depths that, as it is more dense, propagates the sounds to incredible distances. The cetacean community must have known that the Ice Lady was recounting its mournful Antarctic past and for greater abundance, it had on board the emperor of the divers of Puerto Madryn, Pinino Orri and his companion Mariano De Franceschi - who by dint of showing whales in Golfo Nuevo, they already greet them by name-, because two magnificent specimens from Yubarta approached our ship to offer us the great circus act called "The flying whale", inspired by that memorable scene from Walt Disney's "Fantasia", in the that hippos with short skirts dance the "Dance of the Hours" from the opera La Gioconda by Giácomo Pontielli. The couple consisted of her, an obvious student of Gipsy Ros Lee (the most famous American stripper) whom we christened Rosita in her memory, and he, a more sparing and serious "partner" who humbly let his partner be the queen of the stage. Both displaced about four tons each and would measure about fifteen meters in length. They began, in the best style of the magazine theater, showing the back and the tail, to soon reappear full-length in the air, as Cirque du Soleil has made it fashionable. By then the ship was listing to starboard, because the gunwale of that band had been occupied by thirty-two of the thirty-six crew members, all with some photographic device in hand capturing the appearances of the cetaceans. At first they were a bit shy, making vertical with their snouts, but suddenly, obeying a secret order, they began to jump out of the water. In the same way that Pinino dives into the sea, Rosita and her partner plunged into the air, surprising us closer and closer with their pirouettes. They did not follow an isochronous interval, but sometimes they were two or three jumps, followed by a momentary disappearance, to sprout further or further here, vertically or horizontally, in a great and comical dance at the same time, waving their enormous fins and punishing with them flat on the surface. At some point in the air, they crossed them in a sign of hatred for Sven Foyn, the Norwegian who invented the hunting cannon that almost made them disappear from the orb. Suddenly, with the same elegance and discretion with which they had come, they began to walk away, emulating a scene from the end of an old film; they would appear to the surface launching their famous jets of foam, as if saying goodbye, until they were lost among the ice on the horizon. Vairo maintained that they were eating but it seemed to all the rest that they were dancing or, at least, doing pirouettes for the select public. If whales sing, why don't they go dance for the sheer joy of it? The romantics on board interpreted it as a sibylline sign of approval towards our concerns and the spectacle made the others hungry. The cook had to drop the photo machine, because he too was hanging from the rail and go back to the tasks of his beloved and admired presence there.

ALONE AT THE END

Still impressed by the festival of Rosita and her friend, we headed towards the mainland, entering Puerto Foyn, from North Cansen Island to the West, sending the Lord Vairo boat (that's how the sailors baptized the Bim with a jet engine). 50 hp four-stroke; a jewel owned by Carlos) on the front, to locate and indicate an unbuoyed stone that obstructs the mouth. Instead of anchoring, in the very little navigable space left to starboard of the Governoren wreck, -the factory ship burned in 1911 that we had already visited in 2003, whose bow is hanging from a rock and its stern, about a hundred meters more behind, fourteen deep - we embraced its prow, to the great indignation of some Antarctic terns that did not stop attacking us, with good reason, the poor, since we came to disturb their peace and isolation, which we began to enjoy we also. The divers (joined by Candelaria May) began their task immediately, as the Ice Lady's auxiliary vessels explored the surrounding islands. There we could really begin to feel the warming: the stacks of barrels from three years ago were stuck to the ice, they were completely loose, and many parts of the islands had been exposed that we had not seen before. For its part, the weather, which with some sun had accompanied us there, began to worsen, covering everything with low clouds that dropped an unusual rain, because it is rare that that 64º S latitude falls from the sky something that is not frozen: snow, garrotillo, sleet, but never liquid water. The temperature oscillated between 0º and 4º, the water remained 0.4º or more and the wind was scarce. Puerto Foyn is an unknown corner in that archipelago and they knew very little about the existence of the Governoren until we published it years ago. But it still retained that allure of Antarctic solitude until five gomons appeared with about ten tourists each and eight two-row kayaks approaching from the corner of the glacier. We quickly raised the "A" flag of a submerged diver, so that the propellers would not fight those who were below. The gomones were very careful when approaching, although their disappointment was noticeable because we had burst the photo of the old wrecked ship that we covered almost entirely. Faced with such an unexpected crowd, I went aft of the Ice, opened the grill and began to offer "hot dogs" and Coca Cola. I didn't sell any, but we were able to give the boats association prospects so they would know what we were digging there, in that lost corner of the world. Decidedly, Antarctica was no longer the same. They came from a Russian ship that was waiting for them where it was deep for its draft and the excursion was part of their visiting program since the Governoren had joined the list of tourist attractions. Lord Vairo came with an interesting novelty. Those of Green Cross, among the acts in favor of the program "Water for all. Water for peace and preservation of the Antarctic ice", wanted to take an organized photo of the entire crew of the Ice Lady with orange anti-exposure suits lying on a iceberg forming two successive figures, the silhouette of a large penguin and the letters SOS. The launch had found an accessible one with a suitable platform to assemble the figures. When we finished the dive, we headed there with the ship. The iceberg was perfect, but the depth prevented anchoring. All the people went to the iceberg and on board we were left with a reduced crew to maneuver the boat and the photographer Sebastián, who we placed comfortably seated on the mizzen, where it was drizzling dense at zero degrees. The organizers had brought little flags with which they tried to outline the great penguin, but they were unsuccessful. In the end they agreed to build only the SOS that was outlined quite well. The photos were taken and the chilled actors, tired of lying on the ice, came back on board shivering SOSsss (-… -). The maneuver had taken four hours! What did I do? Of course: take the time from the sheltered bridge.

TO THE SOUTH

Among the programmed objectives was to cross the Le Maire channel, which in 2003 we had found closed by icebergs and to reach Argentine islands at latitude 65º S. On February 6, we returned to Gerlache and diverted through the Neumayer. The stupendous landscapes were accompanied by low clouds and rain, although they continued to show their splendor. As we passed through the vicinity of Lockroy, we saw the English polar ship Endurance enter, followed by a Russian passenger - perhaps our friend from Puerto Foyn - while a third left for Paradise Bay. The thing was already coming as for a traffic light. The Le Maire channel, also with its wonderful mountains like sugar loaves half hidden by the rain, was almost free of great ice and as Vairo passed us he made us see the famous Kakaroja climbing penguins, which nest up there and stain with their detritus of their diet of krill, entire glaciers that appear pink. Climbing penguins represent a new family that has not yet reached the southern ornithology treatises, but given their abundance, they will already feature with their colorful sanitary customs. At the southern mouth of Le Maire we came across the Bremen, the Corintian II, while a Russian one followed us, and behind the low-lying Argentine islands, the poles of a sailboat were sticking out. We tried to anchor in the vicinity of the Ukrainian base, but the wind and the depth prevented us. Anyway we had reached the maximum latitude of our trip, which was 65º 13 '2 S, at longitude 64º 15' 2 W. A crew of the Ice Lady landed on Petermann Island while we waited for them on the machine and they were able to observe a few hundred of penguins and about three hundred tourists in orange garb who photographed them walking in order, orderly - the tourists, not the penguins. We tried to anchor in the vicinity in the Giraud cove, at the southern entrance of Le Maire, but we did not find adequate depth and we opted to return to Lockroy, while we crossed the Polar Pioneer. We cast off the iron 0130. At 0700 another Russian ship left (they have unrecordable names of professors and academics written in Greek alphabet) and at 0900 the Polar Star entered. We could not communicate with Lockroy by VHF, so we opted to go down without warning . It was a remarkable experience. On the rocks suitable for landing, near the houses at the base, there were two large black rubber boats going up and down with tourists, while three others waited their turn. A civil servant with a perfect British accent, correctness and authority, who only lacked Bobby's helmet, directed the traffic, admitting the boats and keeping the lines of tourists trying to embark or disembark, while it was drizzling thick and the penguins mingled with the visitors, they splashed in the mud and pooped in all directions. Seeing that the waiting list was lengthening, taking advantage of the fact that our boats were more agile and so were we, we got off with the passengers of the ship and were able to visit the museum base, seal our envelopes, send correspondence (there is British mail) and buy souvenirs and postcards. Lockroy is a former base-turned-museum, run by the Antarctic Heritage Trust that is self-financing because it raises about sixty thousand pounds a year selling trinkets each summer. We returned that same afternoon through the Neumayer and anchored for a while at the entrance to Bahía Paraíso, getting off at the Chilean base Gabriel González Videla, "Harbor Master's Office Bahía Paraíso" (so says its seal) which is invaded by gentoo penguins. They told us that if they do not close it properly in winter, when it is deactivated, the birds appear even in the bedrooms. We did not find traces of whaling exploitation, although it is known that there was. If there is something, it is under the mud of the chicken coop ... sorry, of the penguin colony. They showed us a curious photo of an albino penguin, light ocher, which is the mother of some descendants of the same plumage. In reality, soon all the penguins are going to be the same muddy color, because those clean white bellies are no longer visible and the poor little babies are so dirty they don't know what birds they are. Of course, man cannot interfere with nature, but sometimes you feel like it, because penguins are so stupid (that's what they are called in Spain) that they are all huddled together in a colony and suddenly a skúa comes down - a bird of prey related to the seagull-, kills the baby practically between its legs and begins to eat it without its parents reacting. Further on, another skúa is plucking an adult penguin and is eating it splashing the entrails of his brothers. It will be a natural law, but it is really disgusting. Puerto Neko is a unique bay where, for a change, there is a glacier that from time to time extends a rock to the water and produces a respectable wave. There is an Argentine refuge there, the Fliess, small but in good condition and, guess what: a penguin rookery! There are so many inhabitants that the breeze continually brings out effluvia of its characteristic perfume, which is not exactly Chanel No. 5. At some point another passenger ship, the Clipper Adventure, appeared, launching the usual boats. Then came one with only one passenger, who happened to be the Second, Bernd Buchner, Vairo's friend. Buchner has bought the Penelope, a sailboat with a long history, now in the Falklands, which belonged to the first southern aviator Gunther Plüschow in 1928, about which at some point we will tell more (as I write this, Buchner is sailing with the Penelope to Germany). It was a very pleasant meeting, nobly crowned with a crate of German beer that he gave us when we were leaving and getting lost in the rain, because it still looked like a scene from the movie "Singing in the Rain". We regret that no one had thought to bring an umbrella; he left the idea to Lockroy: the sale of umbrellas in Antarctica.

FAREWELL, ANTARCTICA

We had enough time for one more stopover, the Melchior archipelago, in which we had not been before. It remains crossing the Gerlache and entering the Scholaer canal. It was not only raining there, but there was a closed fog and the Melchior is an extremely hard set of aggressive stones, with deep channels very close to the rocks, which is the ideal setting to test the benefits of precise navigation with radar. and white cane. The responsibility was taken by Jorge May, who likes challenges and, in truth, he handled the ship very well. When we saw the rocks it seemed that we could almost touch them and we happily anchored in front of the Argentine base, activated again that summer after many years. The crew received us warmly and I was very pleased to bring them the memory of the feat of the then Lieutenant Hugo Dietrich, who in June 1956, with the tug Yamana, had to look there for the head of the detachment who had been wounded - a true winter feat on a ship that was not polar- and evacuating to Ushuaia. Near the base was the North American sailboat Pelagic, a "habit" of Antarctica, preparing its return to the North.

NOTHING BUT NORMAL WINDS

The time destined for the continent that the corny call white, now half brown from rain and mud, was running out. Melchior was for us the anteroom of the Drake and we began to gather meteorological information to see if we could find the famous window (as Les Luthiers would say "semper la menestra") to cross it smoothly. That happened on February 10 and since they did not open it to us, we organized the classic baptism of the Antarctic neophytes at anchor, through an appearance of King Neptune (the bearded man who subscribes, his fur improved with virulana), his two princesses ("one" era Pinino Orri and the other, the only true and delicious lady on board, Candelaria May), a pot of salt water, a piece of iceberg and an aggressive ladle. The party culminated with the presentation of diplomas with the corresponding Antarctic nicknames. In addition, the prizes were awarded to the worst "slaves" who were in charge of the tasks of serving meals and washing dishes. The worst of all was won by a senior executive of an important international financial institution, a native of Alexandria, Egypt and addicted to good tobacco cigars, whose name we will silence forever and the best, the glider pilot who holds the South American distance record , with more than a thousand kilometers without stops, which with its natural modesty, asked us to keep the secret.

THE DRAGONET

To elegantly denounce the privateer Sir Francis Drake, nicknamed "The Dragon", when he ravaged the Pacific coasts of the Spanish possessions in America, Lope de Vega wrote in 1598 an epic poem bearing that title. Drake never completed the crossing to the Pacific by the homonymous pass, which should be more deservedly reminiscent of the Spaniard Francisco de Hoces, who was the first to do so. However, it was the sinister name of English that has remained for all sailors of later times, calling the pass and as a synonym for extreme evil. From the Horn to the South Shetlands, as I said, there are four hundred and sixty miles of deep sea, open and moody, without a land that limits it around the globe at that latitude where the western fronts converge, they unload their evils, they turn a little and they go to Buenos Aires and Rio Grande do Sul. They don't even need to be bad times or storms. They are simply fronts that roam around. On February 10, the meteorological reports told us that the famous window or hole of calm between two very strong depressions that devastated the pass, would only occur on the 15th. The Admiralty of the Ice Lady decided that it could not wait and that the matter, of Anyway, it would not be so bad, so on early 11 we started north. It was for so much. I'm not exaggerating, because I never liked nautical truculence, but it turned out to be the worst sea that I found in my many marine miles. As soon as we leave the relative shelter of the island, we face a sea 6 and a harsh wind from the NE, that is, from the bow, between thirty-five and forty knots. Do not think that was so bad, because with the size of the wave, the most prudent thing was to attack it head-on, which was close to the ideal heading. The ship was traveling at approximately eight knots until she encountered a wall about seven meters high, ran over her, the deck was flooded and the bridge received the rest. She came out as half beaten at three knots on the other side and a few minutes later, the scene was repeated. Life became very uncomfortable and it was difficult to sleep, even more to stand still, from cooking to eating. The rudder had to be carried by hand to study each wave and face it as well as possible. The dizziness spread among the people and the bunks worked hard. The whole day passed like this. The cook had foreseen his possible disappearance from the places of his trade and had left enough food made for that day, which each one tasted as best he could: sandwiches were made and soda and wine were drunk even in the glasses. The guards were rigorously organized, because there were not many left to carry the wheel. Photographers and videographers would appear from time to time, document what was presented to them, and return to their cabins. The night continued so sinister, with the disadvantage or advantage of not seeing so well the liquid monster that was coming upon us at all times. I reiterate that it was not a storm, but a normal time in the area; the sky was already overcast, but it was not raining and there was no electrical activity. During the early hours and morning of the 12th the conditions, which did not seem like they could be worse, worsened. The wind increased to forty sustained knots and borne to the west, and the wave increased to about nine meters with a breaker -the bow measures about four and a half from the waterline-, which forced us to continue facing it with the new course, because when we tried to return to the optimum, the rolls, which were repeated from thirty degrees to each band, increased to fifty (the record was 54 degrees) which was simply destructive. The wardrobes and drawers were opened as if they had goblins inside who wanted to flee; in the kitchen it was impossible to get a plate out without rolling a lot; the freezer and a refrigerator were detached from their fixings and had to be locked with wood, which turned the place into an obstacle course to merely look for bread and cheese. Vairo managed to get two rump tails into the oven and later I was able to organize a large pot half filled with soup that hit the edges as if it had a shark in it. Heating coffee or tea in the microwave was a rare feat of that gimbals balance to believe or bust. Those who had bunks parallel to the crunch ended up on the floor several times and those of us who had been crossed to the crunch slept almost standing on the side and upside down on the opposite side. Losing your glasses or a sock was an almost insoluble drama and I don't tell you what it was like to go to the bathroom. Those who sail are unaware of the annihilating power of the roll. It is much but that the pitch, more tiring, less predictable. In an attempt to stop the inverted pendulum, we hoisted the smallest blade of the mizzen, but a malignant fifty-knot streak turned it into fringes. The wind was rotating to the NW but did not let up. Luckily the fuel filters worked admirably because with those shaking in the tanks the mother was stirring. Stopping the engine in these circumstances would have been very dangerous, because a silly ship, crossed into that unleashed sea, could be in a compromised situation. But both the noble eight-cylinder and the machinists pounding each other down there never loosened. On the 13th throughout the morning the macabre dance continued and only around 1400 did it subside a bit, leaving both the sea and the wind at force 7, which allowed us to improve our course by taking the waves a little more like a table of " surf "with those theories of sliding down them that Vito Dumas had invented and that Bernard Moitessier had copied when they had to sail the South Pacific. "Surfing" with three hundred tons sounds like a camel, but it is achieved and there is a relief in the blows, although towards the end of each descent, the roller takes its revenge. However, it was important to improve the course to fall east of Cape Horn and sink the Beagle. The afternoon was somewhat more benign and the ship was able to maintain better speed, but no matter how much effort we made, we could not avoid biting the sea zone that the Antarctic Treaty granted to Chile, in the twelve miles of Hornos, but do not tell it to no one, because what urged us was to enter a more placated sea. When we had Evout, Theralten and Lennox, Picton and Nueva through, people came back to life and they all appeared, even wanting to eat. The kitchen started working again - how important is the primitive need to eat when trench circumstances have reigned - and at a quarter past nine in the morning of Tuesday, February 14, we took port in that blessed place with its own climate that is Ushuaia

LOWER THE CURTAIN, THE ACTORS GREET WITH A REVERENCE AND MAKE A MUTIS ON THE FORUM With the ship still and moored, the scene changed. The crew that had come exclusively for the Antarctic stage was reeling off and went down to take planes that would return them to their homes, where each one would tell their version and the secrets of him that we will probably never know. By the way I cannot name them all, but Jorge and Guillermo May deserve special mention, the trainers of the Association for Scientific Exploration, without whose idea and drive a trip of this nature could never have been made, the fundamental guide for Carlos's itinerary. Vairo and the Maritime Museum of Ushuaia, and Captain Marcelo Marienhoff for his insomniac work. We must also thank the members of the association, who support and sustain it from their most varied personal activities and especially the professionals of the ship: Marciano Benítez, the man with the machine; Alberto "Beto" Jiménez, handyman for the deck, electricity, machinery and other mechanisms of this complicated miniature merchant ship; Freddy Becerra, deckhand, cabin and interior manager and good storm helmsman, as well as Juan Escobar, in similar roles and, of course, the exquisite mediator between pleasure and hunger, chef-cook Federico Dreher. Two words remain to be said about the Antarctica that we found. I already commented that the warming in its climate is dramatically noticeable, the amount of snow and icebergs, and the softening of the glaciers (in which planes with skis can no longer land, as they did before) that we were able to compare, some with 2003 and I personally, in addition, with my experiences of 1987 and 1996. There is also the unstoppable increase of the industry called without chimneys, which in Antarctica curiously has them: the tourist ships with theirs and the hundreds of landing boats that carry to walk around perhaps two thousand people every summer, which has changed the mood of the inhabitants of the bases, who before allowing disembarkation limit the number of visitors and I do not know if it has altered the penguins, because they are still so stupid as always. However, the Antarctic Treaty is still in force and is being complied with, except in these unforeseen interstices and the bases of the different countries neatly respect its wise rules. The conclusions and studies carried out by the Ice Lady Patagonia will be published in the corresponding scientific media and we hope that Green Cross International will be successful with its defense of fresh water against the cyclops of the world who look at it with only one eye (the pocket one) when they are it deals with your own finances.

2007

MARITIME HISTORY AND ARCHEOLOGY

HISTORICAL WHALE SETTLEMENTS STUDY EXPEDITION IN ARGENTINA ANTARCTICA

ANTARCTIC CAMPAIGN JANUARY 2007

Note from the newspaper "HOY" of La Plata, March 11, 2007

Carlos Vairo in search of the first visitors to Antarctica The iceberg researcher

The museologist who runs "the prison" of Ushuaia and studied at UNLP returned from leading a new international expedition in search of the traces left by the first whale, wolf and seal hunters. Many of the finds were made possible by the thaw: two new natural harbors, boats, remains of barrels, bones, moorings and even steel cables. Footprints left in the ice by old sailors who could never return.

The experience of leading an international expedition was very good for Vairo. “When you are organizing and you are about to leave there is a lot of nervousness, impatience, anguish and even fear. But once in Antarctica, everything becomes more harmonious because everyone understands how harsh it is and recognizes the authority of the most veteran ”.

"I could say that my job is like doing a detective investigation." Carlos Vairo is like a hardened sailor, although his arts are not those of piloting in the storm, or avoiding blocks of ice in the Antarctic Sea. He knows the corners of the white continent like few others and is able to identify by small signs, by traces imperceptible to any mortal, the marks left by man in other times.

He is a museologist and anthropologist who studied at the Faculty of Natural Sciences of the National University of La Plata (UNLP), but long ago he settled in Ushuaia, where today he runs the Maritime Museum of the Fuegian capital, which operates in the mythical prison. . But his years of research around the first visitors to Antarctica make him an inescapable reference for any team that wants to go deep into the ice with that same objective.Vairo is a tracker of the tracks left by the first hunters of Antarctica. wolves and seals, British and North Americans, who arrived in the first decades of the 19th century, and whales, mainly Norwegian, who were in the first 30 years of the 20th century.

As such, the Argentine researcher became the leader of the international expedition that set sail on January 29 and returned on February 20 aboard the Ice Lady (the Ice Lady Patagonia), whose departure "Hoy" reported a few weeks prior to departure. The Beagle Channel witnessed the release of moorings in which a heterogeneous passage, of about 40 people including researchers, crew members and artists, went into a new adventure. There were Argentines, Spanish, Portuguese. But since the mission was not limited only to the search for old visitors, famed English photographer Sebastián Copeland, and his actor cousin Orlando Bloom, who became best known for roles such as those played in The Lord of the Rings, were also on board. , Pirates of the Caribbean and Troy.

Objectives met

As a balance of the trip, Vairo told "Hoy" after his return that "the expedition had a great importance because we were able to visit many natural ports where the whalers carried out their work, or which were taken as a landing point". Good part of the objectives could be fulfilled. “Like any expedition, and more so in Antarctica, time and chance help or play against. Luckily, out of a goal of eleven places to study, we reached nine. And this is very good ”, says the researcher. Although he regrets that the unknown of those two ports that had to be deleted from the itinerary will always remain, Vairó is consoled because they were the most likely to be discarded from the beginning given that their historical references were very vague. “We had imprecise, general instructions, such as: in the vicinity of Margarita Bay, and that meant a vast place to go.” The final conclusion is that the places that could be surveyed confirm everything that has been studied and worked on for years. regarding whalers that were on Antarctic soil in the first decades of the 20th century. “And we made specific finds of objects that since 1921 were there and nobody had seen or reported them. Everything helps to reconfirm the historical data that we were finding in archives or contributed by other historians ”.

A ghostly image and a thousand speculations

The image shows the hull of a boat camouflaged with the infinite white of Antarctica. Its silhouette is barely outlined and only the rust color of a mooring chain breaks the monotony. It may be a postcard, but the photo captured in Canal Herrera, on an islet near Cuverville Island contains a story, and the scientific leader of the Ice Lady Patagonia Antarctic campaign speculates around it. "You can see the mooring chain and the cables of a floating factory. Obviously, they left a boat that was used for mooring, they would have an idea of ​​using it again. It is of a very crude construction which, surely, would be made on board. According to our data, it must be in place since 1921, "explains Vairo. But the scientist has several important considerations to make about the boat: on the one hand," we could say that since that date no one returned to the place for research purposes This is why they never found anything, nor did they announce it or photograph it ”. Vairo believes that the expeditions "have been passing near the place without descending to land, since the place can only be reached with rubber boats and with great caution. The signs -for which the expedition decided to descend- we had them by a reddish coloration in a rock, it was as if it had been cut. It was actually a rusty chain, then we saw all the rest. ”Regarding the cables found at the site,“ we assume that with a northern storm they were cut by the factory. They left a boat, what would be its purpose? Did you leave the place thinking of returning? These data will never be confirmed ”.

The Black Nunatak, where the boat was detected, “we can call it a traffic light in Antarctica, since without precise instruments and with very unstable weather it possibly served as a more than remarkable point of reference.” “An entire expedition from Norway can find a good meeting point in it, ”says Vairo. That is, they crossed the world with only a few references and went into Antarctica (a totally unknown world). For them it would be like going to the Moon and being told: when you see an oval crater, wait for us that in a few days we will arrive ”. Regarding the modality of work in the place, Vairo believes, based on his observation, that the whalers worked as a floating factory. “The catchers brought the whales to the floating factory and there they were deposited. In large kettles the fat was melted by boiling it with fresh water. They used up to 300 tons of water per day. ”On this mission“ we were able to observe more things left by those whalers between 1912 and 1924 ”. "The snow, not being so abundant and the removal of the ice, left in sight moorings, vitas, chains, iron marks, and other objects" that suffered the consequences of seven decades on the ice.

A port that was the meeting point

“This is Port Orne on the Antarctic Peninsula. It was a port that was actually a meeting point for the whaling fleets. Especially Christian Andersen. It's very close to Cuverville Island, where we found the boat and the chains. It is a beautiful and protected port used since 1912, which served as a meeting point for the expedition's catchers and ships ”, explains Carlos Vairo.

It is the port that is characterized by having a remarkable point, the Black Nunatak, which is one of the entrance walls. It is a hill about 200 meters high that plummets and never accumulates snow.

What were those findings?

Vairo speaks of the importance of locating two new ports with remains of whaling activity, in which bones of marine mammals, chain ties and steel cables, boats and remains of barrels were detected. “It is clear that everything was abandoned but with the idea of ​​being used later. Not with the idea of ​​leaving and not coming back. ”That return never happened, and it had a lot to do with a global crisis. "The cut off of those first expeditions was abrupt due to the bankruptcy and consequent depression of the years 1929 and 1930, after the great boom that whaling exploitation had."

The age of thaw

The material found there is not yet widely distributed, although a book and a documentary video are expected to be published. But it is not removed from there. "We only limit ourselves to studying it on the spot, photographing it, making plans and graphic reconstructions," explains the researcher, who believes "on the one hand it is a pity because year after year we see the rapid deterioration it suffers." it is directly linked to global warming and climate change. "I can tell you that Antarctica in 2003 is not at all similar to what we saw in this 2007 campaign. Places, islands, ports, coves, which were previously covered with snow and ice, today have mosses and lichens." Vairo mentions as an example what he could see in Port Charcot, in Port Le Francaise, in Port Governoren, and in all the nearby islands. "It's a big change that makes everything made of wood (boats, barges, barrels, sheds) collapse."

The effects of warming and melting of the ice were verified throughout the entire journey. The Ice Lady Patagonia set sail from Ushuaia, but the storm forced it to delay crossing the Drake Passage. The wait was in Harberton, when the weather finally improved, the ship reached Livingston Island and then set off across the Sea to land on Brabant Island, where a port and a bay were studied. The trip continued to Anvers Island, where three more whaling ports were studied, the Schollaret Channel, Leith Port, Andrews Point and False Island, a typical whale slaughter place.

Vairo does not stop listing Antarctic points with the same ease with which he could mention the days of the week. “We continued south to Port Lockroy -he is passionate-, to the Lemaire Channel, to Paradise Bay, where we studied two more ports, to Puerto Neko, to the Herrera Channel that has five ports to study (Cuverville Island, Port Paul, Orne, Anna Cove, Selvick Cove), all whaling places. "In the last stage of the mission the Ice Lady touched Enterprise Island and Nansen Island," where she dived and tours were carried out in which remains were found in quantities. And, finally, it was the turn of Deception Island, the last stop before embarking on a benevolent return crossing through the Drake Channel, in which the sun was the main protagonist.

These are some of the many boats found on the expedition. Known as Water Boats, because they carried fresh water for the steam boilers. They were also used to transport coal, explosives, and food. The vessels in the picture worked for the Governoren's floating factory at Svend Foyn.

Barrels at the mercy of the sun

“These barrels for whale oil fell apart when they dried out. It is because the snow and ice that covered them melted. Therefore, the wood was desiccated. These tanks were used by different whaling companies that operated, mainly on Enterprise Island. ”“ It is evident that the climate changed and the average temperature increased a lot. About 3 degrees. During the whole trip we did not have temperatures below 0º. We can see this reflected in the barrels and other elements that we are finding, since only in 2003 they were under snow and in 1994 we did not even know they were ", says Vairo." The image also indicates that this was left or put before that was covered by snow. They are natural periods of the world. We know that until mid-'75 there was a cooling and now we are in a global warming.

The Governoren floating factory, about 100 meters long, caught fire and sank in late January 1916 at Svend Foyn Island Enterprise. “This is the vessel that we repeatedly dive. She was even the captain's uniform hanging in his cabin. No one had ever dived it. Until we did it for the first time in 2003 ”.

Celebrities on board

One of the anecdotal data from the last Ice Lady Patagonia expedition is the glamor provided by the presence on board of actor Orlando Bloom, and his cousin, photographer Sebastián Copeland. During the trip, both artists worked together to make a video clip for Global Green on global warming, which will have original music by Sting, and will be presented during this International Polar Year. In parallel, Copeland is part of an alert campaign by global warming, and will be taking photos of Antarctica and the Arctic until next May. In the photo, Bloom is baptized, a rite that all who make such a trip for the first time. Behind, operating a camera, Copeland can be seen. The English actor became famous for his role as Legolas, one of the protagonists of The Lord of the Rings. But turned into a fashionable actor in Hollywood, he again triumphed with Troy and Pirates of the Caribbean.

Note from the newspaper EL MUNDO of Spain, March 13, 2007 A Spanish expedition locates the last remains of the whalers that fished in Antarctica

ELMUNDO.ES MADRID.-
After weeks of expedition in the Arctic, the members of the Spanish expedition 'BFGoodrich Antarctica 2007' have returned home with a good part of their objectives covered. They have not only found the last remains of the whalers that fished in the cold waters of the South Pole. In addition, they have managed to identify the 'black Nunatak', the considered Antarctic 'traffic light', a mythical landmark used by cetacean hunters to orient themselves in the Antarctic Peninsula.

The group of researchers, led by Luis Ramos and Carlos Vairo, fished in the waters of the Antarctic Peninsula for three weeks aboard the ship-museum 'Ice Lady Patagonia', following the trail of the first Antarctic settlers, concentrating their exploration in a dozen locations not traveled since the 1920s, in which new human remains of that time were expected to be found.

The main discovery of the researchers came in one of the last exits, in the Errera Channel at the height of parallel 65. The sighting of a large chain and mooring cables on an islet near Curveville Island, gave the clue to reach Port Paul . The expedition members locate the place where the “Palsehola” factory docked at the beginning of the century. The site is of special value, since it was found intact since it was abandoned by its first settlers.

The Puerto Paul natural anchorage - named after the base established there, the Paslehola - was used for the last time in 1921-22 by the 'Sostrief'. The only remains located in the place are a small, rudimentary, five-meter long boat, typical of the time, abandoned along with rusty chains and mooring.

"We are satisfied with the results of the investigation, especially because for decades, minke whale watching tourists and researchers have passed near the place without knowing what was on land," said Luis Ramos.

The shallow depths of the bay gave protection to the whalers for work, since the rocks contained the ice and icebergs, so it is only accessible with rubber boats and with great caution. "We had evidence of human remains by a reddish coloration in a rock with a horizontal shape, as if it were cut", clarified Carlos Pedro Vairo, director of the investigation.

The Palsehola floating factory is the last of the great whaling bases that remained to be located within the Antarctic Peninsula. Most of the whaling industry factory remains are located around Enterprise Island.

Another of the main findings made by the expedition is only 6 kilometers away, in Orne Harbor, a protected port used since 1912 that served as a meeting point for whalers - 'catchers' - and expedition ships. There the expedition members located the Black Nunatak, considered the ‘traffic light of Antarctica’ given that, without precise instruments and with very unstable weather, it was a reference for navigators.

The Nunatak, a 200-meter-high black rock wall that does not accumulate snow, served as a meeting point for whalers from northern Europe (especially Norwegians and British), since “with a simple drawing it was possible to guide the boats through the Gerlache Strait to the black Nunatak and moor in the neighboring port, Orne Harbor, or 6 miles further, along the Errera Channel, to the small island where we have found great moorings ”, explained Vairo.

Researchers, after 14 years visiting Antarctica, have also been able to observe symptoms of the possible effects of climate change in the area, since the investigated places chosen by whalers at the beginning of the 20th century were covered by successive snowfalls and froze, while that during the last visit many of them were exposed again.

03/13/07

Note from the newspaper "BBC Mundo" by Jorge Patiño, February 5, 2007

After the first "Antarctics"

The Ice Lady Patagonia has already carried out other missions to Antarctica. An expedition of Argentines, British and Spanish travels to Antarctica to search for vestiges of its first settlers.

On the Ice Lady Patagonia ship, a ship from the 1950s that served to guard the Finnish coasts during the Cold War and that runs on a hybrid engine (70% fuel and 30% water), a team of 30 people set out for Antarctica from the Argentine city of Ushuaia.

The objective of the expedition is to find traces of the first settlers of the region, who are believed to have arrived during the first decades of the 19th century.

"The seal dogs and wolfhounds that first arrived to the continent with the idea of ​​exploitation were Americans and some British; there was also some Argentine wolfhound. I'm talking about 1820," Marcelo Marienhoff, one of the Argentine expedition members, told BBC Mundo. board.

However, it is believed that there were some who probably arrived before that date.

Marine stories

In two previous expeditions, the ice Lady Patagonia team has found some ancient settlements, and the goal is to continue discovering more. Whale blubber barrels found on a previous expedition. It is believed that these places are not many, since several of them are in the same areas where the international bases are today, because they are one of the few places on the continent that are free of ice for most of the year.

However, there is still room for discovery. Marienhoff says that, "based on the stories or diaries (of the ancient inhabitants) one can infer about the places based on the physical descriptions that are made of the place. Sometimes a letter or a comment said 'I was in a certain place' but 'as so and so calls such a place that I call another way ...' is like looking for a treasure, with little hints ". An important part of the compilation of these texts has been carried out by Carlos Vario, director of the Ushuaia Maritime Museum and member of the expedition, who has managed to locate several letters and blogs in libraries and museums in the United Kingdom, Denmark, France and Spain.

Seals, sea lions, whales and penguins

Seals and sea lions weren't the only animals that drew hunters to southern waters during the 18th century.

Penguins also became a coveted animal for their fat, which was used to turn on street lights before the expansion of electric lighting.

"The whale hunters arrived in Antarctica around 1906 aboard wooden boats, and later in steel ships powered by steam," Carlos Vario told the AFP agency.

About whale blubber, he says it "served as fuel, but also as an essential ingredient for the cosmetic industry and was also used during World War I to make nitroglycerin."

Warm temperatures

The ship has to face the difficult waters of the Drake Channel. The ship had to cross the Drake Passage, the sea that separates Argentina from Antarctica, where it had to wait on Thursday for milder winds to continue, as they exceeded 50 knots, which made progress difficult. However, weather conditions promise to be better on the continent. Marienhoff clarifies that the temperatures are "of the order of 0 degrees; days with temperatures up to 5ºC or -10ºC at night, but they are very reasonable at this time of year." But these conditions are not only caused by the austral summer. It is clear that global warming is clearly noticeable in this part of the planet. "The retreat of the glaciers is remarkable; you can see with the naked eye that there is an ostensible melting in sectors of Antarctica", says Marienhoff, who clarifies that although the expedition he is on is not meteorological or climatological, it is notorious what happens with polar ice.

Note from the newspaper "Clarin" by Carlos Galván, January 25, 2007

To the rescue of the history of Antarctica: An Argentine leads a team made up of 29 researchers from around the world Adventure at the South Pole: they will search for sunken ships and human footprints The international mission will depart from Ushuaia on an icebreaker. They will try to find the first human settlements.

Without pomp, almost in silence, the Ice Lady Patagonia set sail from Buenos Aires, an Argentine icebreaker of medium size in which 29 researchers will travel through Antarctica on a mission with a lot of flavor of adventure: they will look for traces of the first settlers of the South Pole. Men from different countries will be part of the expedition - most of them are Spanish - but they will be led by the Argentine Carlos Vairo, a specialist in Antarctic history.

The first inhabitants of the white continent were whale hunters, usually Norwegians and Swedes, who roamed that part of the planet between 1906 and 1931.

"They would arrive at the end of November and leave at the end of March and dock their boats in places that they kept secret to avoid competition from other whalers," Vairo explained. And he added: "They would land and create a settlement, from where they would go hunting in smaller boats."

Vairo has been making trips to Antarctica for the past decade. In those expeditions he also found tracks left a century ago by whalers. "We found thousands of oak barrels perfectly preserved despite the passage of time under a 2-meter layer of ice. They are the kind that whalers used to put the oil they extracted from whales," he recalled.

In addition to barrels, on previous trips they found pipes, bottles of alcoholic beverages (always empty), shoes, sweaters, sailor uniforms and weapons.

This time, in addition to tracking other settlements founded by whalers, they will try to find three American vessels that sank in the mid-19th century. "They were sailing ships that were used to hunt sea lions. I already have an idea of ​​where they may be, but I can't reveal it because I don't want anyone to get ahead of me," Vairo said.

It happens that although they were not luxury boats but work boats, they could still hide treasures. For example the weapons that were used to hunt the wolves, which today are worth thousands of dollars.

Norwegian and Swedish whalers began touring the South Pole in the early 20th century, when whales were becoming scarce at the North Pole. Whaling had been on the rise since the Norwegian sailor Sven Foyn had invented, in 1865, the spear-spear cannon, which fired a steel hook.

The hunters departed daily in small boats called "catchers." They chased and killed the whales and towed them to where they had settled. There they were slaughtered and the oil was extracted, which was used as fuel and lubricant and in the production of nitroglycerin.

Last week, when he left Buenos Aires, only six of his crew were traveling on the Ice Lady Patagonia. It will arrive in Ushuaia tomorrow, where the researchers will embark on Monday. There are Spaniards, Argentines, Portuguese and Americans. Most are divers and mountaineering experts. There are also glacier specialists.

The icebreaker features a robot with a video camera that will dive into the icy waters in search of vestiges of sunken ships. If they detect something, then it will be the divers' turn.

"When you get in and until you get used to it, you feel like stabs in the face because the water is so cold. And little by little you start to get numb; you can't stay more than 20 minutes," says Vairo. The water temperature at this time ranges between 0 and 2 degrees.

The expedition will last until February 18. They already have an itinerary, but it is flexible: the cruelty of the weather can force them to change their route.

Researchers start with the assurance that some of the sites they will go to have not been visited by anyone in the last 100 years. The idea they have is to make inventories of what they find, but they do not plan to make their locations public.

The reason? "What we would like the least - explained Carlos Vairo - is for these places to be transformed into places of interest for tourist excursions and for everyone who goes to bring something as a souvenir."