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-- This is a real story. --

Whaling Base in Deception Isle

whalers bay
On the right side of the photo, there are several large tanks, while on the left, there's a building resembling a factory or an airplane hangar. An orange object, which looks like airplane wreckage, lies next to the left wall of the building.

This whaling station, established in 1906 by Norwegian and Chilean companies, was closed in 1931 due to the advent of whale factory ships and the collapse in whale oil prices.

You can read this episode on the "22. Silver Ring" page.



EXPLANATION

Let’s look at some more photos of the remains of the whaling station mentioned in the story. Ideally, I would show you my own photos, but I don’t have many; I was sailing and working in ports and couldn't afford enough film. So, I've included some copyright-free photos from the internet.

 

whalers bay

(image by Cris originally posted to Flickr as PC275119 CC BY-SA 2.0)

Just to the right after entering the island is the site of the whaling station in Whalers Bay. Closed around 1930, the station now lies in ruins. In the center, there's a rusty oil tank whose size can be gauged by comparing it to the gray building on the right. On the left side of the photo, there's a building with a rusty roof, and in front of it, slightly to the right, is an unidentifiable dark brown mass. The photo below appears to show this area.

deception island tanks

(image by wili hybrid   http://www.flickr.com/photos/wili/  CC BY 2.0)

These appears to be boilers from the whaling station, likely used to heat whale fat and extract oil. It was probably located indoors, but the wooden structure has decayed, leaving only the iron boiler. It felt like visiting a future Earth, witnessing the remnants of a lost civilization. What would it feel like to sail to this uninhabited island and stand alone in a place like this?

You can see the current state of the whaling station ruins, including the buildings and tanks, in the satellite image below.


Here is the graveyard, believed to contain the graves of 45 people. In the early 20th century, many people lived here.

graves in Deception island

What kind of lives did they lead? They left their homelands far behind, worked at the end of the world in the Antarctic, and died here, where they still rest. This photo was taken in 1962. The graveyard was destroyed in the 1969 eruption, and only part of it seems to remain today.

deception base

( Picture published by the author Lyubomir Ivanov  CC BY-SA 3.0)

This is likely the ruins of a British base in the same bay as the whaling station, reportedly damaged in the 1969 eruption. The five team members present at the time are said to have run to a rescue helicopter, shielding themselves with corrugated iron sheets from falling volcanic rocks. According to the British Antarctic Pilot, the building was destroyed by lava and ice that slid down the mountain due to the eruption's heat.

The building in the background still retains its shape, but there seems to have been another structure in front of it. The foreground might show the concrete foundation of a destroyed building.


The background of this page is a photo of snow taken in the Antarctic.

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