Corbeta Uruguay base

Corbeta Uruguay base was an Argentine military outpost established in November 1976 on Thule Island, Southern Thule, in the South Sandwich Islands.

The Corbeta Uruguay station on Southern Thule, 1981
Spanish-language map. Isla Morrell is Thule Island
CIA map of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, Southern Thule group are bottom right

History
Teniente Esquivel Station in 1955

Earlier, in January 1955, Argentina had established the summer station, Teniente Esquivel, at Ferguson Bay on the southeastern coast. That station was evacuated in January 1956 because of a volcanic eruption on the neighboring Cook Island.

The Corbeta Uruguay base was established, in 1976, by the military dictatorship governing Argentina to reinforce the Argentine territorial claims on British-held territory in the South Atlantic. The British government became aware of the base in December 1976[1] but sought a diplomatic solution to the issue until 1982.

Early in the Falklands War, 32 special forces troops from Corbeta Uruguay were brought by the Argentine Navy ship Bahía Paraíso to South Georgia and landed at Leith Harbour on March 25, 1982.

Corbeta Uruguay remained manned by Argentine personnel until June 20, 1982, when British forces, after victory over Argentina in the Falklands War, sent a task force to Thule Island to end the Argentine presence. After the Argentine garrison at Corbeta Uruguay surrendered, Thule Island was emptied and the facility left unmanned. In December 1982, it was mostly demolished by the Royal Navy after a patrolling warship (HMS Hecate) discovered that someone had taken down the Union Flag from the base flagpole and run up the flag of Argentina.[2]

The name honoured the Argentine corvette ARA Uruguay that rescued Otto Nordenskjöld and his crew in 1903 in the Antarctic Peninsula, near the present-day Esperanza Base. This ship is now a floating museum, permanently berthed in Puerto Madero, Buenos Aires.

See also

References
  1. Lawrence Freedman (2005). The Official History of the Falklands Campaign: The origins of the Falklands war. Psychology Press. p. 76. ISBN 978-0-7146-5206-1.
  2. Jeff Rubin. Antarctica. Lonely Planet, 2008. p. 258. ISBN 9781741045499

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