Thule Island - Argentine Occupation

Argentine Occupation

See also: Southern Thule.

Argentina, in order to assert its claim over the South Sandwich Islands, established the summer station Teniente Esquivel at Ferguson Bay on the Southeastern coast on January 25, 1955. The station had to be evacuated in January 1956 because of volcanic eruption. In 1976, it established a military base on Thule Island called Corbeta Uruguay (Port Faraday) in the lee (southern East coast) of the island. The British discovered the presence of the Argentine base in 1976 but chose to pursue a diplomatic solution to the issue until 1982. The base was occupied by British Forces in the aftermath of the Falklands War and eventually destroyed in 1982.