Whalers Cove, Deception Island

After re-boarding the Resolution, we blew into Whalers Cove through Neptune's Bellows. (The cove, with 3 rock islands, including my Madonna Rock, on the lower right, is where we visited the Chinstrap colony.)

Deception Island is roughly circular and horseshoe-shaped, large, volcanic caldera. The center has been flooded by the sea forming a large bay called Port Foster or Whalers Cove. The volcanic island is occasionally active. Ash eruptions seriously damaged scientific stations in 1967, 1969 and 1970. Neptunes Bellows is the 500 meter wide entrance to the caldera. Raven's Rock, in the middle of the channel, lies only 2.5 meters below the surface. 

Neptunes Bellows

Still damp from our Chinstrap Penguin zodiac ride, I really did not want to go out into the rain and wind. I hung out in the bridge during this passage and took all pictures from the inside.

Skirting the cliff to avoid Raven's Rock

Our plotted and actual course

Deception island was the focal point of a large scale fur-sealing industry between 1819-1825. While the island did not have a large seal population, it was a perfect natural harbour, mostly free of ice and winds, and a convenient rendezvous point. Massive overhunting meant the seals were near extinction in the South Shetlands within a few years. In 1904 an active whaling industry was established. By 1908, several hundred men lived on Deception island during the Antarctic summers. This was the only successful shore based whale industry to operate in Antarctica.

I can't imagine several hundred men hunting whales in dingys and living in tents and shacks in this desolate place. It must have been a foul life.

Tanks for rendering whale oil.

In 1941 a British warship destroyed the oil tanks and remaining supplies to ensure Whalers Cove could not be used as a German Supply base.