Deception Island

Genny and I with Deception island in the background (Thanks for the mittens, Liz!)

Neptune's Bellows, the entrance to Deception Island

Neptune's Window, viewed from outside the island, through which (apocryphally) Nathaniel Palmer saw the Antarctic Peninsula for the first time

The wreck of a ship that didn't make it through the Bellows (Look closely, it's there)

The remains of Whaler's Bay, the abandoned British station inside Deception Island

The island is active volcano, as evidenced by the steam on the shore line

These were originally used to hold whale oil, then were used to hold fuel when they ran out of whales

The equipment used to render the whale oil and to dry bird guano (used in gunpowder and fertilizer)

The last grave at Whaler's Bay (all the rest were covered in lava the last time the volcano erupted)

What's left of the living quarters

Genny and I, with Neptune's Window in the background

The airplane hangar (the runway has been covered with lava)

Fur seals on an old whaling boat

Barrels used for transporting whale oil

A view of Deception Island from Neptune's Window

Paul building a pool to take advantage of the volcanically warmed water

Paul, Jon, Bob, Russell, Kevin and Christian

A visitor

Rebecca, Kirstie and Eric enjoy their own pool

Fur seal

Gentoo Penguin

Gentoos coming ashore, with a good perspective on the old station behind them

**Note: Most of the photos were taken by Jon Brack (because my camera was broken :( . Please don't reproduce them in anyway without his permission**

We were very lucky to have the opportunity to stop at Deception Island on our return trip to Chile. Deception is a small, volcanic island off the coast of Antarctica, so named because it looked deceptively easy to sail into for safe harbor. Reportedly, the first person to find the safe route into the island was Nathaniel Palmer, an American sealer for whom Palmer station and the ARSV N. B. Palmer were later named for.

There is a large collection of old buildings and equipment still on the island, left over from when it was a whaling station. When it stopped being profitable to make and sell whale oil, the station was abandoned (1931). The British opened a research station on the site in 1944 as did the Chileans. Both these stations were occupied until 1969 when a volcanic eruption caused them to be abandoned. There are currently only two active station inside the island, one Spanish and one Chilean, both operated only during the summer season.

If any of you read the Smithsonian magazine, you will have seen the article on Antarctic fungus in the May issue. We had two researchers on board who were collecting samples for Dr Blanchette and because of bad weather on the way down to Palmer, they hadn't been able to finish their collections at Whaler's Bay. We were allowed to go ashore and explore the remains of the station and hike up to look through Neptune's Window while the researchers collected their samples.

I thought it was interesting to see everything that we as humans have brought into this tiny island to make it livable and profitable, and that in the end, we are there on nature's terms, not our own.