Corbeta Uruguay

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Corbeta Uruguay was the name of an Argentine military outpost established in November 1976 on the British island of Morrell, Southern Thule, in the South Sandwich Islands. The base was established at the order of the then-military junta governing Argentina as a way to back up its territorial claims on British territory in the South Atlantic.

Corbeta Uruguay remained under Argentine administration until June 20, 1982, when British forces – fresh from their victory over Argentina in the Falkland Islands – sent a task force to Southern Thule to end the Argentine presence. After the Argentine garrison at Corbeta Uruguay surrendered, the base and island were emptied of all personnel and left unmanned until December 1982, when it was mostly demolished by the Royal Navy after a patrolling warship discovered that someone had taken down the Union Jack from the base flagpole and run up the Argentine Flag in its place.

The name honours the Argentine corvette that rescued Otto Nordenskjöld and his crew in 1903 in the Antarctic Peninsula, near the present-day Esperanza Base. [1]