Stonington & Horseshoe Islands

Typically we would have two excursions per day, one after breakfast and one after lunch. Our first landing was on Stonington Island where we were able to explore two historic huts. The first was British Antarctic Survey Station E which was famous for its surveying work in the late 1940s and early 1950s. Our ship had an excellent historian on board, Victoria Salem, and she was always around with tons of information about all of the huts we visited. At this particular location most of the surveying work was done via dogsled! And this hut was active as recently as 1960. The second hut on Stonington Isl. is the United States East Base, the earliest remaining US hut in Antarctica and the location where the first women to winter in Antarctica lived. The women were accompanying their husbands and Victoria told us that the legend is that the men did not get along, so the women refused to speak to each other out of loyalty to their husbands. It must have been a long winter!

After lunch we landed at Horseshoe Island where we saw another of the British Antarctic Survey's base. This station studied geology & meteorology in addition to surveying the local area.