United Kingdom Antarctic Heritage Trust

Last updated
United Kingdom Antarctic Heritage Trust
AbbreviationUKAHT
Legal statusCharity
Patron: Princess Anne, The Princess Royal
Chief Executive: Camilla Nichol
Website www.ukaht.org

The United Kingdom Antarctic Heritage Trust (UKAHT) is a British charity, registered in 1993 and re-registered in 2015. [1] The UKAHT is a member of the Antarctic Heritage Trust coalition. The UKAHT's Patron is Princess Anne, The Princess Royal.

Contents

The organization's stated goals are as follows:

Projects

Port Lockroy (Historic Site No. 61 under the Antarctic Treaty) is operated as a museum and post office (on behalf of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office) by UK Antarctic Heritage Trust during the austral summer. Proceeds from the gift shop fund the repair and conservation of this site and others on the Antarctic Peninsula.

In 2004, the New Zealand Antarctic Heritage Trust began a comprehensive restoration project in the Ross Sea region of Antarctica, focussing on huts belonging to explorers of the region. Although the New Zealand branch of the Trust has operational responsibility for the project, the UK Trust is a supporter of the efforts which include the preservation of huts belonging to Sir Ernest Shackleton and Robert Falcon Scott (both British explorers).

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ross Island</span> Island in Ross Sea, Antarctica

Ross Island is an island in Antarctica lying on the east side of McMurdo Sound and extending 43 nautical miles from Cape Bird on the north to Cape Armitage on the south, and a like distance from Cape Royds on the west to Cape Crozier on the east. The island is entirely volcanic. Mount Erebus, 3,795 metres (12,451 ft), near the center, is an active volcano. Mount Terror, 3,230 metres (10,600 ft), about 20 nautical miles eastward, is an extinct volcano. Mount Bird rises to 1,765 metres (5,791 ft) just south of Cape Bird. Ross Island lies within the boundary of Ross Dependency, an area of Antarctica claimed by New Zealand.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">British Antarctic Territory</span> British Overseas Territory

The British Antarctic Territory (BAT) is a sector of Antarctica claimed by the United Kingdom as one of its 14 British Overseas Territories, of which it is by far the largest by area. It comprises the region south of 60°S latitude and between longitudes 20°W and 80°W, forming a wedge shape that extends to the South Pole, overlapped by the Antarctic claims of Argentina and Chile. The claim to the region has been suspended since the Antarctic Treaty came into force in 1961.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Operation Tabarin</span> Secret British expedition to the Antarctic during WWII

Operation Tabarin was the code name for a secret British expedition to the Antarctic during World War Two, operational 1943–46. Conducted by the Admiralty on behalf of the Colonial Office, its primary objective was to strengthen British claims to sovereignty of the British territory of the Falkland Islands Dependencies (FID), to which Argentina and Chile had made counter claims since the outbreak of war. This was done by establishing permanently occupied bases, carrying out administrative activities such as postal services and undertaking scientific research. The meteorological observations made aided Allied shipping in the South Atlantic Ocean.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition</span> 1955–58 expedition to Antarctica

The Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition (CTAE) of 1955–1958 was a Commonwealth-sponsored expedition that successfully completed the first overland crossing of Antarctica, via the South Pole. It was the first expedition to reach the South Pole overland for 46 years, preceded only by Amundsen's expedition and Scott's expedition in 1911 and 1912.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wiencke Island</span> Antarctic island

Wiencke Island is an island 26 km (16 mi) long and from 3 to 8 km wide, about 67 km2 (26 sq mi) in area, the southernmost of the major islands of the Palmer Archipelago, lying between Anvers Island to its north across the Neumayer Channel and the west coast of the Antarctic Peninsula to its east across the Gerlache Strait.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stonington Island</span> Island in Antarctica

Stonington Island is a rocky island lying 1.8 km (1.1 mi) northeast of Neny Island in the eastern part of Marguerite Bay off the west coast of Graham Land, Antarctica. It is 0.75 km (0.47 mi) long from north-west to south-east and 0.37 km (0.23 mi) wide, yielding an area of 20 ha. It was formerly connected by a drifted snow slope to Northeast Glacier on the mainland. Highest elevation is Anemometer Hill which rises to 25 m (82 ft).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Scott's Hut</span> Antarctic base

Scott's Hut is a building located on the north shore of Cape Evans on Ross Island in Antarctica. It was erected in 1911 by the British Antarctic Expedition of 1910–1913 led by Robert Falcon Scott.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Research stations in Antarctica</span>

Multiple governments have set up permanent research stations in Antarctica and these bases are widely distributed. Unlike the drifting ice stations set up in the Arctic, the current research stations of the Antarctic are constructed either on rocks or on ice that are fixed in place.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">James Marr (biologist)</span> Scottish marine biologist and polar explorer

James William Slessor Marr was a Scottish marine biologist and polar explorer. He was leader of the World War 2 British Antarctic Expedition Operation Tabarin during its first year, 1943–1945.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Port Lockroy</span> A harbour on Wiencke Island in the west of the Antarctic Peninsula.

Port Lockroy is a bay forming a natural harbour on the north-western shore of Wiencke Island in the Palmer Archipelago to the west of the Antarctic Peninsula. The Antarctic base with the same name, situated on Goudier Island in this bay, includes the most southerly operational post office in the world. The base was left unstaffed from 2020 to 2022 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, though the museum house remained open to individual visits. On 4 October 2022 it was announced that a team of 4 women had been chosen to return to open the base for the summer 2022/23 season.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cape Adare</span> Peninsula of East Antarctica

Cape Adare is a prominent cape of black basalt forming the northern tip of the Adare Peninsula and the north-easternmost extremity of Victoria Land, East Antarctica.

The Antarctic Heritage Trust (New Zealand) was founded in 1987 and is the oldest member of the Antarctic Heritage Trust coalition. The AHT-NZ is an independent charitable trust based in Christchurch, New Zealand. It was created to care for sites important to the history of the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration located in the Ross Sea region of Antarctica.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Winter Quarters Bay</span>

Winter Quarters Bay is a small cove of McMurdo Sound, Antarctica, located 2,200 miles (3,500 km) due south of New Zealand at 77°50'S. The harbor is the southernmost port in the Southern Ocean and features a floating ice pier for summer cargo operations. The bay is approximately 250m wide and long, with a maximum depth of 33m. The name Winter Quarters Bay refers to Robert Falcon Scott's National Antarctic Discovery Expedition (1901–04) which wintered at the site for two seasons.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cape Royds</span> Landform on Ross Island, Antarctica

Cape Royds is a dark rock cape forming the western extremity of Ross Island, facing on McMurdo Sound, Antarctica. It was discovered by the British National Antarctic Expedition (BrNAE) (1901–1904) and named for Lieutenant Charles Royds, Royal Navy, who acted as meteorologist on the expedition. Royds subsequently rose to become an Admiral and was later Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, London. This cape was the site of Shackleton's Hut, the expedition camp of the British Antarctic Expedition, 1907–09.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Detaille Island</span> Island off the coast of Antarctica

Detaille Island is a small island off the northern end of the Arrowsmith Peninsula in Graham Land, Antarctica. From 1956 to 1959 it was home to "Base W" of the British Antarctic Survey and closed after the end of the International Geophysical Year (IGY). Detaille was a key monitoring sites during the IGY. It is now often visited by Antarctic cruise ships but is otherwise unoccupied.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Discovery Hut</span> Antarctic camp

Discovery Hut was built by Robert Falcon Scott during the Discovery Expedition of 1901–1904 in 1902 and is located at Hut Point on Ross Island by McMurdo Sound, Antarctica. Visitors to Antarctica, arriving at either the US Base at McMurdo or New Zealand's Scott Base are likely to encounter Discovery Hut as both are located on Hut Point. Discovery Hut is just 300m from McMurdo Base. The hut has been designated a Historic Site or Monument, following a proposal by New Zealand and the United Kingdom to the Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shackleton's Hut</span> Antarctic camp

Shackleton's Hut is a historical site near Cape Royds, Ross Island, Antarctica, where the explorer Ernest Shackleton built a hut that housed his party during the winter of 1908.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Winter Island (Antarctica)</span> Island in Wilhelm Archipelago, Antarctica

Winter Island is an island 900 m (980 yd) long, lying 200 m (220 yd) north of Skua Island in the Argentine Islands, Wilhelm Archipelago, off the west coast of Graham Land, Antarctica.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Damoy Point</span> Headland in Antarctica

Damoy Point is a headland 900 metres (980 yd) west-northwest of Flag Point, the northern entrance point to the harbour of Port Lockroy, on the western side of Wiencke Island in the Palmer Archipelago of Antarctica. It was discovered and named by the French Antarctic Expedition, 1903–05, under Jean-Baptiste Charcot.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Antarctica during World War II</span>

International competition extended to the continent of Antarctica during the World War II era, though the region saw no combat. During the prelude to war, Nazi Germany organised the 1938 Third German Antarctic Expedition to preempt Norway's claim to Queen Maud Land. The expedition served as the basis for a new German claim, called New Swabia. A year later, the United States Antarctic Service Expedition established two bases, which operated for two years before being abandoned. Responding to these encroachments, and taking advantage of Europe's wartime turmoil, the nearby nations of Chile and Argentina made their own claims. In 1940 Chile proclaimed the Chilean Antarctic Territory in areas already claimed by Britain, while Argentina proclaimed Argentine Antarctica in 1943 in an overlapping area.

References

  1. "UNITED KINGDOM ANTARCTIC HERITAGE TRUST, registered charity no. 1160847". Charity Commission for England and Wales.