Part III: Antarctica and Academe - Scott Polar Research Institute

On 20 December he visited Leith Harbour aboard the Argentine naval
icebreaker AImirante Irizar. he went ashore to make a brief inspection, and they then
departed. Neither he nor the ship's master, Captain Trombetta, made contact with
the Magistrate at Grytviken, and the landing was therefore illegal under contractual,
local and international laws. The Magistrate, Peter Witty, BAS Base Commander at
Grytviken, reported the visit to Governor Hunt in Port Stanley on 23 December and
on 31 December Hunt recommended to the Foreign & Commonwealth Office (FCO)
that a protest be made to the Argentine government and that Davidoff be prosecuted.
A few days later the FCO instructed Ambassador Sir Anthony Williams to deliver a
strong protest and told Hunt he was not to initiate legal proceedings against
Davidoff. On 6 January Williams met with officials of the Argentine Ministry of
Foreign Affairs who deny any knowledge of the Almirante Irizar visit. (The formal
protest about the landing was not delivered until 9 February and it was rejected by
the Argentine Government on 18 February). In early February, according to post-war
reports, the Argentine junta secretly agreed a proposal by Admiral Anaya for the
seizure of the Falkland Islands; the plan to be carried out several months later.
Visit of the Yacht 'Caiman' to South Georgia, February/ March l982.
Two members of that season’s Joint Services Expedition to South Georgia (P. Veal,
leader, and T. Scrimgour) visited Leith Harbour on 13 February in the course of
filming the whaling Stations of the island. There they encountered three yachts at the
Coronda Pier. Two, Isatis and Kim, were French and had previously completed entry
and other formalities; the third was the Caiman. Kim had been granted a customs
clearance on 6 February but her presence at Leith Harbour was 'irregular’.
The Joint Services Expedition members visited the yachts, gathered an amount of
information concerning them and their activities. They returned to Husvik Harbour
on 15 February, where the situation at Leith was described to a British Antarctic
Survey field party (David Walton and Bob Headland) who reported it that evening to
the Magistrate (Peter Witty) at King Edward Point by radio. Witty travelled to by
launch to Carlita Bay, thence overland to Husvik on the morning of 16 February.
Joining up with the BAS field -party, he continued to Leith Harbour arriving
approximately at noon. They occupied the BAS accommodation, which had
previously been established in the Manager's Villa, and then visited the three yachts.
Regardless of previous warnings and knowing that it illegal the master of' the yacht
Isatis had killed two reindeer and prepared the meat and skins. The yacht Kim was
reminded that she should have departed from the colony ten days previously and
ordered to so, which she did on the 17th. Both French yachts were well known to
King Edward Point and had been of some assistance to BAS in controlling the theft of
items from the accommodation and several other matters. Accordingly appropriate
admonitions were delivered and no further action was taken.
Caiman, however, was altogether a different case. Her master and crew were
contacted at about 14.00. The first items noticed on boarding were two taff-rails (old
carved wooden structures identified as belonging to the hulk Brutus at Prince Olav
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