Corbeta Uruguay was the
Argentine military outpost established in November 1976 on the 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. Britain discovered the base in December 1976 but sought a diplomatic solution to the issue until 1982.
At an early stage of the Falklands Conflict, 32 special forces troops from Corbeta Uruguay were brought by the Argentine Navy ship Bahía Paraiso to South Georgia and landed at Leith Harbour on March 25, 1982.
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, Southern Thule island was emptied of all personnel and the facility 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 Flag from the base flagpole and run up the Argentine Flag in its place.
The name honours the Argentine corvette ARA Uruguay that rescued Otto Nordenskjöld and his crew in 1903 in the Antarctic Peninsula, near the present-day Esperanza Base.
