Antarctic Colonies?

Let's assume that James Cook discovers and claims Antarctica for Britain in 1773. The ARW proceeds as OTL, and Britain needs a new penal colony. Would there be any reason for attempting to set up prisons in the sub-antarctic islands or on the continent itself?
 
I can think of many reasons not to.

Starting with the need to import most of the food, all the firewood, and all the warm clothing, bearing in mind while planning all this that the place will be swathed in ice and impenetrable darkness for six months straight.

The only plus side would be that guarding wouldn't be an issue. Where would anyone escape to?
 

Germaniac

Donor
I can think of many reasons not to.

Starting with the need to import most of the food, all the firewood, and all the warm clothing, bearing in mind while planning all this that the place will be swathed in ice and impenetrable darkness for six months straight.

The only plus side would be that guarding wouldn't be an issue. Where would anyone escape to?

That was the point of Austrailia
 
The first response that comes to my mind is, it would be easier and cheaper just to hang their convicts rather than ship them to places that would kill them almost as surely.

In addition to getting felons out of Britain, and the deterrent to crime this terrible punishment provided, it also meant labor forces for various colonial schemes.

I imagine that people could be kept alive, in no great comfort to be sure, in coastal Antarctica or on some of the islands around--provided food and other necessities were constantly being shipped in. But I don't see how the transportees could possibly feed themselves, let alone have any surplus labor left over for some money-making enterprise. If they are to be fed, the cost would be high, and there had better be some highly profitable product they could make with all the time freed up by having their food hauled to them, to pay for it.

Considering that we are coming up on 250 years since Cook first sighted the last continent, and in all that time no one I can think of has ever based any sort of profitable enterprise on Antarctic resources, except perhaps a few whalers and seal-hunters, I have to doubt that the late 18th century British authorities would be more clever.
 
Let's assume that James Cook discovers and claims Antarctica for Britain in 1773. The ARW proceeds as OTL, and Britain needs a new penal colony. Would there be any reason for attempting to set up prisons in the sub-antarctic islands or on the continent itself?

No, they would still use OTL Australia (which would have a different name in TTL, as the continent we call Antactica would likely bear that name) for numerous reasons.
 
I can think of many reasons not to.

Starting with the need to import most of the food, all the firewood, and all the warm clothing, bearing in mind while planning all this that the place will be swathed in ice and impenetrable darkness for six months straight.

The only plus side would be that guarding wouldn't be an issue. Where would anyone escape to?

I get the issue with wood. That's a major problem, and, although they could ship in wood from South Africa, the prisoners would have to live somewhat without it. If that's even possible.

On the other hand, agriculture or at least horticulture somehow seems plausible, given that greenhouses could somewhat sustain low prisoner populations and don't require technology beyond what is available circa 1800. Hemp could be used for all kinds of things, potentially replacing wood except for heating. Perhaps if they used guano...

I think the convenience aspect would be the sell, though. Consider being able to spend a few months setting up colonies in return for being able to literally ship off prisoners to some forsaken place where they're forced to live under very harsh circumstances. Potentially the government could start trading wood for seal pelts or the cultivation of rare plants and have a source of income from there as well.

The colonies wouldn't flourish, and they'd be totally dependent on the rest of the empire for their existence. It would be the opposite of America, which may well be a good reason for Britain to do it.

It would make a great cruel experiment, I think.
 
I've sometimes pictured 20th-century Chilean or Argentinian dictatorships setting up prison camps in the Antarctic Peninsula, in a world where the claims of ownership are a little better resolved. Mostly as a way of terrorizing dissidents.
 
Interesting. If there were a way for some crazed politician to get the funding to set up "societal experimentation" in such an isolated environment and the prisoners didn't kill each other...
 
When in the year would he have come across it and in what area? Seems that their would be too much ice for him to reach land.
 
I've sometimes pictured 20th-century Chilean or Argentinian dictatorships setting up prison camps in the Antarctic Peninsula, in a world where the claims of ownership are a little better resolved. Mostly as a way of terrorizing dissidents.
I could swear I've read a graphic novel about this, but I can't remember the author (Argentinian?) nor title.

But I like (as a story, I mean) the idea of marrooning prisoners into the Antarctic. Let's say some British ship sails the Antarctic Ocean, has a mutiny aboard, and the loosing party gets disembarked...
 
I get the issue with wood. That's a major problem, and, although they could ship in wood from South Africa, the prisoners would have to live somewhat without it. If that's even possible.

On the other hand, agriculture or at least horticulture somehow seems plausible, given that greenhouses could somewhat sustain low prisoner populations and don't require technology beyond what is available circa 1800. Hemp could be used for all kinds of things, potentially replacing wood except for heating. Perhaps if they used guano...

That much glass and iron would be massively expensive, plus greenhouses only help with heat really - you'd still have all your plants suffering during the darkness of winter.

If you really want a small inescapable prison then Britain already has a bunch of South Atlantic islands.
 

Mathuen

Banned
Even if all of the problems pertaining to surviving on Antarctica were dealt with, colonizing it (even as a prison colony) wouldn't work. This is because of the negative effects that Antarctica and places like it have on the human psyche.

Stay there for too long and... well... it never ends well. That place takes in good healthy people and spits out crazed, dead-eyed shells of human beings.

It would be more humane just to shoot them.
 
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Lycaon has it.
A 19th century colony is just madness. It might be possible in terms of technology but it would take a hell of a lot of effort and money, lots of shipping in supplies.
20th century though...yeah. Its a bit less difficult and I could well see a dictatorship trying it...hell, doesn't Argentina right now have a bit of an Antarctic colony?
 
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