British Tierra del Fuego : Readable Version :

The first version suffered from my tending to write things out of sequence. I'm going to add everything up to Chief Tangaroa's settlement in order, then finish him and do the rest, OK? The timeline starts with the founding of Ushuaia and (for the moment) will end after the four-sided war with Argentina, Peru, Chile and Bolivia in the 1980s. Thereafter, it's in the melting pot. And I will try at least to expand my bulleted lists for WW1 and WW2.

Here we go...
 
The Tale of Fitzroy’s Folly :

When Captain Robert Fitzroy returned to Britain in 1836, he had failed to establish a mission station in Fuego and his protégé Richard Matthews had risked starvation from the ingratitude of the Yaghans. It was a failure that rankled even during the voyage through the Pacific and Indian Ocean, the more so because of Charles Darwin’s remarkable discoveries. The most irritating feature had been that Vernet’s settlement in the windswept and treeless Falklands had not been a complete failure, but was being rescued by the Admiralty as a strategic naval port. No timber, no grazing for much more than sheep, no grain and no real reason for economic development. When Fitzroy compared that with Fuego and the Beagle Channel, he was angry, wanting somehow to recover something from his second voyage. It was a chance remark of Charles Darwin that was to trigger Fitzroy’s decision.

“If the Yaghan won’t let a mission station survive, you may as well establish a settlement and a naval base.” Charles Darwin had told his friend. “Then your missionaries will be safe.”
So Fitzroy approached the Admiralty, again with the support of his uncle the Duke of Grafton, but this time had made a careful accounting of all the points that might count in the favour of a base at Fuego rather than the Falklands.

“...My lords of the Admiralty will understand that, having visited these waters, I have prepared charts of value for this project. In that respect the King’s Navy will have an advantage over the Navies of the former Spanish Dominions and of the French, who have expressed an interest in the River Plate and its Environs. An HMS Fuego naval base could be establish’d there with Great Advantages...”

“...Item, the Beagle Channel is a sheltered area near Cape Horn that could anchor an entire Navy. The best anchorage and harbour site will be at Ush Waia, that is ‘Great Bay’ in the language of the Yaghan natives. The site is Defensible with a few Batteries of Long Guns and some few Carronades against Landings. The site is also Defensible from Attack from the Land, as a foe would face a long march through Terrain easily held by a few men with Musquets...”

“...Item, there are excellent Fresh Water available there for Watering Ship and Standing Timber and Downwood, which can be stored and dried for Firewood. The Native Poplar is a slow-grown close-grained straight tree suitable for Naval Purposes. Charcoal, Pitch and Sawn Timber may be prepared from this Source. Master Darwin has identified Large Deposits of the Brown Coal known as Lignite on Picton Island, not Far Distant from Ush Waia...”

“...Item, the Land is of Reasonable Fertility, as witness the Forests, Grasslands and the Shells from which Lime fertiliser may be burn’t. One might with Advantage set up Farms of Sheep and Cattle and Fields of Vegetables and Anti-Scorbutic Plants, the better to Provision the Base and Passing Commerce. It is also Suitable Ground for the Potato, the Which is a Common Food and might be more Widely Grown...”

“...Item, Staten Island (in the Spanish, Isla de los Estados) and Cape Horn Island (Isla Cabo do Hornos) are seen by Mariners as an Hazard to Navigation. The Brethren of Trinity House are in Firm Agreement that Lighthouses be establish’d there to prevent the Wrecks too common thereabouts. A Third Lighthouse on the Isla do Diego Ramirez is also advis’d...”

“...Item, the Indigenes, the Yaghan, are with Diligence Teachable in the manners of Civilisation and might be Employ’d as Workers. The establishment of a Mission Station to minister to Seamen and to Natives would be a Worthy Adjunct to the Naval Settlement...”

This document became called ‘Fitzroy’s Folly’ in the Admiralty, greatly to his grief, but this attitude was to change when it became aware that the French were taking an interest in the area, triggered by news of the lectures of Charles Darwin. When the Admiralty realised that ships stationed at Fuego would always be to windward of any at the Falklands, interest in ‘Fitzroy’s Folly’ was renewed; the merchants in the City of London were also lobbying for lighthouses and the protection of trade to profitable South America.

But the final influence was to be Juan Manuel de Rosas, the Governor of Buenos Aires Province, who wanted the Malvinas returned to the control of his country. The entitlement of the Argentine to the Malvinas, or Falklands, remains debateable, because until the Vernet Settlement there had only been intermittent occupation. France, Spain and Britain, had all some claim to the Islands. However, Rosas wanted the Islands and in exchange granted Britain freedom to settle ‘another island or islands’ near Isla Cabo do Hornos. This exchange was seen at the time to be of vast benefit to Argentina, but in retrospect was regarded as poor an idea as the Treaty of Utrecht, which granted Gibraltar to Britain in exchange for Menorca.
The Admiralty decided in 1837 to send the Fuego Naval Expedition, with the following objectives :-

· To survey the site at Ush Waia and if suitable to establish thereon a Naval Station.
· To survey lighthouse site at the three main sites advised by Captain Robert Fitzroy and to arrange with Trinity House for erection of suitable lighthouses.
· To survey the Fuego Archipelago for resources of economic and naval use and to make use of them.
· To settle the lands on Navarino Island and Fuego which were suitable for farming or for exploitation of forest and mineral resources.

It consisted of two merchant ships and three naval vessels, most notably the ‘Beagle’ under Fitzroy, this time with the surgeon Robert McCormick back in place of Darwin. They had immediate trouble with the senior naval officer in charge of the expedition – Frederick Lewis Maitland, Rear-Admiral of the Red and with experience in South Atlantic waters. The 74-gun ‘HMS Wellesley’ was Maitland’s personal choice, a big ship and a third-rate, for a voyage that would see him head back east on a long voyage round the Cape of Good Hope to the India Station. In his favour, Maitland considered that ‘Wellesley’ was best suited to provide some armament for the proposed base and that a naval party of extra ratings was best accommodated aboard her. Above all, the big third-rate would test the anchorages for large ships of the line, for the Lords of the Admiralty still considered Fitzroy too much the maverick.

The FNE left Portsmouth on August 4th 1837, McCormick noting in his Diary that the Rear-Admiral had almost pillaged the Dockyard for the resources he deemed necessary; Maitland wanted extra stores and crew for his Indian duties, so had used his Superintendent’s position and the needs of Fuego to strip the storehouses of naval stores. The two merchantmen, the ‘Beagle’ and the frigate ‘Andromache’ under Captain Lambert Baynes, found themselves overloaded and had to sail slowly to avoid running under in heavy seas. Captain Fitzroy several times recorded in his log that he tried to get Maitland to lighten ship, but Maitland would not dump overboard any of his ‘plunder’ as the acerbic Fitzroy called it. Only by very good seamanship did the overloaded flotilla make it to Brazil, heading down the coast past Rio (where necessary repairs were made and water-casks refilled) and Buenos Aires (more water and an exchange of documents with Rosas). The ships were heading into the Southern Hemisphere summer by then, reaching down the side of Patagonia towards Cape Dungenes and the entrance to the Magellan Straits. They reached it a month late, on November 14th 1837, to head south with ‘Beagle’ as pilot, down towards the Beagle Channel. McCormick recorded that he had to treat Reverend Matthews with laudanum for ‘nervous fatigue’ for the poor man was badly shaken to recognise areas they had visited on the second voyage.

Ush Waia – or ‘Ushuaia’, as Maitland recorded it – was on 2nd December 1837 still the way Fitzroy had seen it, a bare beach with an anchorage and a clear stream for water. Matthews still trembled at the sight of Wulaia on Navarino Island, across the Channel from Ush Waia, for at Wulaia his unsuccessful mission station had stood. But Maitland was supportive; he had seen the Falklands and agreed that the site was an excellent one. Navarino Island was briefly considered and discarded because of the natives’ thieving habits; it would, Maitland considered, be good cattle country but for the Yaghan being there. That fatal remark from his log was to set in motion a train of events that Fitzroy never saw, but which was to nearly break his heart in later years. At the time, the sailors from the ships were more concerned to set up the base, with some months of work to carry out before the weather changed. McCormick recorded that the Yaghan were regarded by the ratings as little better than monkeys, to be driven off with beatings if they tried to steal. As it was, Maitland several times ordered his crew to fire on ‘the savages’ who came to steal anything not fastened down, although Captains Fitzroy and Baynes felt beatings were a better solution.

By late December the first storehouses had been erected, from felled and stripped timber and gathered stone support walls, behind a mixture of stockades and field-stone walls. A limekiln had been built to burn shells using firewood and the brown coal from Picton Island. There was some argument as to whether the brown coal would do to fuel steamships, Maitland being uncertain, Fitzroy being certain and the diplomatic Lambert Baynes suggesting that samples be sent back to Britain for Admiralty tests. Baynes had seen black steam coal in the past, so he and McCormick (who respected him) were not completely certain that the lignite would do. However, it did make excellent fuel for the fireplaces that were built for the officers’ wardroom ashore, even as the downwood from the beech trees did. The sailors who McCormick spoke to thought the place not unlike parts of Wales and Scotland, four Scots and two Irish saying that it was good land (given dung or kelp) for kale and potatoes.

“But no women and no wine.” One seaman said, in considerable disgust, as he looked around from the fishing many did to add variety to their diet.

“With a shipload o’ whores, it’d be worth coming!” Another laughed, then hastily shut up. “Cap’n’s coming – look busy, lads!”

“The men would only settle here happily if they had women and spirits.” McCormick shocked Fitzroy and amused Admiral Maitland, who grinned understandingly; the shrewd Maitland had used the surgeon to sound the men’s opinions of this station. “They’re common seaman, sir, not saints.”

“Falklands station is rather worse.” Maitland acknowledged. “What manner of men might settle here?”

“Scots, Irish and Welsh.” McCormick declared. “The hardier the better. They are used to a climate like this. The ones I spoke to said that the kelp would make the land fertile for potatoes, kale and oats. May I speak further, Admiral?” Maitland gave him an urbane wave. “Women need civilisation – I would suggest that the Reverend Matthews be built a good church or chapel, with a manse and a school-house beside it. With that, there is hope of founding a decent town. But you will need a shop or two, trades such as a carpenter, shoemaker, butcher, baker – the usual needed in any town. Then if you add an Ordinary or two selling ale and spirits, the sailors will spend their pay contentedly enough.” He glanced apologetically at Fitzroy. “Where there is ale sold, there are usually women – and that is all I should say, sirs.”

Admiral Maitland glanced at the straitlaced Fitzroy, who was shocked; the Admiral nodded his understanding. He had not achieved Flag rank without an understanding of human nature at its best and worst.

“Well considered, Master Surgeon. I shall so inform the Admiralty. There are many poor Irish and Scots in need of a better life. A little starting capital in tools and seeds could reap a large harvest. Captain Fitzroy, Reverend Matthews will have his church, manse and schoolhouse. They will be the first buildings in the town of Ushuaia. Surgeon McCormick will be needed here – at your usual wages, Master Surgeon -” An afterthought that made McCormick blink. “- Captain Baynes, I will need you to go to the Falklands and bring back all willing to be transferred. You will sail with Captain Felton and the ‘Maid of Gloucester’ to carry the goods. Captain Felton will be discharging the last supplies onto the new pier before he leaves – he will need ballast, so he can carry a gift of felled timber to the – ah – Malvinas.”

Within the week, the emptied ship set sail, ballasted with stone, lignite and timber, which was to be received with astonished delight by the Vernet Settlement. But it was bait to catch a bigger fish, for with the departure of the Royal Navy’s stores, ships and personnel, the Malvinas became less attractive to the settlers. They left behind some twenty-two Argentine citizens to enjoy the gifts, but the settlers had a lot more in prospect. The sheep, pigs and few cattle, with vegetable plants packed in washed kelp and sacking, were to be the basis for the new Ushuaia settlement. A cynical Captain Felton left behind a barrel of rum and a barrel of gunpowder, in the belief that the Argentine gauchos would drink the one and blow themselves up with the other. The gauchos, quite as cynical, toasted Rosas’s sense and got to work building themselves houses; the lignite came in very useful, next winter, by which time two ships from Buenos Aires had re-established a successful fishing and sheep-farming settlement. But the gauchos did not forget the gift of wood and lignite, for it left them with a good opinion of the shrewd Admiral Maitland.

The return of the ‘Maid of Gloucester’ was greeted with delight by the ships’ crews, being a cheerful addition to the settlement; the ten married women and their children were installed with great ceremony in log cabins with chimneys and rough bunks, whilst the one innkeeper and his four wenches were an even greater success. The innkeeper informed the Admiral that beech sap could be fermented, as could be potatoes, so it might be possible to brew decent booze from those. He asked if he could order in some Argentinian or Chilean barley and was graciously permitted to do so, Felton and his crew travelling north to ports on the West Coast of Chile with a quite extensive shopping list. More lumber went north for sale, together with more stone ballast; the ships’ crews joked that every time Felton went trading, he sold stone and came back with something worthwhile.

All Saints’ Church, Ushuaia, was a success because of Fitzroy, Maitland and the women; the Church of England were the nominal users, but in fact it quietly had a side-chapel for two Catholic women and their children. The women in the tavern were one thing, but families had a stabilising effect; the children had any number of ‘uncles’ amongst the seamen, many of whom spoke thoughtfully of finding a suitable lass to wed. It reassured Fitzroy, who had feared that his worst folly might be have been creating a town of tavern-keepers and whores.

...So there you have an idea. Rosas is maybe not so prominent, but given the Gardner mission and later developments, I think it's at least feasible...
 
Baynes, Hope-Johnstone, ‘Pot’ and ‘Kettle’ :

Following the establishment of Ushuaia settlement and of the naval base that was to be named ‘HMS Maitland’, the Admiral and ‘HMS Wellesley’departed in February 1837 for Bombay. Captain Baynes remained on station with the 28-gun ‘HMS Andromache’ and the ‘Maid of Gloucester’ returned to Portsmouth with despatches. These included a report to the Admiralty on what had been achieved so far, including establishment of a defended base and the new town.

McCormick’s recommendations were to make him famous, for the Admiralty decided to recruit amongst poor Irish and Scots farmers for colonists. The Sutherland and Caithness men and women who took ship aboard the ‘Maid of Gloucester’ numbered 200 souls, the fifty families being the first of 210 couples and children to be sent to Fuego under this scheme. Irish families were to be the bulk of the remainder, a community of 1,000 transplanted to Fuego. They were promised free land, a cabin with a window and a chimney, tools, seeds, some livestock and the chance of a free school place and a doctor to care for the children. There was wood and peat to cut for fires and the naval base to sell products to, after a five-year homesteading period. For the time, it was a remarkable concession, but it did get the colony started.

Fitzroy and ‘Beagle’ moved on to other matters in May 1837, leaving Captain Lambert Baynes as de-facto Governor, a task he fulfilled willingly and well. Fitzroy later said that when he became Governor of New Zealand, he took the example of the quiet Baynes and Maitland as his patterns. Baynes’s men became known as the ‘Andromache Artificiers’, for they were to turn their hands to any craftsmanship needed to keep the base and colony running. Half the ‘Andromache’ crew were later to settle in Fuego, when the ship was forced to pay off at Ushuaia following severe damage when blown ashore in a storm in 1840. The figurehead remains in the ‘HMS Maitland’ Naval Base and the majority of the guns and equipment were successfully salved. Baynes is considered to have done very well from his time at Ushuaia – he started a timber mill and a coal mine and began the fishing and whaling industry for which Fuego became famous. The Baynes estates on Navarino Island are still major meat producers in the colony.

One of the least-appreciated features of Captain and Governor Lambert Baynes, was his realisation that there needed to be a survey of the Fuegan Archipelago to identify the best areas for settlement. Uncharitable individuals have said that he merely finished what Fitzroy and Darwin started, but in real terms it was Baynes and his successor, Hope-Johnstone, who laid the foundations for the Colony’s success. Baynes commissioned hardy Scotsmen like Vernon MacPherson to survey the inland areas of the islands, notably Navarino, Fuego and Staten, to establish the kind of terrain, the vegetation, the soil, rock and useful minerals. It was in its way the first scientific ecological survey of a largely unmapped area, even if its main objectives were to be economic, with the tireless Surgeon McCormick to collate and present the information.

There had been some Chilean and Argentine exploration by hunters and sealers, which is one reason why some names in the Colony Dependencies remain of Spanish origin or have been Anglicised – Bahia Inutil became Useless Bay, for example – and McCormick’s innocent use of these was later the basis for some rather far-fetched claims of sovereignty by Argentina and Chile. At the time, the need to name locations rapidly was the reason, also a certain natural courtesy for which Baynes and McCormick earned much respect. Ush Waia becoming Ushuaia was a Maitland coinage that still causes arguments amongst colonists and cartographers alike. Rio Grande sounded more suitable than ‘Big River’, but Navarino (in the seamen’s ears) recalled the Battle of Navarino Bay in Greece, a victory for the Royal – and other – Navies.

Ushuaia had been recognised to be a good naval base, but not really the best settlement area; the shelf of land between the sea and the wooded Andean mountains was barely two miles wide, rather too well watered and in some ways Navarino Island was far better. The problem was that the mission at Wulaia was to the Yaghan and the Yaghan made regular seasonal visits there, so neither Maitland nor Baynes had really wanted to disturb them. Further eastwards, more towards Picton Island, the coast widened out into the Lasifashaj area, a good and well-drained farming area that Baynes was to settle many of the Scots upon. Ushuaia remained the deepest and best harbour along the Beagle Channel, so although there was a small Harbourtown at ‘Las’, Ushuaia remained the main administrative centre. Navarino remained a place the farmers cast hopeful eyes across at, for particularly in its south-eastern area there was excellent grassland for ranching. Sadly, they were soon to get an opportunity to use it and most of the rest of that island.

There had never been more than a few thousand each of the Yaghans and other tribes, simply because the carrying-capacity of their environment would not tolerate it. Although used to the cold weather and over millennia adapted to it, the Yaghan and the other tribes were vulnerable to European diseases. The second shipload of migrants unfortunately included three families infected with measles, an unpleasant but relatively minor ailment for Europeans, but lethal to the Yaghan on Navarino Island. In 1838 the outbreak spread across the area like wildfire, by some accounts caught by a Yaghan child from an Irish girl she was playing with. Surgeon McCormick tried to isolate the sufferers, but the Yaghan themselves resorted to bows and spears to kill those the tribal shamans or yekamush thought filled with evil spirits. When the epidemic burnt itself out, fully half the Yaghan were dead and the rest were suspicious of the Irish settlers thereafter, though the Scots and English were tolerated. It was not clear what the impact had been on the other tribes, but later outbreaks of smallpox were at least as severe on the Ona peoples in the grassland areas of Fuego.

The destruction of the measles had meant that many areas of fertile land on Navarino Island became accessible, notably those at Wulaia, where centuries of shell-filled middens had left lush grass and the promise of good grazing for meat and milk needed by the settlement at Ushuaia. In 1840, Captain Baynes set up a farm or ranch and offered the Yaghan the chance of working there as ranch hands, which they had no interest in. The alternative was to employ settlers and that is what he did, to the regrets of McCormick and Baynes himself, but to the lasting profit of the people of Ushuaia. Others followed to Navarino Island, farmers and ranchers without the ethical approach which had made Baynes such a respected figure in Fuego. The outcome, over the next thirty years, was that Navarino’s most fertile parts were gradually taken over by farmers of one kind or another, forcing out natives whose ancestors had lived there on a seasonal basis for millennia. The same was occurring in Fuego itself, where the twin attractions of forest timber and open grasslands drew settlers from the port town into the interior. Ugly rumours persisted of natives shot for basically minor pilfering or for being in the way, but when it was reported that cattle and sheep were being stolen in the mid-1850s, ranchers and farmers began to kill natives on sight – unless the Royal Navy or the missions were there to stop them. There were tales circulated by the farmers of families abducted or killed, to excuse these murders, but investigations usually proved the tales to be false. It was one of the darkest aspects of colonial history and only stopped when the natives were almost extinct in the 1900s.

The population growth after the initial colonisation effort was slow but steady; the port could provide ship’s stores and repairs, a matter that became steadily more important after the 1845 completion of the Cape Horn Division lighthouses of the Trinity House Brethren. They, too, had a base at Ushuaia, together with the first paddle-tugs seen in South American waters. The ‘Pot’ and the ‘Kettle’ – named by a shipbuilder with a whimsical sense of humour – were actually Lighthouse Steam Tenders CH1 and CH2, but were to give almost fifty years of faithful service as salvage and rescue vessels. The Picton Island lignite was adequate for local use, although for deeper-sea journeys for salvage duties, the two tugs used Chilean steam coal from mines near Concepcion, first at Talcahuano and later at Lota. Servicing the lighthouses could be done by one tug, but Trinity House wisely anticipated breakdowns or wrecks in the treacherous seas off Cape Horn. Most unusually, by 1880 the HM Commisioner for Wrecks (now, HM Receiver for Wreck) had established a Colonial Enquiries and Salvage Court at Ushuaia, to report on wrecks in the area to the Board of Trade. The Cape Horn trade had grown steadily with sailing ships (and later, steamers) using the piloting-services from Ushuaia to navigate the main shipping channels. The pilot-boats ‘Fitzroy’ (1841), ‘Baynes’ (1849) and ‘Maitland’ (1865) were used to carry pilots to ships waiting off Cabo Dungenes, and the western approaches to the Magellan Straits. Trinity House were to construct yet more lighthouses and lit beacons over a hundred years, to ensure safe navigation through the channel and international boundary.

By 1842, the success of the Ushuaia Settlement had been so evident that Rosas tried to hand back the Malvinas to become the British Falklands, in return for Tierra del Fuego, but the Admiralty and the Foreign Office refused outright. It had become progressively obvious that the islands around the Beagle Channel and west towards the Pacific held much natural and mineral wealth. In fact, Rosas’s attempt triggered the Second Phase – colonists offered land and their passage to settle the northern parts of Fuego Island and islands westwards to the south of the Straits of Magellan (Spanish : Estrecho de Magellanes). These settlements were less organised than Ushuaia itself, more of a ‘Wild West’ nature, so the Navy stationed a unit of Royal Marines Police in Ushuaia and two other locations to retain some law and order. The Navy was still dominant in Tierra del Fuego, purchasing timber, tar coal, milk, meat, vegetables, woollen cloth (a mill started in 1856) and spirits manufactured at the world’s southernmost distillery.

Captain Baynes left Fuego in 1848 for other naval duties, notably becoming Admiral of the Pacific Fleet during the San Juan Islands ‘Pig War’, which he refused to turn into a pitched battle over a dead pig. A nephew was to take over the Baynes ranch as steward, but Admiral Baynes periodically visited the base at Ushuaia over the next twenty years. The Navy retained a permanent interest in the Governorship of the Colony, the Captain of the frigate (from 1845, a steam sloop, ‘Virago’) on station being double-tasked with the Governorship. The position became a training-post for some Captains with ability in diplomacy, combining the duties of what elsewhere were District Commissioners with the more military tasks of the Naval Base and the ship. The Commander who was Deputy generally ran the Naval Base on a day to day basis, going to sea in the sloop as required. But men like Hope-Johnstone were inclined to go to sea themselves, using the advantages of steam to tour their widespread Dependencies and maintain order. The channels and inlets of the Fuegan Archipelago were not easy for sailing or steaming, ageing any ship fairly quickly, so ‘HMS Virago’ needed the tidal dock at Ushuaia for regular refits. On those occasions, the tug ‘CH1’ was generally borrowed as ‘HM Auxiliary Cutter Kettle’, to the delight of her crew and the dismay of those aboard ‘Virago’. Both ‘Kettle’ and ‘Pot’ were fitted with an 18-pounder long gun forward, for use when dealing with unlicensed sealers, whalers and pirates, the Lieutenants in charge of each vessel vying with one another for accuracy and speed of firing.

Hope-Johnstone became something of a legend in his time at Fuego, for his easy diplomacy and ethics were to be the match for those of Baynes and Maitland; he was less of a settler and more of an administrator and diplomat, alert to the needs of the moment. When in 1849 the Californian Gold Rush began, the shrewd Captain made sure he had a second pilot boat available, as there was a rush of ships round the Horn and through Magellan Straits on their way to the goldfields. There were too many wrecks; Hope-Johnstone opened the first Naval Hospital at Ushuaia, ‘to succour and to heal’ the survivors fished out of the water by rowing and sailing lifeboats based at Picton Island and at the Rio Grande in East Fuego. That new settlement – Port Baynes – was the first permanent one on the east side of Fuego but remained a Royal Navy base for some years.

The lifeboat and salvage station at Port Baynes soon became the main base for Trinity House, so ‘CH2’ was often stationed there. It also had a small garrison and a battery of guns from ‘Andromache’, just in case the Argentines on the Malvinas and in Patagonia decided to cause problems. But the problems were caused entirely by ships being pushed too hard, or overloaded out of greed, of corners being cut and poor seamen being picked for jobs beyond their capabilities. The Horn was unforgiving, the weather harsh but the shipowners feared that too many good seamen would desert from ships that reached San Francisco and other Californian ports. Gold Rush fever affected all the USA and parts of Europe, a disease that would take two years to burn out. The worst month – that of June 1850 – saw twenty-four damaged vessels towed into Ushuaia and Port Baynes in Rio Grande, the ‘Virago’ being mobilised to assist in Magellan Straits. ‘CH1’ and ‘CH2’ and the pilot vessels, had to save lives and work almost twenty hours a day, assisted by Chilean Navy vessels. It lead to the Royal Navy establishing a Coastguard service, based on Navy and Trinity House vessels assisted by volunteers.

Lieutenant Graham Sullivan, in charge of ‘CH1’ ‘Pot’ in 1858, came up with a major improvement in gunnery, dissatisfied with the black powder from Woolwich. With ready access to Chilean nitrate, he persuaded his intrigued commander, Hope-Johnstone, to let him make powder from various kinds of charcoal and Chilean nitrate. After beech charcoal proved too hard, the ingenious Sullivan tried using a timber ball-mill to mix sulphur and nitrate with carbonised Fuego grass, the softer charcoal being more closely mixed with the other two constituents. The result was not black, but brown, a powder with considerable power that meant a ship could carry more powder charges and fire for a longer time. Hope-Johnstone ultimately lost Sullivan to the Royal Ordnance factory at Waltham Forest, but the Sullivan Powder Mill at Port Navarino was to produce thousands of tons of powder for the British Pacific Fleet and the Chilean Navy. Prismatic brown powder (PBP) was still in use as a primary charge fuse powder in the Royal Navy’s shells, as late as the 1930s, although gradually displaced from main powder charges by cordite and from shell fillings by TNT blends.

The Navarino Distillery Company was started by Baynes’s nephew and other entrepreneurs in 1850, using grain from Chile and Argentina to produce a whiskey even the locals called ‘White Mule’. An Irish investor advocated poteen, made from local potatoes (a most successful crop, fertilised with nitrate, lime and kelp), but it proved difficult to make except under factory conditions. It was not until the 1880s that potato cooked with weak sulphuric acid (and thus hydrolysed) was turned into a glucose suitable for making a mash distilled to a rather potent ‘Fuego Brandy’. To this day, ‘White Mule’ and ‘Fuego Brandy’ are mostly drunk in Fuego, Patagonia and Southern Chile, with a limited market elsewhere. The ‘Brandy’ was exported to Britain during the Second World War, being only slightly more popular than the foul-tasting whale meat and sea pike (‘Snoek’) that came from the same region.


Welshmen had introduced sheep and cattle into North Fuego by 1866, but a variety of breeds had been introduced into different areas by the Scots, English and Irish settlers. Irish goats nearly got out of hand and most were shot, the survivors being left as wild-farming herds on Staten Island, Isla Nueva and a few other largely-uninhabited locations. The cattle included the very hardy Highland and Beltie breeds, improved over years by cross-breeding. Wool and mutton from sheep rapidly became a major economic export – the mutton is used in locally-made Scots haggis and a number of dishes [Data here, Pete!] from Chilean and Argentine cuisine. Blackfaces from the Scottish Borders and Welsh Mountain breeds were the original breeds, but Merino crosses from Chile and Argentina were to be added. Southern Fuego has a substantial number of Scotch Mules, another hardy breed that can challenge the Blackface’s success. Corriedales were introduced by Welsh farmers after their successes in Patagonia, and were, sadly, displacing the older breeds from the 1960s onwards, the same being true of Hereford crossbred cattle.

By the 1870s, the land was starting at last to fill up, with small and large ranches or estancias the general rule, except where the Governor required agricultural cultivated land to be kept for strategic purposes. Potatoes and vegetables were the principal crops, but a substantial amount of barley and oats was being grown, mainly for cattle fodder and for brewing purposes. Welsh enterprise kept the grain production up, but also introduced a brewery at Useless Bay for the Welsh ale ‘Cwrw’, a competitor to the beers, whiskeys and potato brandies, of the Wulaia Distillery.

Hope-Johnstone had become so fond of his station in Fuego that he held it till his death in 1870, leaving his widow Emily and two children and the grieving ‘Viragos’; the statue to him in the main square at Ushuaia shows him in his naval uniform and was commissioned by the British Pacific Station, then on Vancouver Island, in respect for their brother officer’s achievements. He lies buried in the graveyard of All Saints’ Church, Ushuaia. He was replaced by Captain Elibank Harley Murray in command of the ageing ‘Virago’ and the Fuego Colony, the Colony justifiably worrying about the new Governor.

A few surprises - I made Sullivan invent 'poudre brun' and Hope-Johnstone a 'Sanders of the River' - but I liked the idea of 'Pot' and 'Kettle' best. The next bit (once sorted) is Captain Pepperell's bad navigation and the 'Mimosa'
 
The Mimosa Incident :

The presence of the two steam-tugs was to have a decisive effect on the outcome of the ‘Mimosa’ Incident, the basis for post-Rosas claims to North Fuego by the Argentine government. In brief, the Argentine government encouraged the efforts of a Welsh colony to be formed inland of Puerto Madryn in the Chubut river watershed of Patagonia. The ‘Mimosa’ was chartered in a hurry to replace a vessel not yet available, carrying a group of 153 (some say 164) Welsh emigrants. The Captain George Pepperell may not have been as familiar with the coastline of South America as he had claimed, for the former clipper (although used on the Cape Horn run) spent most of its time clear of land. In any case, the ship sailed on May 28th 1865 and was scheduled to arrive at Port Madryn/Puerto Madryn on July 28th 1865. In fact, the planners had made an oversight – the ship arrived in the very early Patagonian autumn and was caught in a storm lasting over a week and a half. Blown south under thick clouds, the ‘Mimosa’ sailed confidently southwestwards into what the navigator thought to be Golfo Nuevo on the coast of Patagonia. In fact, on August 2nd 1865, the ‘Mimosa’ sailed straight into the mouth of the Bahia San Sebastian on the east coast of north Tierra del Fuego and ran hard aground on the sand, the ship having stranded at high spring tide and impossible for her boats to tow or kedge off.

With land before them and the ship apparently impossible to re-float without unloading, the Welsh party decided to go ashore and set up tents for their accommodation, some building low walls of field-stone and insulating the ground with brushwood. The ship took almost a week for the boats to unload at high tide, the wagons at low, but at its end was raised sufficiently for refloating to be attempted. She promptly took on water through strained timbers and Pepperell realised that the pumps could not cope. The ship’s carpenter descended into the forehold and reported the ‘Mimosa’ had broken her keel in two places, so she would be unable to sail at any speed or in any sea until dockyard repairs were carried out.

“We could careen her on the beach.” The carpenter was Amos Williams, one of the settlement party. “Once the storms of winter are over, we have a chance to splice the keel and sail further north. But we really need seasoned timber and a forge. We have two smiths in the passengers, so it may be something can be done.”

“Not possible – four horses, too few able-bodied people.” Captain Pepperell was almost in tears; the ship had sailed her last voyage. “We will have to salve all we can before the next storms strike her. At least, she will help us to stay alive.”

Doctor Thomas Greene it was who called the passengers together to report the bad news; on a positive note, the ship had held enough supplies for them to survive the winter, there were fish in the sea and guanaco had been seen running wild across the grasslands. The more enterprising passengers had already been riding two of the four farm horses aboard, scouting the land about, finding two small lakes about two miles inland and coming across Ona Indians who had fled when they approached. Except for a shortage of timber anywhere but along river and lake sides, the land looked reasonable to the Welsh farmers. The big question of “Where are we?” was resolved when the shame-faced Captain managed to make a sun-sight and realised that they were on Tierra del Fuego.

“There is a British naval base at Ushuaia on the Beagle Channel, with settlements there and on Navarino Island.” The Captain said. “But otherwise it’s deserted except for savages. General Rosas claimed Fuego back, I heard, so it may be Argentine territory.”

“Ah...Then we can claim North Fuego for Wales and the Argentine?” That was Lewis Jones, who with Edwyn Roberts and Ellen Jones had come out to look the land over originally. “So we have a colony here, as well as in Patagonia?”

“And there is more freedom if we claim this land for Wales.” Roberts agreed. “So it is Porth Mimosa, then?” This with an ironic glance at the abashed Pepperell. “Welsh Fuego – and Argentine Fuego, also?”

There was a flag-hoisting ceremony on the shore and the Argentine and Welsh flags were flown side by side. The carts from the hold were used to transport goods over the next week and a half from the shore to the site of the town of Mimosa, where a mixture of stone and turf was used to construct ‘black houses’ of a Welsh kind. Timbers from ‘Mimosa’ acted as rafters for a thatch of the local grasses and reeds. They were near enough to the lakes to make use of them for stock watering and for irrigation, for the land was almost as dry as Patagonia, but also close enough to the sea to make use of it. The unhappy ‘Mimosa’ had to be completely emptied and de-rigged of all her masts, but it was going to be at least a year before she was completely dismantled. By August 14th, the stripped hulk was the only sign that the Welsh had arrived, for the prudent Ellis Jones had removed the flags and their masts to the town square of the new township of Mimosa.

The Welsh community and the crew of ‘Mimosa’ were in some ways a miniature version of Naval Expedition Fuego, but in a land with significantly less rain and fewer obvious resources. They survived the winter by fishing, and by hunting the then-abundant guanaco, to eke out the supplies from the ‘Mimosa’. All were concerned about contacting their friends in Patagonia, but would need to repair and re-rig the old clipper to do it. The winter had been unexpectedly mild, but the wind made up for it; by September, with the winds not abating and a nasty cold spell, the nascent Welsh colony had to plan for the future. They had some grain to plant and a handful of animals, but needed a small ship to bring in more, so planned to dismantle ‘Mimosa’ far enough to build a small sailing vessel.

One obvious solution – to contact Ushaia by sailing the ship’s whaleboat round to the Beagle Channel – the Welsh tried to avoid; that meant attracting British interest and maybe being forced to accept English culture and taxation. Instead it was decided to try the Chilean naval colony at Punta Arenas, there to try to buy cattle and sheep without attracting undue attention. But the colony needed a small ship so spent some time designing a lugger they called ‘Esperanza’ in the hope it would bring good luck. She had to be almost flat-bottomed – the Bahia San Sebastian being so flat – so was to be fitted with side-keels like ones seen on Dutch barges. Whether they would have succeeded in building the design in time is not clear, for on 22nd October 1865 a brig heading towards the Horn noted the ‘wreck’ of the ‘Mimosa’ and put in towards Picton Island to report it on 30th October. The pilot boat conveyed the information to Ushuaia and Captain Hope Johnstone took ‘HMS Virago’ along to investigate.

In company with tug ‘CH1’ (‘Pot’) the ‘Virago’ left Ushuaia immediately, meaning to investigate the wreck; it was known that several ships had been lost in that area, the most recent being ‘Mimosa’, so the Navy had to investigate. ‘Virago’ and ‘Pot’ had had an interesting career, being involved in suppressing a Chilean mutiny at Punta Arenas in 1851, but this incident was going to be the most serious one historically. ‘Pot’ took a naval cutter closer inshore at high tide, the cutter crew rounding the sanded-in hulk and briefly boarding her, realising that she had, in fact, been garnisheed of anything useful. They returned to report and the Captain realised that there might be more here than a mere wreck. As the Bosun in charge of the cutter pointed out, the hulk had been stripped remarkably clean, with nothing of any size left. A professional, the Bosun reported that the sprung planking either side of the ship indicated that she had broken her keel in the forehold. The Captain minuted this in his log, recommending that the Bosun be considered for further promotion, then sent ten Marines ashore in the cutter with Midshipman Hugh Thomas and the Bosun Macrae.

Thomas and Macrae were sensible men and soon identified the track that lead from the beach towards the settlement; Thomas, himself of Welsh extraction, was astonished when he peered over some tussock grasses on a small hill, to see Welsh folk working in the square of the settlement beyond. He would have gone down and spoken with them, but for Macrae laying a warning hand on his shoulder and pointing to the two flags. The Welsh Dragon was fair enough, but the Argentine flag in Fuego was outright provocation. Both men decided to refer the matter to Hope-Johnstone, who two hours later decided to land Marines and a Naval Party to take charge. With Thomas as interpreter, the Captain went ashore, to astonish the Welsh by marching straight in and demanding to speak with their leaders and the Captain of ‘Mimosa’.

“This is on land ceded to the Crown by General Rosas back in 1843.” He told them, with a twinkle in his eyes. “I’m sure that more British settlement will meet with Government approval, but that Argentine flag must come down.” And he indicated the flagmast, as Thomas hastily translated the English into Welsh. “You cannot raise that flag south of the Straits of Magellan.”

“The land is not occupied, look you.” Edwyn Roberts pointed out. “And we are the people sent to Patagonia. Did you not know of this?”

“We did.” Hope-Johnstone nodded. “And this is a British colonial territory. I have been sent here to offer assistance to shipwrecked crew and passengers – we have supplies aboard ‘Virago’ and can take you to Ushuaia – but that flag will have to come down. The Welsh one can remain, as far as I’m concerned, but the other is liable to cause a war.” He looked round at Captain Pepperell. “How in Heaven’s name did you wind up here? Your navigation surely must not be so poor!”

Captain Pepperell saw the inevitable Board of Trade Inquiry ahead. “The sky overcast for ten days and us out of sight of land since Bahia. We had been swept further south than expected – I thought this was Bahia Nuovo...” The whole sorry tale spilled out.

“Heavens, man – we aren’t ogres and pirates!” Hope-Johnstone clapped the woebegone Captain on the back. “Mr. Roberts, that flag, if you please...and I have a company of Marines on the ridge, with loaded muskets.” That finish in an undertone made Edwyn Roberts reluctantly move to lower the Argentine flag. It was folded neatly by Captain Pepperell and presented in sign of surrender by Jones to Hope-Johnstone. “Thank you... I have salt beef, ship’s biscuit, fresh vegetables, lime juice as an antiscorbutic, beer and spirits. Also a doctor with medical supplies.” He waited as Thomas translated it into Welsh, although – from Roberts’s promptness – he knew that most of them spoke English. “The Royal Navy will assist you, although you seem to be doing remarkably well, as it is.”

“Who are you – Captain?” Lewis Jones was intrigued despite himself; this Royal Navy officer was not in the least what they had been expecting.

“Captain William George Hope-Johnstone of the ‘HMS Virago’ and Her Majesty’s Governor of the British Colony of Fuego and Dependent Territories.” The Captain chuckled, in good humour. “So I have the necessary authority...” He glanced about him. “You’ll have three choices. You could evacuate and go to Patagonia, aboard a suitable vessel, you could move elsewhere on Fuego or to another island in the Archipelago – or you can remain here.” He saw that Jones was startled. “This land needs settlers quite as much as Patagonia, sir. But this is not a good place for a port – there is good farmland by the Grand River some two hundred miles south, or you can try the grazing lands at Useless Bay to the west. It’s up to you. Five years tax-free, if you settle here.”

“Five years tax-free?” That was a licence to homestead, in fact. “And the land we can farm?”

“Very well – ten years, but that’s my absolute limit.” Hope-Johnstone mock-bargained. “But no more Argentine flags and no more ‘accidental’ wrecks, if you please – the Admiralty are likely to be most interested in my report.”

It is a matter of history that the Welsh decided to stay where they were, but also to get stock landed at Useless Bay (Bahia Inutile) that they would buy in from the Chileans and the Navarino farmers. Captain Hope-Johnstone’s report caused laughter in the Admiralty and won Hope-Johnstone a Knighthood for deft diplomacy. The ‘Kettle’ tug was used to tow a barge with the livestock from Punto Arenas to Useless Bay, where the barge unloaded at low tide and the Welsh drove their stock two hundred miles east to Mimosa. And that seemed pretty much to be that, until the Argentine government learnt in 1866 that (however briefly) their flag had been successfully raised on North Fuego. The news came after Edwyn Roberts had reported what had occurred to his superiors in Buenos Aires and Liverpool; Pepperell had in the meantime made good his departure in another merchantman, to re-surface as the Captain of a trader in Polynesia.

The government of Presidente Bartolomé Mitre was at that date at war with Paraguay, so the claim for Tierra del Fuego was not regarded as a particularly serious challenge until after 1870, when the War of the Triple Alliance finished with the devastation of Paraguay. The Argentine was also trying to get foreign investment into its country, for the meat products of the country could make a fortune – if they could be preserved in a fit state to eat after transport by sea. This account cannot cover the development of the meat products industry in the Argentine but it is true that British investment in meat processing and canning plant, railways and refrigerated meat carrying ships, was a major contribution to the country’s development. It was only with the rise of the USA in the 1920s and 1930s that Argentine governments became steadily more strident about the ‘stolen’ Fuego area and ‘compatriots living under a British tyranny’. The facts were that the Welsh settlers went to both the Dubut valley of Argentine Patagonia and to Tierra del Fuego, on occasion moving from one to the other. Hope-Johnstone’s inspired diplomacy meant that most of the grassland areas east of the Fuegan Andes and north of the Rio Grande, were settled by Welsh farmers and some Argentine-Spanish settlers vouched for by the Welsh. The road signs are in both Welsh and English, as in Wales, but the word ‘Araf’ (‘Slow’) on the roads is held to be too often the sign of unrepaired potholes.

The Welsh discovered that their favoured position in Fuego allowed them to preserve their culture with great success; the local Welsh joke is that you get an Irish Jig and poteen in Navarino, a Scots Ceilidh and whiskey in South Fuego and an Eisteddfod and cwrw in North Fuego. The English, of course, play football and cricket and drink tea and beer w herever they go, whilst the Spaniards drank Yerba Mate and danced the Malambo. The Eisteddfodau allowed the two Welsh-speaking cultures in South America to meet, intermarry and to attempt to keep the peace between the Spanish and English speakers. They also regularly attend the National Eisteddfod in Wales itself, a tradition broken only in the Second World War and (to Welsh condemnation) intermittently by the suspicions of Juan Péron. Welsh diplomacy by their two South American Chief Bards is credited with averting a war between Chile and Argentina and ended the Magellan Straits war with Great Britain in 1982. It is said by the Welsh that Pepperell caused a disaster and Hope-Johnstone halted it, but that the Welsh themselves keep the peace better than a hundred thousand soldiers.

So there you have it - I'm not sure how to finish the Welsh joke about the Spaniards. Drinking yerba mate instead of cwrw and forever barbecuing catttle, maybe? Comments appreciated and will be put into the edited post. Take a look again at the second tranche - three new paragraphs
 
The Two Captains and the ‘Huascar’ :

Murray had come to Fuego with great reluctance and it is rumoured he was put there to get rid of him; the Sea Lords were not entirely happy about a firebrand who was too modern in his ideas and far too undiplomatic. The Naval Colony had expanded significantly during Hope-Johnstone’s tenure, but Their Lordships were more interested in the arrangements at Buenos Aires and Valparaiso that allowed the Royal Navy to coal at those two key ports. Dissatisfied, Murray set somewhat grimly to work to maximise the resources from the Naval Colony. As a Governor he was not the best Admiralty choice, being sufficiently unwise as to try to revoke Hope-Johnstone’s ten-year tax-free agreement with Edwyn Roberts in 1874. When Roberts appealed to the Admiralty and the Colonial Office in London, both organisations agreed that it was time to appoint a civil administrator, William Cleaver Francis Robinson.

Governor Robinson was appointed to oversee Fuego’s civil, as against naval, responsibilities, with the powers of a Commissioner. Murray hated Robinson’s appointment, but had in later life to admit that Robinson and his charming wife had managed the colony with some skill. Robinson was referred to as ‘Captain Robinson’ out of tradition for the office of Governor, a rank that came in useful when he had to deal with troublemakers. The ‘CH1’ and ‘CH2’ remained on station, but were supplemented from 1874 by the gunboats ‘Chaffinch’ and ‘Wren’, single-screw vessels designed to enforce British authority. ‘Virago’ later remained in reserve, being kept in good order by the Navy yard, as the Governor’s official transport.

Robinson was to be an administrator rather than an innovator; his time from 1874 to 1890 was marked by gradual growth in the Colony and the use of official income for more than just the maintenance of the Naval Base. Murray was never stinted in his requirements, for he had to supply some needs of the Pacific Station of the Royal Navy, but the needs of the developing civil settlements for water, sanitation and refuse collection, and the provision of a civil Police Service, needed funding. In return, Murray made sure that the patrols of Hope-Johnstone’s day were properly kept up and developed the Rio Grande/Afon Fawr auxiliary base and pier ‘HMS Baynes’ into a well-organised and well-provisioned military centre. Murray also founded the Murray Naval Academy at Ushuaia in 1876, to train young seamen and officers in seamanship for the Royal Navy. By 1880, most of the new local crew supplied to the Trinity House and Colonial Service vessels were Academy-trained, a proportion even entering the Royal Navy. ‘HMS Virago’ was to have a dual use as a training ship for many years thereafter, although officially scrapped in 1880. Unusually, her guns remained in naval service till after 1918, as there were still occasions when they could be of use.

Robinson’s administration finally separated the Colony’s Naval Economy from its civil economy, to prevent the loss of finances needed for the Colony’s development. The HM Naval Mine Picton, the HM Naval Sawmill Ushuaia and HM Powder Mill Ushuia and HM Naval Ranch Wulaia, were already separated. The Distillery had originally been a Naval Supply foundation, so it, too, became a Naval establishment, as did two public houses tied to it. What Murray argued about was the settlement rents and rates of Ushuaia itself, now much larger than in the days of its foundation. He also wanted a cut of the general Colony income, on the grounds of defence and police services, in particular pilotage and salvage fees. Robinson could easily defend the later phased settlements, but the farms started by former Falklanders were started by the Navy and Murray wanted the rents or a proportion of the production. It resulted in an argument between the Colonial Office and the Admiralty which the Admiralty won, but at the cost of agreeing to maintain ‘HMS Maitland’ and ‘HMS Baynes’ for the lifetime of the Colony. The Naval Academy of ‘HMS Virago’ turned into a dual-use responsibility, for a land-based College was increasingly necessary to keep technical skills that the Colony needed.

The ‘Two Captains’, as Murray and Robinson became known, managed between them to achieve control of the whaling industry in the Fuegan Islands Dependencies, a vast area stretching technically from South Georgia to Fuego and on both sides towards the still-unvisited South Pole. A whaling station at Isla Nueva was started in 1875, followed by a pier at Harbourtown for provisioning visiting Norwegian and American whaling ships. Although frowned on in the current century, the whaling trade provided much-needed employment and a regular supply of licensing and customs income to the Colony. The Admiralty had for almost forty years expected the Colony to take on an increasing degree of the costs of the Naval Station, so the ships and men were mostly paid for, supplied and fuelled, by the Colony.

The Royal Navy had always had mixed feelings about the trade of Port Stanley (now Puerto Rosas) for the less-accessible Ushuaia was fairly easy to reach from the Pacific, but from the Atlantic it was a more difficult trip past Staten Island or down through the Magellan Straits to get to the Beagle Channel, so only the lighthouses made it possible. All the same, various ships of the Royal Navy and the Chilean Navy did visit HMS Maitland for refits and repairs, so it had progressively better engineering and supply facilities. A cannery for meat- and fish-packing was started by the Navy at Wulaia in 1875, supplying the Royal Navy bases at Valparaiso and Simonstown near Cape Town. But the Admiralty were always reluctant to spend any more money on defences for Ushuaia, preferring to rely upon nearby Pacific and Atlantic warships to defend the area. Inshore, the ‘Virago’ and her smaller steam-powered colleagues could control most channels, but every Captain at Ushuaia wondered for how long this would be sufficient.

The problem was that the navies of Chile and Argentina were becoming progressively stronger rivals to one another, investing in armoured warships when Fuego’s were all ageing wooden broadside vessels designed in the 1840s and 1860s. This was manifested in the Battle of Pachoca in Peru on May 29th 1877 when the rebel Peruvian ironclad ‘Huáscar’ successfully beat off attempts by the British Pacific Squadron’s recently-built ‘HMS Shah’ and ‘HMS Amethyst’ to seize or destroy her. An unsuccessful attempt was made to torpedo her – a sign of the future – but ‘Huáscar’ remained a threat till taken by the Chilean Navy on 9th October 1879 at the Battle of Angamos. The small Royal Navy base at Ushuaia learnt of the events off Chile with increasing concern, for ‘Amethyst’ had to have some repairs made to her at Ushuaia. ‘HMS Amethyst’ was armed with fourteen 64-pounder smooth-bore cannon, larger versions of those used at Trafalgar, whilst ‘HMS Shah’ had been armed with two 9-inch guns, six 7-inch rifled guns and four 14-inch Whitehead Fish torpedoes. It had been a shock for everybody in the Pacific Squadron when the two ships had not put the ‘Huáscar’ out of commission, but had suffered damage and casualties from her two 10-inch and two 4.75-inch rifled guns, mounted in armoured turrets. At her 12 knots speed, she had outrun the torpedo fired at her.

Murray had correctly assessed that a warship like ‘Húascar’ could destroy Ushuaia and seize the Colony for Chile, so he wrote a report to the Admiralty in which he pointed out the consequences if the Empire failed to defend its largest South American Colony. Additional defences and better guns were essential to Ushuaia’s survival. The Admiralty, predictably unwilling to spend yet more on Tierra del Fuego when the Pacific Squadron had moved from Valparaiso to Esquimalt in British Columbia, demurred, but presently agreed to provide the muzzle-loading 64-pounders on ‘HMS Sapphire’, a sister ship to ‘Amethyst’. Murray felt like screaming, for the big smooth-bore guns were for roundshot and a shell would tumble in flight without rifling to rotate it. He explained the problem to Robinson – they had no guns that would do more than dent the armour of ‘Huáscar’.

“I know only of the kind of shells fired by mortars.” Robinson admitted. “You know – with a board and a turf above the charge and a round shell on top.” He frowned. “Could you fire something like an arrow from a gun?”

Murray frowned, but he knew the Governor meant well, so grabbed pencil and paper and began to sketch one idea after another. A plank or a wad would not work, but then his poorly-made pencil split into two halves and exposed the lead. The Captain started at the broken pencil and at Robinson, who politely passed him another pencil. Robinson sketched a cylindrical wooden cup supporting a ball, then an arrow with a cup and four small wood sections along the shaft.

“I came across a French ‘sabot’ whilst studying naval gunnery history.” Murray explained. “It allows a big gun to fire roundshot for smaller bores. However, if we had a metal projectile with wooden sabots to stabilise it and to take the force of the explosive gases - yes, it might work. A small arrow might be driven down the gun at a much higher velocity than a roundshot...” He started to mutter calculations under his breath. “...Yes, it’s worth sacrificing a long gun to test the concept...”

After four attempts, Murray came up with an almost blunt-nosed pointed rod with a hard steel tip, a leaded bronze body and steel flights, with a cup sabot and side-sabots. It was a trifle hard to engineer, but he loaded it into a muzzle-loading long nine pounder on a charge of Sullivan’s prismatic brown powder. Murray half expected the gun to burst, but the sabots fell clear on leaving the barrel and the armour-piercing dart whistled down range, to knife through an inch of wrought iron plate on four-inch oak backing. That was barely a third of the strength of ‘Huáscar’’s armour, but it was the first demonstration of an armour-piercing discarding sabot (APDS) shell – a world first, but one that the Royal Navy ignored.

Murray’s next trial was with one of the 64-pounders on ‘Sapphire’, firing a 30-pound APDS against an armour of several iron plates five inches thick on four-inch oak backing. The first round missed – the gun crew were not used to the arrow shell’s almost flat trajectory – but the second round punched through the plate armour and timber in a mass of lethal splinters, to carry on until it hit the backing sandbags and wall of the range target area. The first shell had flown downrange for over two miles before plunging into a tree, a demonstration of its tremendous speed and power. Heartened, Murray put into being a foundry-programme to produce several thousand of these ‘Armour Piercing Flechettes’, as he dubbed them, making sure that the necessary ballistic tables and propellant-sizes were understood. Both ‘Virago’ and ‘Sapphire’ were catered for, in a secret scheme known to few outside the Colony; it was a desperate measure that the Admiralty were completely ignorant of, but it was intended to defend the Colony if anything like the ‘Huáscar’ ever came near Ushuaia. But it was only the first of Murray’s inspirations – or follies – for he had Robinson’s backing to look into other forms of defence.

Both men were aware that as early as 1812 the Russians had used telegraph wires to detonate mines on the seabed electrically, as well as that the American Civil War – only ten years earlier – had had similar devices. Murray found it a simple task to develop a waterproof casing for a 100-pound charge of powder, which could be laid offshore and linked on land to something as simple as a quarry’s electrical exploder. He tested several designs secretly, amazed at their ability to hurl the sea a hundred feet into the air, increasing the production charge to either 400 pounds of Prismatic Brown Powder or 100 pounds of Nobel-type dynamite. With the Sullivan Powder Mills at Wulaia, he had the perfect source for explosives, which could be diverted without the awareness of the Admiralty. An old merchant ship was moored in a cove above a 400-pound charge some 200 feet beneath her, the old ship being torn to pieces by the ‘punch’ of the rising gases from the explosion. Plans were put in hand to produce at least 500 of these devices, 100 in the first two years, the rest as resources permitted, whilst warehouses and a servicing centre were quietly set up for a ‘Boom Defence Unit’. The ambiguity of the name appealed to the seamen running that unit, as much as to the ‘Special Weapons Research’ group producing the flechettes.

Communications across Fuego had always been of concern to both Murray and Robinson, so it was a considerable advance when in 1878 the Colonial Service authorised the erection of the very first telegraph service, initially only from Ushuaia to Port Baynes and Harbourtown, but soon extended to Trelew, Mimosa and Inutil Bay. A second line was started in 1879 across Navarino Island, from the Wulaia Bay powder mill and other sites; the undersea cable from Ushuaia to Wulaia was considered an essential Naval facility. The northerly lines in to the Welsh Settlements were also needed for the Land Guard watchers who anxiously kept a lookout for signs of trouble from Punto Arenas and from Argentine Patagonia. The bulk of the traffic was private and commercial, so the telegraph ran from the start at a profit. It was planned to continue investment in the service with surface and undersea links to the lighthouses and the key islands, again partially for military purposes, but for that some form of grant or additional income was needed.


In 1879 Murray was finally posted to another duty, the Navy becoming slightly suspicious of his close relationship with the Colonial Governor; after a shaky start, the two men had worked in a very effective way. There were some matters on which both Murray and Robinson did see eye-to-eye about, those being the questions of law and order and the suppression of illegal stills; the problems of moonshine contaminated by fusel oil were quite serious, over and above the loss of customs revenue. Foreign policy was also becoming a headache; whaling had always been international, so the seas south of Tierra del Fuego had filled with whaling ships from the USA, Norway, France, Britain, Argentina, Chile and Germany. Some of those whalers definitely had a double task, trying to map channels and inlets for their governments, for the Horn was an important trade route and Fuego was amazingly lightly defended. Murray tried to encourage the formation of a Fuegan Coastguard, over and beyond the dual-use of pilot vessels and the Trinity House vessels. He had managed to get the two gunboats and the 14-gun steam corvette ‘Sapphire’ in 1878, but even so Fuego’s military forces were mostly thirty years old. Murray left for another posting with the Pacific Station at HMS Esquimalt in 1879, being replaced by Captain Frederick Anstruther Herbert.

Some edits are being made - the first telegraph service (at Pete's request). I'll add other tranches shortly...
 
The Gold Rush Years and Captain Herbert :

Captain Herbert, an unassuming but highly competent officer, was the kind of officer the quiet backwater of Fuego really needed; a naval officer, although his father was a General, Herbert was well aware that his task needed one foot on ship and one on shore. The skill, as he quipped, lay in not falling into the water between ship and land, a joke that made him an instant friend of the quiet Robinson. Married to a longsuffering wife who was happy to be friends with Emily Robinson, Herbert cheerfully tackled the task of patrolling the Archipelago and navigating the harsh seas of Cape Horn, but was not afraid to visit the Palmer Peninsula, for he was a naturalist who found the penguins, seals and seabirds of endless fascination. He several times took ‘Sapphire’ the long distance to South Georgia, to show the flag despite the efforts of Americans, Norwegians and Argentines to claim the islands as theirs. The Malvinas he visited four times a year, partly to study the seabirds but also to let the Argentinos know he was watching them. It got to a stage where they found his bluff cheerfulness un-nerving, for he always seemed to turn up when something was going on that they would rather he was ignorant about, even if it was a minor matter like a support-ship running aground. Twice, in fact, the Captain used ‘Sapphire’ to pull Argentine vessels off reefs and on another he caught an American whaler unloading stands of arms for the Argentine garrison.


The first large matter in which both Herbert and Robinson became involved, was the Irish Famine; both men knew that settlement in the Fuegan Archipelago was limited largely to Fuego, part of Navarino and the Nueva and Picton Islands. They agreed that the poor suffering Irish needed some hope, so pressed the Colonial Office in London to offer free or assisted steerage passage to Fuego, the Colony providing land to homestead, tax-free, for ten years. As parts of Navarino and the islands beyond it resembled Commemara, Mayo and Bantry, the emigration was pushed (with Welsh help) as a place where honest Erse farmers could live under a benevolent administration. The Irish were also guaranteed Freedom of Worship and freedom from the tithes and Church taxes that hindered them in Ireland itself. Even so, America was a better lure, although a dozen Fuegan Welshmen managed to recruit several thousand more poor Irish by speaking of the abundant kelp, fish, turf and timber. Many of the Irish who came were thought by some to be more trouble than benefit, for they grumbled as much as they farmed, dissatisfied with the land, the climate, the other settlers – even the quality of the Fuegan whiskey and brandy. Some went north to Chile, but the rest began to settle down, although they complained incessantly.

Robinson considered that the grumbling was simply a reaction to their new freedom, so he introduced a Colonial Assembly and suggested that Councilmen be elected by constituencies in the country and according to population figures in the towns. That let the most vocal Irishmen argue and grumble in the Assembly, but they discovered that the Welsh, Scots, English and Argentinos were by and large not interested in republican politics, concentrating instead upon local services, law and order and education. Some Irish wanted to take over lands kept for the few hundred remaining Yaghan and Yamana tribes, but got no support at all; to the irritation of Herbert and Robinson, they had to reinforce their patrols of the Royal Fuegan Constabulary with some Land Guards, just to stop attempts at murdering or driving off the natives. That further disturbed the Yaghan, even with the good offices of Bridger, Gardner and other missionaries, but it did keep a peace of sorts in the western parts of the Fuegan Archipelago.

The patience of both Robinson and Herbert was to be sorely tried in 1883, when gold was discovered north of Cabo Vergines on the Argentine side of the Magellan Straits. Intelligent Welshmen then started to look along Bahia Sebastian and discovered flakes of gold in the beach-sands all along the coast down to Rio Grande – or, as they called it, Afon Fawr. The township of South Trelew on the Rio Grande became a boom town, as did Mimosa, with hundreds of coastal claims, including two beside the wreckage of the old ‘Mimosa’. Gold was sold initially in South Trelew, but then Robinson and Herbert expanded ‘HMS Baynes’ and illegal gold buying ceased. The Colonial Administration opened gold-buying houses in Mimosa, Trelew, Ushuaia, Pictontown and Wulaia, to pay market prices for gold obtained from the sands of Fuego, Picton, Nueva, Lennox, Navarino, Wollaston and Barnevelt Islands. It started the Fuegan Colonial Bank, the gold-backed investment funds the Colony needed to pay for bridges, roads, improved ports, completion of the telegraph service and a railway system.

But the gold brought with it the usual sleazy mix of ‘Wild West’ saloons, dishonest traders, whores and gambling-dens. Also illegally-sold and iilegally-held firearms, a constant problem for the Police. ‘Fuegan Brandy’ and ‘White Mule’ were sold almost at discount, to discourage inevitable moonshine sales, Robinson and Herbert countering the fly-by-nights by encouraging licensed traders and expanding the Royal Fuegan Constabulary. Although never as famous as the Canadian Mounties, the blue-uniformed Police ‘Bluejackets’ had the same philosophy and under Commander Huw Nagle were to hold the line against the crooks. Robinson and Herbert were quite prepared to call out Royal Navy Regulators and Marines in case of serious trouble and could call on a Land Guard of volunteers from the farms, towns and fishing villages. Illegal arms run across from Punto Arenas were a problem for a brief period, until Herbert went to visit his Chilean Navy counterpart, with the ‘Sapphire’ ready for action and old ‘Virago’ manned by students, to suggest that he help them search for the arms dealers. The Colonel of the Chilean garrison took the hint and the arms trade was stopped with three hangings and ten floggings. Herbert’s gunboat diplomacy had paid off, as did harsh words by the Chief Bards of Mimosa and Welsh Patagonia to certain individuals in Patagonia.

When the first flush of gold-digging wore off, the consolidation of claims began, with the Fuegan Colonial Bank buying up several of the best areas and employing professional miners to recover gold using mechanical equipment. From 1884 to 1905, the gold provided a steady and useful inflow of capital, carefully invested in an improved infrastructure. Fuegan Colonial Railways’ line from Inutil Bay to Mimosa, South Trelew and Ushuaia, with a branch to Harbourtown, was a narrow-gauge service that operated successfully for a very long period. Despite a decline in the 1930s, it was regenerated by oil discoveries and extended slightly in later years, now being largely a freight and tourist service. Robinson was to drive a gold spike into the last sleeper laid into Ushuaia in 1887, the spike later being removed to the Colonial Museum.

Captain Herbert was kept in the dark for a long time about his predecessor’s defensive plans, which only came to light in 1886, when Robinson took him to demonstrations of ‘Virago’ firing flechettes at simulated shore-targets. The bluff Captain cheerfully tried out some of the designs for ‘Sapphire’ on the same range, to be astonished at the way a stone wall was shattered by the impact of the high-velocity steel arrows and a heavy steel plate was penetrated as if by a drill.

“And the Admiralty would not listen to Murray? Good God! Well, they will be of use in the future, I think.” Herbert could see the advantages offered by the different shot, but in view of the period from 1864 to the 1880s, when the Royal Navy had abandoned breechloaders for muzzle-loaders, he was not entirely surprised why Murray had gone it alone. The Colony owned the flechettes and the mines, so in theory the Admiralty had no look in on the development and use of the weapons. He attended the test of a 300-pound mine filled with dynamite and detonated at a depth of 350 feet under the Beagle Channel, keeping his mouth open to avoid concussion-injury as the charge blew up. Even at the safety-range of half a mile, the explosion was very violent and raised discussions as to its effect on a metal-hulled vessel.

“If it did not work, then we would be entitled to ask why, I think.” Captain Herbert remarked to the attentive Robinson. “Have you any more surprises for me? A new Whitehead torpedo, perhaps?”

“That would need specialist knowledge we don’t have at present.” Robinson heaved a sigh. “I’m an administrator, not a military engineer. I’ll be staying here in Fuego – you either like it here or you hate the place. You look as if you like it here.”

Captain Herbert laughed. “It was either Fuego or a naval training college – Their Lordships might make me a Rear-Admiral when I retire, but Naval Ordnance is my enjoyment.” His eyes gleamed. “Give me a little while and I’ll refine these weapons. I knew Sullivan slightly – the Prismatic Brown Powder man. You should have told me about ‘Murray’s Follies’ before!”

Herbert it was who improved the storability of the flechettes by their storage in various oils against rust. He also worked out how to improve the rubberised insulation of mine-ignition wires by developing a wire-coating system using gutta-percha as with undersea cables. Above all, he worked out the best way to deploy mines in both offensive and defensive systems. By 1890 he had begun to deploy mines at choke points on major channels and was trying to argue with the Navy for provision of rifled artillery to defend the naval base at ’HMS Maitland’, preferably on a modern guardship. The ‘Sapphire’ he reported to be well-cared-for but outdated, suggesting that she be disposed of to the Colony for police duties.

“’With the discovery of Gold, there have been Representations by various Chilean and Argentine Interests that Fuego should be passed to one of them or Divided by them. Reading the files left by my predecessor, Capt. Murray, it is Plain that better defences are needed. I Most Strongly Recommend to Their Lordships the stationing at Ushuaia of a Modern Steam Screw Frigate with Armstrong Rifled Guns. Alternatively, four of the new Torpedo Boats, the which are proving a threat to the largest Armoured and Ironclad Ships, could with profit be sent to Ushuaia. I have taken the Precaution of stationing ‘Sapphire’ at a new mooring in Inutil Bay to guard the Straits of Magellan, but she will be Vulnerable to Attack unless supported in some fashion...’”

To support his request, the able Herbert had included intelligence collected by seamen under his command, listing the naval strengths of the Chilean and Argentine Navies and their large number of modern vessels, notably Torpedo Boats. Against these he had two ancient paddle-tugs, the CH-1 and CH-2 with Long Nines and Martini-Henry rifles, three sailing pilot vessels with auxiliary steam engines and Martini-Henrys, the ancient ‘Virago’ and the ineffective ‘Sapphire’.

After careful thought, the Admiralty agreed to add Inutil Bay to its list of anchorages available to the South Atlantic Squadron based at Simonstown, Freetown and Ushuaia, shipping out not four but six of the new TB-class torpedo boats. There was no doubt that the presence of these vessels, armed each with a torpedo-launcher and an early-model Maxim, was a definite improvement; four were stationed at Inutil Bay and two at Port Baynes. The Royal Navy cruisers and battleships that regularly visited Inutil Bay from then on were a definite help, although months sometimes passed without them; the ships had coaling stations at Buenos Aires, so that kept the Argentines careful, even as the Valparaiso station in the Pacific did to the Chileans. But it was becoming increasingly apparent that the use of Chilean caliche to manufacture nitric acid and gunpowder was going to be significant in the future, as was the growth of Britain’s dependence on Argentine meat products and chilled meat. Fuegan gold was less of an issue as the beach placer deposits gradually became less and less productive, but the Fuegan Colonial Bank was in a strong position and could issue investment bonds. As before, whaling, forestry and agriculture became significant, but the Sullivan Powder Mill, the Railway and other improvements, would all be playing their part shortly.

The death of from a sudden heart-attack of ‘Captain’ Governor Robinson at the age of 64 was a serious loss to the Colony, but Fuego was in for a surprise with the appointment of the dynamic and unusual William Lamond Allardyce, Commisioner for Native Affairs in Fiji. Then only 38, he was moved to Ushuaia in 1898 after his sympathy with the natives had annoyed influential businessmen, in the belief that the near-extinct Yaghans and other native Fuegians could not attract his interest. This time it was up to Captain Herbert – now in his sixties – to choose the right moment to explain about ‘Murray’s Follies’.

This tranche was ready, so I've jumped the gun and posted it "And damn the torpedoes!"
 
Governor Allardyce and the Boer War :

Governor and Commissioner Allardyce looked around his office at Ushuaia rather despondently; he had been made aware that most previous Governors remained in post till they were dead, even if they made a success of it. He had hoped for a position in New Zealand or Australia, but instead had been dumped in a elderly-staffed backwater with a hopelessly-cheerful ageing Captain as his colleague. But Bill Allardyce was only thirty-eight, still hopeful of making a success, so he sat and listened as Captain Herbert explained about the military aspects of the Colony and gave him a background briefing on its economic and government system. The detail would come from subordinates, but it seemed that being a maverick was a definite career-requirement in Ushuaia, with two sparring and increasingly-powerful neighbours to the north. The Colony still had only about 56,000 residents, even with benevolent assistance to immigrant colonists from Britain and the Empire. It made up for that with a most remarkable determination to use its resources – dynamite and powder from the Sullivan Powder Mills was being sold throughout the South Cone for mining and tunnelling, meat, timber, spirits and cloth were supplied to the Navy, and there was a modest income from gold mining.

“Your naval resources are very slim, Captain. Do we depend entirely upon the visiting Squadrons?”

Herbert gave him a measuring look. “Not absolutely. Your predecessors and mind developed some excellent but unconventional defences. Torpedo boats are also perfect in these waters. I’ve kept the Chileans off-balance for years, but they’ll face a very nasty surprise if they attack us. Ashore, we’ve several regiments of territorial Land Guards, the armed Royal Fuegan Constabulary, a Naval Academy of cadets and five hundred well-equipped and well-trained royal Marines. Afloat – well, let’s just say we have naval mines and unexpected strengths in artillery. I’ll demonstrate those to you once you’ve toured your new Colony. The place either grows on you or drives you to resign and leave.”

Allardyce had respected what he had heard of Governor Robinson, and was astonished to find that the old ‘Virago’ paddle steamer – now converted to a screw design – had her mid-nineteenth century cabins but also a fearsome quartet of devices bought in by Robinson. These ‘Maxim guns’ were heavy machine-guns with a powerful rate of fire, replacing the old-fashioned swivel guns used against boarders. It was also intriguing to find that the ship’s cannon had been quietly replaced with stronger long-barrelled Dahlgren guns. At a time when muzzle-loaders had all but vanished, it was strange to see them still in use aboard the ‘Virago’. The naval cadets under Commander Henry Morgan were all colonials, but impressive with their seamanship. Allardyce was amazed to find some crew had Spanish names, others were Welsh, Irish, Scots and even Basque.

“A community of nations – but we’re all Fuegans, now.” Henry Morgan was a clean-shaven officer who was sure of what he knew. “And before you ask, sir – no, I’m no relative to the pirate who became Governor of Jamaica. Our grog is made with Fuegan Brandy, not Jamaica Rum.” From the wry smile on the Commander’s face, it was a very old joke; Allardyce was sure he heard some of the students sniggering.

“Are there no native Fuegans?” That came out before Allardyce could stop himself – a relic of his Fijian service. “The Yaghans – Yamana tribesmen?” He could see some of the students looking dismayed and Morgan frowned. “Fitzroy’s accounts indicate a population of several thousand.”

“Mostly dead, sir.” Morgan was choosing his words with care. “Measles and influenza, on Navarino and in East Fuego. Some were shot when they hunted cattle or robbed isolated farms. Others died from alcohol poisoning or wearing clothes – the Doctors say that their bodies were so used to the cold, mission clothing killed them. There are some in the western islands of the Fuegan Archipelago, but only a few on Fuego itself. We stopped some farmers who went out and shot the Ona – killing the Yamana is now as bad a crime as killing a white man, sir.”

“How many are left?” Allardyce felt his heart sink. “A handful?”

“At the last count, only forty-three on Fuego, maybe two hundred in the western islands. They avoid us now as if we’ve the plague – which is probably true, for them.” Morgan actually looked unhappy. “So we’re the Fuegans, now.”

Allardyce let the matter lie and instead allowed them to show him ‘Virago’ from bridge down to stokehold, then was witness to a gun-drill in which a cadet crew fired an APDS round to about two miles away. Morgan explained that the ‘arrow shell’ had tremendous striking power, if used against an armoured ship, but that more usually the guns fired roundshot or powder-filled round shells. It was a peculiarly Colonial expedient, to Allardyce, but it taught him that the Fuegans would use any workable scheme to achieve what they wanted.

The tour of his new Colonial area gave Governor Allardyce a series of surprises and contrasts; it was surprisingly large and diverse, with its mountain ranges and forests, weed-hung islets, open ranchlands and tighter farmlands, farmers in the south obsessed with drainage problems and farmers in the north discussing irrigation. And that was only Fuego itself; Navarino had industry at Port Victoria and Wulaia, mining on nearby Picton, Scots oats and barley, Irish potato-growers and Yaghan natives. Further west were the almost-uninhabited islands running to an ill-defined border with Chile, a sleeping dog that Allardyce was sure he could no longer leave to lie. And there was the Navy – three bases, each growing with every year, employing most people not in commerce, agriculture or colonial infrastructure. Farms and meat-packing works flying the White Ensign were strange enough, but the mines and the school system had naval influences as well.

Welsh influence was nearly as far-reaching as that of the Navy, for this very loyal part of the settlement community had determination, worked hard and saw Fuego as its own; the chapels of Inutil, Mimosa and Trelew, were not unlike ones Allardyce had seen in Wales itself. Methodists outnumbered Catholics and Anglicans, becoming in essence the established church, much as Presbyterianism had in Scotland. The commonest dogs in northern Fuego were Welsh Collies, although Terriers and Corgis were present elsewhere. The Colony also had a strong tradition of public service – if you did not join the Navy, you were a reservist of the Land Guard, or you were a Special Constable, or you worked in some other area of ‘national’ interest. Men tended to save for a small business or to use homestead privileges to offset taxation, so the economy might be tax-poor but it was investment-rich. And then there was the Fuegan Marine, of which Commander Morgan was the most senior officer and Head of the Naval Academy.

“Yes, sir.” Henry Morgan actually grinned; all he needed was a tricorne hat, a beard and a gold earring. “Nicknamed the ‘Colonial Navy’. It started with the cadets and went on to have its own Reserve crews for ‘Virago’ and other vessels. Martini-Henry rifles, some Maxims, a few Armstrong rifled screw-guns. And lads who train with us go on to the merchant trade as Royal Naval Reservists, so we do our bit for the Empire.”

“And you never throw anything away?” Allardyce was starting to guess the truth. “Fuegan Nationalists?” They were safe in Morgan’s office at the time, so plain-speaking was possible.

“The Queen’s Fuegans, sir, through and through.” Morgan jerked a head towards a rather nice lithotype of Queen Victoria in her earlier years as a mother with her family. Allardyce’s office had one of the later portraits of the ageing Widow of Windsor, but he saw why Morgan had retained an 1860s picture. “Even the quarrelsome Irish and the Argentinos. The Navy started Fuego Colony, but ultimately it’ll be Fuego that decides its future. You’ve seen the Colonial Assembly?” He saw Allardyce’s slight shudder. “All good clothes and bad manners, eh?”

The Colonial Assembly had asked that the new Governor come to see them as soon as possible; Allardyce had agreed to come and had regretted it as soon as he entered the Assembly Hall, a building that served as a social centre when not needed for the monthly Colonial Assembly meetings. The Welsh wanted the Assembly moved to Trelew, the Scots, English and Irish, all wanted a larger permanent home in Ushuaia, despite the excellent railway services. The Irish wanted a large list of requirements dealt with in their favour at once, the others were a little more diplomatic, so Allardyce had gently told them that decisions would have to wait until he had audited the Colony’s finances. He invited them all to subscribe to funds for their requested projects, assuring them that these funds would be managed for the sole purpose they were collected for. It was an off-the-cuff solution that had appealed to the Welsh and Scots, used as they were to self-help, but caused some muttering amongst the English and Irish; the words ‘tight-fisted bastard’ came to his excellent hearing from one Yorkshireman. It was not a promising start to relations with some of the most influential colonists.

“They were trying you out for size, sir.” Morgan read Allardyce’s expression easily enough. “They’ll fall into line fast enough, in a real crisis. The Irish are always trying to create their own New Limerick on Hoste Island. The Chileans tried to make them leave the area two years ago, in support of their own claims, but the Irish just dug their feet in and told the Chilean agitators that New Limerick is here to stay and a part of Fuego. We – er – Welsh, had told the Irish not to trust anything north and west of the Straits of Magellan. Councilman Seamus Flaherty told the Irish Council that you look as soft as cheese but you’re hard as nails, sir. It’s quite the compliment, coming from the Irish.”

“And the Straits of Magellan run where, exactly?” That had been a headache for Allardyce to work out; there were various maps and few really agreed. The Argentine had taken much of Patagonia whilst Chile was fighting Bolivia and Peru, but the maps were different. The Chileans were saying that Fuego should stop at the Cockburn and Magdelena Channels, off the Fuego Island west coast, but the Straits of Magellan could run as far north as Desolation Island, by the main shipping channel. It meant that the Northwestern Fuegan Archipelago was debateable land. “And could we hold onto it, if pushed?”

Morgan looked up from his charts with a somewhat defeated look. “No, sir – not without a war. It’s just that Chile could stop up the Magellanic navigation if it took those islands. Cockburn Channel narrows considerably and could easily be blocked by artillery. The area west of Mount Darwin is a bit like the Andes and unpopulated except by a handful of hunters, trappers and natives. We’ve introduced the Beaver and Huemul there to help them.” He saw Allardyce was looking slightly at a loss. “The Huemul is a kind of hardy deer, sir. Hunted in Patagonia – good eating, but a bit hard to track. But, about the Chilean problem...”

Diplomatically, it was an attempt by the Chileans to dominate the Straits of Magellan; the route was threatened by Royal Navy use of Fuegan Inutil Bay’s Cameron anchorage, and by Ushuaia. As the secret builders of now almost a thousand naval mines, the Fuegans knew all too well that the Chileans needed only one minefield to control the channel, even as Argentina could threaten to do at what they named the Delgado Narrows, near the eastern end of the Straits. What nobody there appeared to realise was that the Straits were under threat as a seaway in any case – Allardyce had been briefed on what the Frenchman De Lesseps was trying to achieve in digging a Canal across the Isthmus of Panama. The French appeared to have almost given up after nearly ten years of Yellow Fever deaths and unstable geology, but were still plodding on.

“That? Yes, the Colony has paid agents reporting from Panama on progress.” Morgan nodded. “Your Secretary of Colonial Defence, Fred Jarvis. He shares his intelligence with us.” Allardyce raised an eyebrow at that news, for Jarvis had not directly informed him. “An understanding between the Marine, Captain Herbert and Governor Robinson. Very informal, sir. It’s because the Navy wouldn’t pay for agents to keep Captain Herbert and the Admiral of the Pacific Station informed.”

“Did you realise that the United States was becoming interested?” The Governor decided to test the limits of his subordinate’s knowledge and was not let down.

“Yes, sir. But I think they plan to buy the French out, as Britain did at Suez. The French are very stubborn, so if they succeed, the bottom falls out of the Chilean demands. It’ll be years, yet.”

For some months thereafter, Allardyce anxiously wondered if the Navy had accidentally created another group of Boers, with whom the authorities in South Africa were having increasing problems. The Boers had kept quiet during the battles with the Zulus in the 1879, then in 1881 had fought a short war using breech-loading long-range rifles, light cavalry and khaki clothing, to counter red-coated British Army lines and columns. Allardyce reflected that the Land Guard was virtually a Boer Commando system, with trained marksmen living at home and with good horses; Robinson had encouraged marksmanship competitions from 1886, so that the Land Guard were virtually all good snipers. Five hundred Marines, good though they were, would be far outnumbered by the ‘Arloeswyr’ or ‘Pioneers’, as the Welsh called their mounted Land Guard units. Equally, the Land Guard Armstrong rifle artillery could outrange the Marines’ guns, so an independent-minded Colonial Assembly need go only a short way to become an independent nation. But the Welsh paid taxes and subscriptions on time, the Irish by 1890 were grumbling but calling on community effort to build their own infrastructure of schools and roads, whilst the Scots, Argentinos and English just got on with life.

Ironically, it was the Argentinos who liked Allardyce most; he acquired a liking for Argentine food such as Cornalitos and Rabas at a small Ushuaia restaurant, so was invited home to an estancia near Lake Fagnano by the proprietor’s brother for cervezas and a Cordero barbecue. The word spread that Allardyce was prepared to trust them as Fueginos, not merely trusting the Welsh and Scots, so when there was some legal dispute, the Argentinos could rely on Allardyce in his official capacity. When one of his new friends exclaimed in dismay about a political headache in Argentina that was affecting his relatives, Allardyce wondered if Welsh diplomacy could help, but was told that it only helped in Patagonia.

“The cymryos, they are above all folk.” Morales raised expressive eyebrows and hands. “But they never understood Buenos Aires and the Chaco. Maybe – maybe if I tell my relatives to come here?”

“Immigration and homesteading? If they will understand and sign citizenship to Fuego, why not?” Allardyce was delighted. “I was thinking of releasing some Crown land for settlement, just south of Inutil or by the mouth of the Rio Grande.”

There were only a few hundred new Argentino immigrants, but they liked the land and the welcome, so took oath to live as citizens of Fuego and to support it as best they could. Some farmed, others added skills as farriers, smiths, restaurateurs, bankers, leatherworkers (they made excellent boots) and even as builders and carpenters. The community of Rio south of the river was very much an Argentino start, but was settled by the ubiquitous Welsh and Scots soon enough. In 1902, the Fuegan Railway Company built a spur line to ‘Rio del Fuego’ and the town’s future was ensured. Thereafter, every time there was some political upset in Argentina, a trickle of enterprising souls made their way south to Rio or to Ushuaia or Port Cameron on Inutil Bay, to take up citizenship and to add their own norteargentino cultural flavour to their ‘raw’ Patagonian neighbours. For their part, the Welsh and Argentino Patagonians thought the porteños to be a bunch of ‘city slickers’ and took a long time in regarding them as genuine Fueginos.

But the outside world moved on and presented more challenges to little Fuego Colony, as Allardyce discovered in mid-1899 when it became clear that the Boer States of the Transvaal and the Orange Free State were determined not to be annexed by Britain. They had imported magazine rifles and a quantity of artillery, so would be a much tougher prospect to fight than in 1881. The foolish Jameson Raid attempted by Cecil Rhodes had given the Boers justification, but the real argument was about gold and the sovereignty of the Boer states. Colonial administrations around the world – even the small British Fuego Colony – were faced by requests from London for volunteers and support for the war. Allardyce brought this to the Colonial Assembly, having already sent a reply that the small Colony population could ill-afford to lose its limited weapons and armed forces, in view of Chilean and Argentine interests in the Fuegan colony. He offered to expand the Sullivan Powder Mill at Wulaia to produce cordite for firearms and artillery and to send across quantities of canned meat and vegetables, ship’s biscuit, beer, brandy and woollen cloth.

“...Naturally, if any colonists wish to take part, this administration will do its best to equip and supply them suitably.” Allardyce assured the special meeting of the Colonial Assembly. “Those who return from what I fear may be a conflict of some years, may have military information that the Colony can use.”

“The Royal Naval Reserve will be activated for transport crews.” Captain Herbert warned the Assembly; the old Captain was sombre, seeing the risk of losing many of his best-trained men. “It appears the major risks will be to men fighting ashore.”

In the circumstances, the small colony decided to support Allardyce’s caution; the RNR men in the handful of Colony merchant ships had to hand over to cadets and subordinates before reporting to HMS Maitland in Ushuaia. Captain Herbert had gallantly volunteered for sea duty in the Royal Navy, but the Admiral of the Pacific Squadron gently refused to allow him to be posted elsewhere as he was too useful where he was. Nevertheless, a hundred and eighty-four men from a variety of backgrounds – many, surprisingly, Irish, Welsh and Argentino – volunteered to serve in South Africa as Mounted Infantry, taking their horses with them on the brig ‘Myfanwy Adams’ in November 1899. Allardyce wrote a letter to Sir Alfred Milner, his counterpart in Cape Province, telling him that the ‘Fuegan Land Guards’ were trained as snipers and scouts, so would be best used as light cavalry to track and intercept Boer Commandos ahead of British Army advances. In a remarkable exercise of common sense, Milner and his Prime Minister Cecil Rhodes decided to take Allardyce at his word, the word ‘Guard’ maybe having something to do with it. Furthermore, the ‘Fuegan Guards’, in two short companies, were armed with the new short-magazine Lee-Enfield, an expense that was Allardyce’s one major concession to the Boer War. The two Guards Lieutenants in charge of the Companies were under the authority of Captain Charles Thomas of the Royal Marines, who had understood about the Boer methods and tactics of 1881 and expected to have to deal with them. Herbert and Allardyce had promised Thomas that they would see to it that any ‘special weapons’ required by the ‘Fuegan Guards’ would be prepared by the Sullivan Powder Mills – now renamed ‘Wulaia Arsenal’ – and sent in Colony ships to Capetown.

That forethought paid off when it became clear that the Boer knew how to use Maxim guns, barbed wire and trench warfare. General Buller’s disastrous campaign in late 1899 cost the Fuegan Colony 17 dead men, including Lieutenant Alfredo Morales, who was mourned by William Allardyce and other friends. But the close-knit Fuegan community all had a friend, relative or acquaintance to mourn, a feeling expressed in the determined way that they saw to it that widows, orphans and other dependents, were given a war pension at Colonial expense.

“Is there anything you can send us to throw a shell into the Boer entrenchments? It must be light enough to carry on a horse and for one or two men to carry.” Captain Charles Thomas’s request arrived in late December, so the Arsenal got to work at once.

Back in the early 1800s there had been small brass portable trench mortars, but these were too old-fashioned to be worth using. There was also the now-obsolescent screw gun, a 7-pounder rifled muzzle-loader for mountain work. But, as became clear, what was needed was a device that fired a shell or grenade at a high angle so it would fall into a Boer entrenchment. A howitzer was the automatic thought, but that was again too heavy. A telegraph message to Capetown established that the ranges could be up to a hundred yards but generally about twenty yards. Herbert and the Arsenal designers, MacDonald and Jones, came up with two solutions – a grenade that could be shot from an adapted rifle and bipod, and a simple tube mortar with a bipod and base plate. The second design had a shell that, like a bullet-cartridge, had a fulminate igniter to set off its propellant charge. After tests with breech-loaded designs, MacDonald looked at an APDS round, apparently said “Of course!” and made a round with a warhead on top of a fin-stabilised rocket-like propellant container. The final MacDonald-Jones Mortar had a spike in its breech to ignite the mortar shell which was loaded by being dropped down the muzzle. The tube, base-plate and bipod, had a crude angle-protractor to tie angle to range and was easy enough for one man to carry. The mortar shell – or mortar bomb – weighed eleven pounds and five could be carried by a reasonably strong soldier.

The first four Fuegan Arsenal MJ-1 Mortar and 400 bombs were sent out on the second of February 1900, arriving with the Fuegan Guards on the 2oth February. They were too late to assist in the great push north into the Transvaal, but the Guards found them of great value against entrenchments and small fortified positions. In fact, the main problem was of making and sending enough bombs to keep up with the demand, for twelve bombs could be fired every minute, by a skilled three-man crew. The porteño leatherworkers were to build special mule-saddles to hold twenty bombs per mule, but even four each of these per mortar was not enough. The MJ-1 was the first open military success of Fuego Arsenal and a further fifty were made for local use in case of Chilean attack. More significantly, the Royal Ordnance was to produce a variant of the design, which was well-suited for areas like the North West Frontier in India. Fourteen years later, it was to have an even more dramatic use.

The Colonies had to carry out another and largely unwanted duty, holding prisoner some of the 28,000 Boer fighters who surrendered in stages over 1901-1902. Fuego was considered suitable, but the choice of a prison camp site was a headache. The best location – Hoste Island – was unfortunately too near the Irish, who regarded the Boers as victims of Imperial oppression and might be too helpful to escapees. Anything near a port or railway might also be unsuitable, as Argentina and Chile were not far enough away. Site after site was proposed but found unsuitable – above all, the Land Guards and the Royal Fuegan Constabulary had other tasks – so Allardyce was forced to give up the MJ-1 mortar design to the Royal Ordnance in London instead. MacDonald and Jones shrugged it off; they had developed a system of varying the propellant-rings in each bomb to change the range and were looking at a very nasty 6-inch mortar loaded and fired from the breech. That large design had a range of nearly 900 yards and could in theory be used from a ship with reinforced decks or be deployed as a coastal defence gun.

The Fuegan Guards (their title now official, their overseas duty numbers boosted to four companies), were to suffer a disproportionate total of 47 dead and 112 wounded, mainly because they were a tactically useful and rapid-use mobile response force. Captain (by 1902, Colonel) Thomas, was to later complain that Colonial troops such as his men and Australian regiments, seemed to be regarded as ambush tripwires against the Boers. For their part, the Boers regarded ‘Fuega Commando’ as being men who fought on equal terms and preferred to surrender to them, rather than to regular troops. The Guards were to protest publicly at the appalling treatment given to the Boer women and children in the Kitchener ‘Concentration Camps’ and that is one reason why they were rapidly repatriated as soon as possible after the war’s end. Rather less well known was the Fuegans’ relief efforts in sending a Medical Convoy in May 1902 under Doctor Andrew Maclean and Matron Redvers, whose Red Cross nurses helped in two concentration camps despite official attempts to deter them.

Early in 1903, old Captain Herbert fell ill and died; it was the end of an era, his coffin being carried to All Saints to be interred beside that of his friend Governor Robinson. His place as Captain HM Naval Base Maitland and HMS Sapphire, then came under review; the Royal Navy had learnt that the United States was going to finish the moribund French-inspired Panama Canal and that would make Ushuaia of much reduced value. Port Cameron at Inutil Bay and HMS Baynes were going to be scaled back and the Royal Navy saw no need for a permanent and up to date destroyer or cruiser to be stationed at Ushuaia. Governor Allardyce and the Admiral of the Pacific Station were asked if the Fuegan Marine had anybody suitable, and Captain Morgan was chosen on the basis of local knowledge, seniority and excellent service as an RNR officer during the Boer War. It was later established that this was an experiment on the Admiralty’s part, Captain Morgan being given an 1895 destroyer, ‘HMS Ardent’, which had been rapidly outdated by the Royal Navy’s continuing developments.

With the appointment of Captain Henry Morgan and his commissioning as a Royal Navy Captain RN, the Colony could have been said to come of age, for there was now Colonel Thomas of the Fuegan Guards in charge of the Colony’s small land army. The Colonial Assembly had powers to use some of its taxation already, but the Governor still had over-riding authority. What the Admiralty did not tell the Fuegans or their Governor was that there had been a secret re-assessment of the Colony’s defensive capabilities and that a Naval Intelligence agent had even taken pictures of APDS rounds being fired and mines being tested. With the permission of the Colonial Office, the Colony was to be told to organise its own defence arrangements; whilst it had a modest population, the unusual success of the self-supporting Fuegan Guards and their mortars had been the final proof that they would be able to hold their own in a modern conflict.

The Colony's heading towards self-sufficiency economically. but it's still got too small a population base to afford or crew large ships.

Hope you all like it - but I apologise for its length.
 
Map of BTdF by Marcos Ceia

British_Tierra_del_Fuego_by_MarcosCeia.jpg
 
Nice one, Ampersand...A few thoughts, though...

The Maori will be taking the islands from Desolacion down to Clarence as (I hope this will be right) their Islands/Island of Fire/Fires - Te Ahi Ani - with Ines becoming Te Wai Pounamu - Place of Greenstone - as this is where their paramount chief's greenstone club (mere) is located; the equivalent in pakeha English would be 'Sceptre' or 'Capital Island'.

Otherwise, I'm very impressed. I'm bad at maps. I wonder if I could interest you in mapping a WWII cordite factory I'm researching OTL...
 
Pete's Birds and Flowers - and my reply

Birds and Flowers of Fuego
Cordi, I came with the idea of doing a poll to decide the flower and the bird of Tierra del Fuego:D
And with this we might increase interest in the TL.
Two birds with one stone:cool:

Flowers:

Michay
http://www.magellanicnaturetours.com...iones/51gr.jpg

Notro(Fuegans can give it another name):
http://www.guiafe.com.ar/argentina-t...0Argentina.jpg

Calafate(Fuegans can give it another name):
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/160/3...2f4cf635e0.jpg

Jazmin Fueguino(i.e Fuegan Jasmine):
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_q_uStLq8N0...00/JAZMIN-.jpg


Birds:

Carpintero Fueguino(Fuegan Woodpecker):
http://www.rutaschile.com/parques/Im...tero-Negro.jpg
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...Woodpecker.jpg

Condor(Fuegans can give it another name):
http://e-nimals.com/wp-content/uploa.../09/condor.jpg

Pato Vapor(Steamer duck):
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...res.couple.jpg

Cisne cuello negro(Black necked swan):
http://www.avespampa.com.ar/CisneCuelloNegro1.jpg

Pato Cortacorrientes(Fuegan can give it another name):
http://www.astrosurf.com/tiotuyin/Av...415_v2_1_0.jpg

Cauquen (Ona name, might stay the same):
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...haga_picta.jpg

Albatros:
http://www.profesorenlinea.cl/imagen...scejanegra.jpg

For mammals I don't propose it as the Guanaco is the obvious choice.

Then we need a motto, and who knows, maybe an anthem:D

My reply :

Pete... I do have a BSc in Environmental Science... These lovely plants and birds I'll never see...

The Firehead Woodpecker (Red Carpenter Bird) is a busy little creature like Fuegans themselves. Or you've got the Fireflower (your Notro) which the Fuegans might want. But I do like your Chuffer Ducks - just like 'Pot' and 'Kettle', the tugs/lighthouse tenders.

Motto 'Keep The Fire in the Blood' - a steal from my Mermaid stories.

The National Anthem of every Crown Colony of the United Kingdom is 'God Save the Queen'. An independent Fuego should have a paragraph for each major ethnic group - the English, Welsh, Scots, Irish and Maori.

Do you know what minerals (metalliferous or other) are likely to be in Desolacion, Santa Ines and Clarence Islands?

Or should I put the Maori on the western parts of Hoste Island? There may be room enough for the Irish in western Navarino and Peninsulas Dumas, Hardy and Pasteur.
 
Illustrating BTdF...

Pete sent this : Photos of Fuego
Hi, I will do another Roberto Ferretti's life to see if it's better.

Here a photo of Ferretti:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...oncastillo.jpg

Some photos of Western Isles:
http://sobreargentina.com/wp-content...os-estados.jpg
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...os_Estados.jpg

Also, here you got some old photos from Tierra del Fuego and some similar places, mainly New Zealand for similarity in geography and forests:

Ushuaia:
http://i33.tinypic.com/160wwo3.jpg
http://i33.tinypic.com/2dtks3.jpg
http://www.uhall.com.hk/portal/images/TheCastle/b.jpg
http://a7.idata.over-blog.com/470x33...uaia-vieja.jpg
http://i35.tinypic.com/2crraj6.jpg
http://www.bobanderson.co.uk/images/...room_large.jpg

Port Williams:
http://www.museodelfindelmundo.org.ar/ima/40/6gr.jpg
http://i38.tinypic.com/58itu.jpg
http://www.tierradelfuego.org.ar/noticias/ima/286gr.jpg
http://www.clickchubut.com.ar/wp-con...cia-chubut.jpg

Useless Bay:
http://www.museodelfindelmundo.org.ar/ima/16/13gr.jpg
http://www.museodelfindelmundo.org.ar/ima/40/11gr.jpg
http://www.museodelfindelmundo.org.ar/ima/16/19gr.jpg
http://www.nzetc.org/etexts/Gov10_05...05Rail024a.jpg
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_473nrD5vEv...arm-family.jpg
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_473nrD5vEv...te-farmers.jpg

Port Mimosa:
http://www.museodelfindelmundo.org.ar/ima/16/7gr.jpg
http://www.puertoushuaia.gov.ar/imag...istoria002.jpg

Harbour Town:
http://patbrit.org/img/oth/eacerropayne3.jpg
http://www.archivoshistoricos.com.ar...es_sitios2.jpg
http://www.bobanderson.co.uk/images/...ouse_large.jpg
http://www.nzetc.org/etexts/Gov14_02...025a(h280).jpg
http://www.nzetc.org/etexts/Cyc03Cyc...066a(h280).jpg
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_473nrD5vEv...farm-house.jpg
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_473nrD5vEv...il-service.jpg

Afon Fawr/Rio Grande/Port Baynes after Gold Rush:
http://www.histarmar.com.ar/InfHisto...hile/20-12.jpg
http://www.bobanderson.co.uk/images/...otel_large.jpg
http://www3.familyoldphotos.com/file...0s.preview.jpg
http://api.ning.com/files/mG-ERYu6rJ...tAmbulance.jpg
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_473nrD5vEv.../homestead.jpg

Ona people:
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_YKlt4pHJg3...o02-753612.JPG
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_zkXSwmUVeC...lia-yamana.jpg

H'ain:
http://www.eltriangular.info/IMG/image/Fotos/hain.gif

Yaghan people:
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_HzNXdX6RD8...ana-Family.jpg
http://www.misionrg.com.ar/yamana12.jpg

Colonizers:
http://www.museodelfindelmundo.org.ar/ima/16/10gr.jpg
http://www.patagonia-argentina.info/...09/gaiman2.JPG
http://www.museodelfindelmundo.org.ar/ima/16/12gr.jpg
http://mysite.ncnetwork.net/judithaw/Walters.jpg
http://www3.familyoldphotos.com/file...ly.preview.jpg

Football match between Welsh and Argentine settlers:
http://perso.wanadoo.es/eugeni1980/i...ol_antigua.jpg

Rugby game between Scots and Irish:
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3157/...26e3c9f015.jpg

Governor Allardyce
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_473nrD5vEv...s1600-h/rb.jpg


Captain Morgan:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...artSeymour.jpg

Boats:
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_473nrD5vEv...kon-miners.jpg
http://www.hellenicnavy.gr/images/ol...ias_L-67_2.jpg
http://www.roll-of-honour.com/Ships/...anSunk1917.jpg
http://www.bobanderson.co.uk/images/...gade_large.jpg
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_FfetiF7C9v...er.%2B1861.JPG
http://i31.tinypic.com/25auc7r.jpg
http://www.museodelfindelmundo.org.ar/ima/16/2gr.jpg

Beagle Channel Lighthouses:
http://www.racerocks.com/racerock/hi...rrhistboat.jpg
http://www.museodelfindelmundo.org.ar/ima/16/15gr.jpg

Estancias:
http://www.museodelfindelmundo.org.ar/ima/16/11gr.jpg
http://www.chubut.gov.ar/cultura/sit...ra%20rural.jpg
http://www.maf.govt.nz/mafnet/public...dairy-farm.jpg
http://www.kennerhorseranch.com/imag...%20website.jpg
http://www.nzetc.org/etexts/Gov10_09...09Rail060a.jpg

Gaucho(Argentinean Workers):
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...aucho1868b.jpg
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...ander-1936.jpg
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...chosvonALE.jpg
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...1b/Work17c.jpg

Old Oil Rig:
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_OTUfEPuZoi...8/antigua5.jpg

Gold Prospector:
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_473nrD5vEv...h/pack-dog.jpg

Hunters:
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_473nrD5vEv...nting-camp.jpg

Fuegan Guard:
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_473nrD5vEv...an-mountie.jpg
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_473nrD5vEv...h/mounties.jpg

Timber Mills:
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_473nrD5vEv...ining-town.jpg
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_473nrD5vEv...iver-front.jpg

I chose photographies with looked like if they were taken in Fuego.

Hope you like them!
__________________
British Tierra del Fuego - Land of hard and whiskey-

Corditeman's reply :

The photos are incredible:D! Old Ushuaia and Port Mimosa are much as I'd imagined them at that time. You must have spent ages putting them together. An Illustrated History of British Fuego.

Particularly loved the Misses Fords' Tea Rooms - a touch of local colour. The Guards are obviously Mounties, but the uniforms could be blue.

In my mind's eye, I thought Allardyce might be clean shaven, but Morgan would be bearded like his pirate namesake. There are pictures of Robinson on the Internet, but I've not located ones of Allardyce yet - he was a Governor of part of Australia and of Newfoundland, in reality.

Ferretti's life is improving. I'm still a month away from incorporating him, though. Montt, not Goni, was the Naval Director General of Chile in the period I'm interested in - a President for six years, then NDG till 1916. Remarkable man.
 
Sent as a PM three weeks ago - Pete was busy

The settlement of the Island.
Well, It's nice to see you are going to do this with me so here is my part.

The best areas for settlement(with links to pics) in the island are 6. The popution is for present day(not the real pop, but how many people can live there comfortable and this being a small colony:

-Ushwaia: Best for a base. It has the deepest port, but is not good for a big settlent. It does no have space, it's almost the sea, hills and the mountains in less than 2/3 km. It have much forest but most is only good for heating, as the trees are tall but not wide. There is room for as much as 10000 inhabitants and their small backyard farms.
http://www.travelpatagonia.info/blog...-del-fuego.JPG


-Harberton/Lasifashaj: River plain : The best for a big settlement and the capital. Much room and big plains. Some wind. It has the biggest river in the south side of the Islands. This is going to be the place of most farms. About 80000 people can live here with their small backyard farms, or 60000 if there are some farms.
http://media-cdn.tripadvisor.com/med...nal-tierra.jpg
http://www.tierradelfuego.org.ar/ima...de/ima/020.jpg
http://www.explorepatagonia.com/imag...go/tifuego.jpg
http://www.eurotur.com.ar/html/hoteles/harberton.jpeg
http://www.bikertony.org/PicsArgenti...20Lapataia.jpg


-Yehuin Lake: this is the northernmost part of the forest. It's dryer and there are some spots of true Patagonia but the trees tend to be bigger. The best activities are lumberjacks and maybe small farms mainly for cattle(here the soil is worst). If we introduce lets say deer(Huemul is a good option, as it is from Patagonia), as it won't have natural hunters, it will prosper, and that gives a good hunting piece, as it may even suffer become bigger from Insular gigantism. Maybe 10.000 people with small and medium sized ranches, cattle being the better option)
http://www.arielpablo.com.ar/images/...raDelFuego.jpg
http://images.travelpod.com/users/hi...-harberton.jpg
http://lh5.ggpht.com/_ngDX_XshHKA/SQ...ago+Yehuin.JPG

-Tolhuin: here we have an excellent place for lumberjacks and if we introduce something hunting. Farms are optional, but here we have the best soil of the island. There is space for about 10.000 people with small farms but there is not much room for ranching.
http://www.cabosandiego.com.ar/camin...0harberton.jpg
http://www.reisen-patagonien.de/imag...wald_gross.jpg
http://ushuaiaexplorer.com/web/wp-co...go-fagnano.jpg
http://www.welcomeargentina.com/riog.../tolhuin31.jpg

-Navarino Island: Puerto Williams is much like Ushuaia but smaller. I think the best place would be the Southeast of the island, where there is more space and better terrain for ranching, with cattle and goats as the best options.
http://static.panoramio.com/photos/original/3342282.jpg
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3149/...26c2c148_o.jpg

-Rio Grande mouth : If we are going to have sheep in the northern side of the Islands, we at least need a city or settlement to be the center of the Activity. We have the biggest river on the island, good for introducing trouts, and controlling the zone. The only we can do here are the sheep at first and then much oil and gas.
http://media-cdn.tripadvisor.com/med...rio-grande.jpg
http://www.ushuaia-argentina.com/blo...rio-grande.jpg
http://www.fotopaises.com/imagenes/AR/1164796166.jpg

Then, there are other areas suitable for smaller settlements:
- Lasifashaj valley: It is very similar to Swiss valleys, we can have agriculture here, but not goof lumberjacks or ranching. Maybe up to 5 settlements of as much as 500 or less each.
http://images.travelpod.com/users/ma...0.pc130487.jpg
http://philip.greenspun.com/images/2...huin-1_JFR.JPG
http://www.chefotos.com/wp-content/r...la-pataia1.jpg

- East of Isla de los Estados: like Ushwaia but smaller. Not good for lumberjacks or farming, but goats are quite a possibility. Fishing and the lighthouses can be important.
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_9pPlRlCd0D...Zjw/s400/8.JPG
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...os_Estados.jpg
http://www.ushuaianeveaoextremo.com/...as/ima/019.jpg

- Inutil Bay: like Rio Grande but smaller. It has some wood and is better for sheep. It is also the best place to have control over the Magalleanic Strait and also good for controlling sheep ranching in the West side of the Island. Maybe 2.000 inhabitants, or up to 4.000.
http://www.tierradelfuego.org.ar/ima...de/ima/001.jpg

- Peninsula mitre: it is the jackpot if you want Peat, and I guess it have a good deal of lignite(this area was never explored for minerals). Some forest and good for hills sheep. Maybe a 2.000 people settlement in Bahia Aguirre.
http://www.comunidadviajeros.com.ar/...ios-id61-3.jpg
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_q_uStLq8N0...policarpo2.jpg

So well up to here I gave you the settlements. Now the what breeds we can in each place, because you British are famous for having breeds of everything. So here I will propose breeds which will obviously be improved and become new breeds:
Feel free to propose

Horse:
In order of likeness of prospering(the British are more likely to be used) I propose:
-The Icelandic horse
-The Fjord Horse(maybe only for Beagle zone)
-The Criollo horse

For cattle:
-The Tyrolese Grey Cattle
-The Galloway cattle
-The Shetland cattle
-The Hereford cattle

For goats(Navarino and Estados):
-The Irish Goat

For sheep:
Navarino and Estados:
-The Icelandic Sheep
-The Faroes Sheep
-The Shetland Sheep
Patagonia part:
-The Corriedale

Hunting can be fun so here are some posibilities in order of doing less damage to the native flora and fauna:
-Guanaco. Native. Lives mostly in Patagonian part. No damage. Will suffer from Sheep ranching.
-Huemul. Native to continental Patagonia. Didn't make it to islands because of the ice sheets. Would live in forest parts of main island. Minimal damage. Won't suffer much as there are many forests which wont' be used. Will grow(it's two thirds the size of red deer lives in a similar area and has predators)
-Reindeer. Would live mostly in mixed areas of forest and Patagonia. Medium damage, cause will compete the Guanaco.Will dwarf.
-Red Deer. Would live in forest areas. Serious damage. Will dwarf a bit or remain the same.

Also I needed to mention how the trees grow:
-Most of the trees are between 5 and 10 meters and are thin. This are the best for heating as they are easy to cut and are everywhere. They need 20 years to grow this tall. After some time, these compete for sunlight and some start growing more, and it took nearly 120 years more to be more than 1 meter wide. But to be used for lumberjacks they can be at leats 25 cm wide, which is after 30 more of growth.
-No beavers should not be introduced and the forests won't have problems.
-The wood hardness is between oak and pine. It is good for furniture.

So I hope you like the info and that I don't overwhelm you:D
 
Pete's original maps... He under-rates his research...

Re: The settlement of the Island.
Beavers proved capable of crossing salt water so no:)
Then I've done some maps for you:D
I've done the crown colony map and others to help you;)

The Official Map of the Crown Colony of Fuego Islands(or at least a try):
tdfb5.jpg


The best areas for settlement:
tdfb1.jpg


Other good settlement areas:
tdfb2.jpg


Natural Areas of the Island and some resources:
tdfb3.jpg


Areas best suited for each economic activity:
tdfb4.jpg


And a blank map for you:
tdfb.jpg


Thanks for the help!:)


The order in which Pete sent me these PMs is somewhat reversed - this was the first. It was very useful. It just goes to show his strengths in this collaboration.

Viva Pete!
 
Julius Vogel
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Viva!
Join Date: Sep 2008
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Tierra del Fuego - Whenua o te Ahi, or, (my translator's words) more poetically/metaphorically, Te Raenga o Mahuika
Julius Vogel
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Viva!
Join Date: Sep 2008
Posts: 752


Tierra del Fuego - Whenua o te Ahi, or, (my translator's words) more poetically/metaphorically, Te Raenga o Mahuika
Julius Vogel
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Viva!
Join Date: Sep 2008
Posts: 752


Tierra del Fuego - Whenua o te Ahi, or, (my translator's words) more poetically/metaphorically, Te Raenga o Mahuika
Julius Vogel
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Viva!
Join Date: Sep 2008
Posts: 752


Tierra del Fuego - Whenua o te Ahi, or, (my translator's words) more poetically/metaphorically, Te Raenga o Mahuika

From Julius Vogel :
Tierra del Fuego - Whenua o te Ahi, or, (my translator's words) more poetically/metaphorically, Te Raenga o Mahuika.

Beautiful! The first one will do for Tierra del Fuego as a whole, the second for the Maori settlement/enclave, maybe for Tatami's dream.

After several false starts, I'm doing this one from the Maori viewpoint, at least at first.

There is going to be a Fuego-Chilean Polar Expedition. Ernest Shackleton will be on it. The only question in my mind is whether the Maoris are going to be involved (which means going from New Zealand to the Ross Sea) or whether a reinforced Chilean warship battles its way to the Halley Bay area and the Ronne Ice Shelf.

What's everybody's opinion? Ronne or Ross? I'll take your opinions and write the attempt up accordingly.
 
Julius Vogel's help and my remarks...

Tierra del Fuego - Whenua o te Ahi, or, (my translator's words) more poetically/metaphorically, Te Raenga o Mahuika

Beautiful! The first one will do for Tierra del Fuego as a whole, the second for the Maori settlement/enclave, maybe for Tatami's dream.

After several false starts, I'm doing this one from the Maori viewpoint, at least at first.

There is going to be a Fuego-Chilean Polar Expedition. Ernest Shackleton will be on it. The only question in my mind is whether the Maoris are going to be involved (which means going from New Zealand to the Ross Sea) or whether a reinforced Chilean warship battles its way to the Halley Bay area and the Ronne Ice Shelf.

Pete said :
Petete123123
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Argento Papa!
Join Date: May 2010
Location: Ushuaia, Argentolandia
Posts: 461


I think I solved the problem of the Maoris:D

From wiki:"La madera tiene hermosas marcas, es de color rosáceo, dura, semi-pesada y usada en mueblería y construcción."

Which is: "The wood has beautiful marks, is pinkish, hard, semi-heavy and is used in furniture and building."

So they can be the local furniture industry or the local boats industry. Or just have timber mills in an small scale
__________________
Algo habran hecho por la historia Argentina - The new Argentinean TL-
British Tierra del Fuego - Land of hard and whiskey-
 
Did a post this morning - then pressed the wrong button, lost it...

...And had to go to work...Ah, well...

Anyway, bless you for researching the plants and trees.

Amaranth and buckwheat, mixed with oats and malted, will be the basis for the wort/beer that is distilled to make 'Fuegan Brandy'.

I'm going to have to re-post the timeline so far, because of the mass of changes, so expect to have to wade through some almost identical stuff.

The Maori are going to be a major influence from 1903 onwards.

In later posts, I'm going to look at the influence of the Argentine on air force developments, with the effects on Chile and Fuego. The Royal Flying Corps's Fuegan Squadrons are going to be nicknamed 'The Firebirds', so your woodpecker will have his day. Eventually, of course, the Royal Fuegan Air Force will be formed, but with old aircraft and ideas about torpedo bombing and dive-bombing that are well ahead of the RAF.

Post WW1 I'm thinking of the Fuegans forming Fuegan Air Services, which as Air Fuego might have a QUANTAS or Scandinavian Air Services (SAS) type of future. As the Maori get into shipping in a truly Greek fashion, expect them to get involved in air flights up the West Coast of South America and (via Bolivia and Paraguay) to Brazil. This assumes that Ferretti is a pain. One of his post-WWII escapades will be ordering the shooting-down of an elderly Air Fuego airliner flying along the Argentine coast on its way to Uruguay and Brazil. This causes uproar amongst the Patagonian and Fuegan Welsh and angers almost all of Argentina's neighbours. You'll find out why presently. The Argentine population start to realise that Ferretti is a liability, but his secret police quash opposition...

Moving on, I foresee that the 1950s will be a time when Fuego will be under pressure to declare independence, although the USA wants it partitioned into an Argentine and a Chilean zone. The Maori and the Welsh are furious and form the United Fuegan Party to oppose partition. Those settlers of different extractions also resent being ordered to break up their successful little state and pressure starts to grow for Unilateral Declaration of Independence (UDI) as a Dominion within the Commonwealth. Ferretti, thinking he sees division, makes the mistake of invading in 1963. The Land Guard and the Fuegan Guards retreat gradually through prepared positions (Swiss-style defence) and the RFAF provide air support, despite being outnumbered.

Chile attempts to intervene, announcing its neutrality and requiring an end to hostilities, but the fighting does not stabilise until the Argentine forces reach the Andean hills and the Afon Fawr. Argentina attempts to declare 'Argentine Fuego' and to flood the land with 'settlers', but the arrival of a British carrier task force halts this and cuts the Argentine forces (mostly troops from northern Argentina) off from logistical support. Royal Marines also successfully land and hold the oilfields around Port Mimosa and San Sebastian Bay. With the Land Guard and Fuegan Guard counter-attacking, although fearfully mauled, and the Maori Fuegan Regiments landing in Bahia Inutile with covert Chilean support, the Argentine invasion forces are trapped and forced to surrender.

Somehow, Ferretti falls and is forced to go into exile in Spain, but his party continues to exist and continues to make trouble in Argentina and elsewhere. Terrorist dynamite bombs are set off in Santiago and Puerto Madryn, Ushuaia and battered Port Mimosa. The Argentine government denies responsibility and says it is an attempt to start a war. Fuego has demanded war reparations but these are not paid and remain a severe loss for fifteen years. But the Fuegans quietly re-arm in case of trouble and acquire better aircraft and weapons.

I'm not sure if this is workable, but what do you think? The reality will be far more complex.
 
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