Falkland Wars - South Georgia

Argentine Claim - Argentina had long claimed South Georgia not so much in its own right, but as a dependency of the Falklands. The opportunity to exercise this claim was provided by Argentine businessman Constantino Davidoff, who contracted with the Scottish company of Christian Salvesen to clear away scrap whaling material littering parts of the island. Having agreed arrangements with the British Embassy in Buenos Aires, Davidoff chartered the fleet transport "Bahia Buen Suceso" to carry him and his workmen to South Georgia, and although there is no conclusive evidence the Argentine Government had deliberately planned what followed, the ship's illegal entry led to invasion. She arrived at Leith on Friday 19th March and started operations without observing the usual formalities of reporting first to the island's Magistrate, the base commander of the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) located at King Edward Point near Grytviken.

Incident - When a BAS team reached Leith that Friday 19th March to find "Bahia Buen Suceso" in the harbour and workmen ashore with the Argentine flag flying, the incident was reported to Governor Hunt in Stanley, 900 miles away, who gave orders to the Magistrate that the Argentines must obtain proper authorisation. This they refused to do. Meanwhile ice patrol ship "Endurance" sailed in to Stanley on passage back to Britain and at the end of what was supposed to be her last season in the Antarctic.

Negotiations - Two days later, early on Sunday 21st March and at the start of nearly two week's diplomatic efforts to resolve the incursion, "Endurance", on orders from Fleet HQ at Northwood near London sailed for South Georgia. In addition to her own thirteen Royal Marines she took on board nine more from the small Falkland's garrison of Naval Party 8901. That same day - the 21st, BAS men set up an observation post overlooking Leith and saw the Argentine transport sail away leaving behind some of the civilian workers. "Endurance" reached Grytviken on Wednesday 24th at the start of a week of coastal patrols and replaced the BAS men above Leith with Marines flown in by Wasp. As negotiations continued between London and Buenos Aires, "Endurance" took no steps to remove the scrap men, but the Argentines had already ordered icebreaker "Bahia Paraiso" to sail to protect them, and by Thursday 25th, she had arrived at Leith. Approximately one hundred Marines went ashore under the command of Lt Cdr of Marines Alfredo Astiz and the icebreaker used her Alouette helicopter to shadow "Endurance" for the next few days.

Defence and Invasion - Almost a week later on Wednesday 31st March and as the Falkland's invasion threatened, "Endurance" landed her heavily-armed Royal Marine detachment at King Edward Point to prepare defences, and then unnoticed by "Bahia Paraiso", slipped out of Cumberland Bay that evening and headed for Stanley. Two days later on news of Stanley's capture, "Endurance" reversed course, by which time frigate "Guerrico" had sailed from Argentina to join "Bahia Paraiso" as the hastily assembled TF 60. The other two frigates - "Drummond" and "Granville" - previously on their way to support "Bahia Paraiso" played no part in the events that followed.