Navy officer makes historic visit to Antarctic Pitt Islands

Lieutenant Commander Dave Pitt is thought to be the very first Pitt to set foot on the chain of islands bearing the family name - 8,500 miles from the UK.

He and his shipmates seized the chance to spend the night in the Pitt Islands, which lie 675 miles south of Cape Horn and 950 miles from the Falkland Islands, as icebreaker and survey ship HMS Protector conducted her second patrol of Antarctic waters this year.

HMS Protector carries out survey work around the Antarctic Peninsula. Pic - Royal Navy / Crown copyright

The islands, scattered across an area of Antarctic ocean about twice the size of Norwich, were discovered nearly 200 years ago by a British expedition.

Collectively, the chain takes its name from late 18th/early 19th-century Prime Minister William Pitt…but the individual islands are named after characters in Dickens’ Pickwick Papers.

The craggy archipelago is barren, forbidding, cold and uninhabited, except for the region’s wildlife.

Temperatures only just about climb above freezing even at high summer like now when there’s still snow on the ground and the wind chill takes it down to well below zero.

On her second stint around the Antarctic peninsula this austral summer, Plymouth-based HMS Protector paid a succession of goodwill visits to research stations, including Brown (Argentinian), Videla (Chilean) and Vernadsky (Ukrainian) – upholding the Antarctic Treaty which the nation signed on December 1 1959.

Under the international agreement, Britain is duty-bound to protect and conserve the region’s unique wildlife, preserve historic sites, manage tourism, work with scientists of all nationalities and gather data about the weather and climate.

The ship is also updating Admiralty charts – used by merchant seafarers as well as the Royal Navy – having surveyed more than 400 square kilometres of waters surrounding the Antarctic Peninsula (an area the size of the Isle of Wight).

Captain Michael Wood, HMS Protector’s Commanding Officer, said: “With the increase in fishing and cruise ship activity, the ship has collected data that will contribute to the safety of navigation of shipping routes.

“Surveying alone provides many obstacles, but doing it in Antarctica when surrounded by ice is the Premier League of hydrographic operations.

“The challenges faced range from ice conditions, unfavourably strong winds and the constant management of maintaining the equipment in this harsh environment.”

HMS Protector carries out survey work around the Antarctic Peninsula. Pic - Royal Navy / Crown copyright

While the icebreaker and her survey motor boat James Caird IV surveyed the waters around Jingle Island on the northeastern fringe of the Pitts, a 12-strong party – comprising three Royal Marines as cold weather survival specialists, Capt Wood, Lt Cdr Pitt and seven shipmates – landed to study its large population of Gentoo penguins.

The birds covered the shoreline of the main bay with a mass of particularly-pungent guano, but otherwise the mile-long outcrop was blanketed by fresh, undisturbed snow and ice.

After setting up camp, the team dined on Navy ration packs as the sun went down and temperatures plunged.

Lt Cdr Pitt said: “Overnight the winds picked up and along with the sounds of the buffering tents, nesting penguins and half a dozen fur seals, the surrounding noises were drowned out by snoring sailors and marines resting from an amazing day prior to embarking back in Protector.

The 46-year-old from Dudley joined the Navy as a chef in 1991 and spent much of his career in the Submarine Service – HMS Protector is his first surface ship in 25 years.

The ship’s five-year mission to the Southern Hemisphere – spending the summer around the Antarctic and winter off Africa or South America – offers unique opportunities to visit parts of the world which would prove impossible or, at best, extremely expensive as a tourist.

Lt Cdr Pitt added: “I cannot believe how privileged I am to be able to camp overnight in the Antarctic, on a group of islands with which I share a name, named in honour of a former British Prime Minister.

“The whole 24-hour period was an amazing experience and one that I will remember for the rest of his life. I wonder if I am the only ‘Pitt’ to have stayed on a Pitt Island.”