to the
Atlantic Ocean.
Robert Fitzroy and
Phillip Parker King named the island "Picton" in honour of
Thomas Picton, first British governor of Trinidad in the West-Indies. Lennox was discovered in 1624 by Dutch Admiral
Schapenham who named the island Terhalten, after the officer who first sighted it. It was renamed later by Fitzroy and Parker King. From the signing of the
boundary treaty of 1881 between Chile and Argentina to 1904, the islands were considered in Chile and Argentina as Chilean territories. At the end of the 19th century, the Chilean government gave the first concessions to Antonio Milicic for Nueva Island, Esteban Loncaric for Lennox Island and
Thomas Bridges for Picton Island. In 1910/11 the following were inhabited:
Caleta Las Casas in Nueva Island,
Puerto Piedra in Picton Island, and
Caleta Oro and
Caleta Cúter in Lennox Island (
Caleta is Spanish for
little bay). These concessions were transferred in the course of time to other entrepreneurs, mostly for cattle farming or mining.
Puerto Banner From 3 to 6 December 1914, after the
Battle of Coronel, the German
East Asia Squadron (
armored cruisers and and the light cruisers , , and and the merchants
Santa Isabel,
Baden,
Seydlitz and the captured
Norwegian ship
Drummuir) under the command of Admiral
Graf Spee moored off Puerto Banner on the way to the
Battle of the Falkland Islands. This was considered by Chile as a violation of its neutrality and forced the government to establish Puerto Banner as a coaling station for the Chilean Navy. Puerto Banner served twice as the coaling station of the
Yelcho during her services to rescue the
Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition of
Ernest Shackleton. During the
Chilean land reform, the east part of
Navarino Island and the three islands (86,000
ha) were part of an economic unit and plan to benefit the settlers. On 22 December 1978, Argentina commenced (and a few hours later aborted)
Operation Soberanía to invade both those islands and continental Chile. Although it called off the operation, the Argentine government never gave up on the use of military force to pressure Chile. After the invasion of the Falklands on 2 April 1982, the Argentine junta planned the military occupation of the three islands, as stated by Brigadier
Basilio Lami Dozo, chief of the Argentine Air Force during the Falklands war, in an interview with the Argentine magazine
Perfil: :
L.F. Galtieri: ''"They [the Chileans] had better take note because it's their turn next..'' The last minefields were installed shortly after the
1982 Argentine invasion of the Falkland Islands. Since 2007 mine clearance in Chile has been carried out by de-mining units of the army and navy. ==Literature==