Falkland Islands and Dependencies Aerial Survey Expedition 1955-1957

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45p Deception Island from the south east

Deception Island, in the South Shetlands archipelago, lies 100 km north of the Antarctic Peninsula. It is an active volcano with a horseshoe-shaped flooded caldera about 15 km across and enclosing a large bay (Port Foster). The bay provides a deep sheltered anchorage for ships which have to pass through a narrow gap in the high red and black volcanic cliffs known as Neptunes Bellows. Just inside this is Whalers Bay where the Norwegian Hektoria whaling station operated between 1912/13 and 1931. It was also the site of the British Falkland Islands Dependencies Survey (FIDS) scientific station and FIDASE hut.

55p Hunting Lodge

On 13 December 1955, the British FIDASE (operated by Hunting Aerosurveys Ltd.) built "Hunting Lodge" close to the FIDS Base B hut at Whalers Bay. It was used by members of the expedition, and afterwards was handed over to FIDS. Besides Hunting Lodge, other ruined buildings and artefacts remaining at the site include the FIDS base ("Biscoe House"), the FIDS aircraft hangar, the former whaling station Magistrate's Villa and some other wooden buildings, numerous blubber digesters, fuel and whale oil tanks and other plant used in the whaling days. Most of the buildings, including the whalers' cemetery, were destroyed by a mudflow caused by an eruption in 1969.

80p Bell 47 Helicopter

Helicopters were employed by the expedition to fly parties of surveyors to selected control points along the Antarctic Peninsula mainland and adjacent offshore islands. During the first expedition season S51 Sikorskys with wheel skids were used. These were changed for the second season to a Bell 47D with a Perspex bubble to improve vision. Its flotation landing gear also gave better safety over water and made it easier to land on snow. As a hangar had been erected at the expedition base, the helicopters no longer had to be housed on board the expedition ship Oluf Sven.

£1 Canso Flying Boat

The amphibian version of the Catalina, the Canso, was selected as the aircraft most suited for the expedition. Hunting Survey Corporation and Field Aviation in Toronto, Canada, already operated Cansos for air photography and geophysical work in the Canadian Arctic. The expedition was fortunate that, using Hunting's experience and facilities, two aircraft were found, rebuilt and modified. The aircrews were nearly all ex-RAF who had flown Bomber or Coastal Commands during World War II. The Cansos flew from Toronto to Deception Island and back, with only one stopover in the Falkland Islands. In total the expedition surveyed 116,000 square kilometres of unmapped terrain in British Antarctic Territory. The aerial photography has been the basis of most of the maps produced for this region of the Antarctic.

First Day Cover

The design shows a map of the Antarctic Peninsula with the areas surveyed by the FIDASE highlighted, together with expedition logo.



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