GP Nomad: Falkland frolics 3 - fisherman's friend

Seals on Saunders Island. Photo: GP Nomad

By The GP Nomad

I had never been more alone. Not my emotional state, but a logistical fact. My Falkland foray at an end, delaying my departure, I’d flown from Stanley to the northwest of the island group, landing on Saunders Island, site of the very first British settlement.

On 23 January 1765, HM frigate Dolphin sailed into what was to become Port Egmont on the east of Saunders Island. At commodore John Byron’s command, ‘the union jack was erected… and being spread I named the whole of His Majesty’s isles which I claimed for the crown of Great Britain’.