Detaille Island

Detaille Island is a small island off the northern end of the Arrowsmith Peninsula in Graham Land, Antarctica. From 1956 to 1959 it was home to "Base W" of the British Antarctic Survey and closed after the end of the International Geophysical Year (IGY). Detaille was a key monitoring sites during the IGY. It is now often visited by Antarctic cruise ships but is otherwise unoccupied. Because the men departed hastily and could take little with them, Base W remains an eerily preserved time capsule of 1950s Antarctic life. It was intended to support dog-sledging survey parties crossing the sea ice to the nearby Antarctic Peninsula, but the ice proved dangerously unstable. When Base W was vacated, heavy sea ice prevented resupply ship John Biscoe from approaching closer than 50 kilometres (31 mi), despite the assistance of two U.S. icebreakers. So the men were forced to close up the base, load sledges with only their most valuable gear and use dog teams to reach the ship.

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