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Show Antarctic Isle As Naval Base Find South Sea Area Has Sheltered Harbors and Other Advantages. WASHINGTON. Deception island, where, according to reports of the returned Byrd Antarctic expedition, a German naval base was in operation opera-tion until recently, is of unusual interest in-terest for geographic as well as strategic reasons, a National Geographic Geo-graphic bulletin said. It is described as a volcanic Island, about 12 miles across from north to south, and nine miles from east to west. Shaped like a broken doughnut, it resembles a South Sea atoll, though instead of low coral shores it has banks that rise from the sea in sheer cliffs, in one place nearly 2,000 feet high. Weather Deceptive. Lying between the South Shetland isles and Palmer peninsula as it curves northeastward from the vast continent of Antarctica, Deception island occupies a somewhat sheltered shel-tered position. Its wide inner basin, entered by a narrow breach called Challenger pass, is estimated to be more than 1,100 feet deep in the center. This almost landlocked area not only offers a protected harbor for ships, but also, under suitable conditions, landing space and anchorage an-chorage for seaplanes. "Because of its northerly location," loca-tion," the bulletin said, "the island has the additional advantage of being approachable later in the year than some of the other islands to the south, which are early blocked off by ice. On the other hand, wind and weather around Deception island vary considerably one suggested sug-gested reason for its ominous name. Birds Hamper Seaplanes. "In connection with the potential use of the island as an air base, several explorers have found that the clouds of cape pigeons that haunt the crater harbor constitute something of a menace to landing and taking off of seaplanes. "Sealers and whalers have long known the island. More than 100 years ago, it was a base for American Amer-ican sealers. Between 1906 and 1927 neighboring waters yielded whalers an oil harvest of 2,645,000 barrels. On the island is an abandoned Norwegian Nor-wegian whaling factory whose shelter shel-ter has been much appreciated by later visitors. "The approaches to this part of the world, however, offer hard going for even the most intrepid traveler. 'I have never known a drearier voyage voy-age than that from New Zealand to Deception island,' wrote Ellsworth. 'Four thousand miles of wind-lashed ocean, gales, blizzards and hurricanes, hurri-canes, with never a sunny day, across the most desolate stretch of water on earth.' " |