Port Louis

Port Louis
Falkland Islands
Location
Island:	East Falkland
Location:	-51.5326056 -58.1316694
Data
Local Government
Parliamentary constituency:	Camp

Port Louis is a settlement on on the coast of Salvador Water in the north-east of East Falkland. It was established by Louis de Bougainville in 1764 as a French presence on the Falkland Islands, and named Port Saint Louis, with a nod to King Louis, but was transferred to Spain in 1767 and renamed Puerto Soledad (after the Spanish name for East Falkland, Isla Soledad). It was abandoned by 1811, until re-established by Vernet shortly before the re-establishment of British rule in the islands, and became the capital of the Falkland Islands.

History

Port Louis in the French period

Map of Port Louis, surveyed in 1774 (west up)

The settlement has seen several name changes. The original French settlers named the settlement Port Saint Louis. When the Spaniards purchased the establishment they changed the name to Puerto Soledad. In 1823, Luis Vernet reverted to a Spanish version of the original name, with more than a nod to himself: Puerto Luis.

After Vernet's venture failed, and British rule was re-established in 1833, the settlement was named Anson's Harbour for a while before reverting once more to the original French name, Port Louis.

The Spanish claim was never recognised by Britain but while they held on, the little town became the centre of Spanish activity on the islands. The Spaniards removed the governor in 1806 and abandoned the settlement in 1811.

In October 1820, following damage to his ship Heroína in a storm, Colonel David Jewett was forced to put into the islands to shelter in Puerto Soledad. This was the culmination of a disastrous eight-month voyage that saw a mutiny and most of his crew disabled by scurvy and other diseases. While in harbour, there was another attempt at mutiny by the crew who wished to return to Buenos Aires. With many of his crew disabled by scurvy, Jewett sought the assistance of the British Antarctic explorer James Weddell in preparing his ship for sea once more.

On 6 November 1820, Jewett raised the flag of the United Provinces of the River Plate at Port Louis. Weddell witnessed the ceremony and expressed the view that, as Jewett had only put into harbour for repair and provisions, the event was intended to secure an exclusive claim to the wreck of the French ship Uranie that had foundered at the entrance of Berkeley Sound a few months previously.

After resting in the islands and repairing his ship, Jewett sailed for Buenos Aires.

Luis Vernet

Luis Vernet

In 1823, Jorge Pacheco and Luis Vernet decided to establish a fishing enterprise on the Falkland Islands, and obtained from the government of the United Provinces of the River Plate a grant of exclusive fishing rights, though before anything was done, Pacheco dropped out of the partnership, and Vernet was ready to set sail only in 1826. Aware though that the claim on the islands by the United Provinces was tenuous, Vernet also obtained British permission from the consulate in Buenos Aires This expedition in 1826 proved to be a failure; sailings to the Islands were disrupted by a Brazilian blockade and the boggy terrain of the Islands prevented the Gauchos catching wild cattle in their traditional way.

In 1828, the United Provinces of the River Plate purported to grant Vernet all of East Falkland together with exclusive fishing and sealing rights. Included in the grant was a clause that provided a colony were established within three years, it would be exempt from taxes. Again, Vernet obtained British approval for his expedition. Arriving in Salvador Water, Vernet established himself at the site of Puerto Soledad, though Vernet used the name Puerto Luis. By 1831, Vernet's colony was well established and advertising for new colonists, although a report by the USS Lexington' suggests that the conditions on the islands were quite miserable.

Vernet was well aware of British claims to the islands. Prior to both the 1826 and 1828 expedition, he approached the British consulate with the grant of the United Provinces of the River Plate and obtained their stamp. While visiting the consulate, he expressed the wish that if the British returned they would take his colony under their protection. Vernet also provided written reports on the suitability of the Islands for the British Government.

The settlement as Puerto Soledad

Vernet used Puerto Luis as a seal hunting base. The purposrted grant by the United Provinces gave him a monopoly in the islands and he curbed sealing by others. Matters came to a head after Vernet seized the American ship Harriet for breaking the restrictions on seal hunting. He confiscated property aboard the ship and sent the captain to Buenos Aires to stand trial. The American Consul in the United Provinces of the River Plate protested the actions by Vernet, stating that the United States did not recognise its sovereignty in the Falklands. The consul then dispatched the warship USS Lexington Lexington to Puerto Luis to retake the confiscated property, as well as the Superior and Breakwater which had also been seized. The Lexington destroyed the guns and powder of Puerto Luis in 1832, an act later condoned by the American ambassador in Buenos Aires, who declared the Falkland Islands to be res nullius ("free from any power"). Forty settlers took the opportunity to leave on board the Lexington, leaving just twenty-four behind.

Re-establishment of British rule on the Falklands

A view of the harbour of Port Louis, East Falklands by AR Grieve

Amid the turmoil, the British took over the settlement in 1833. In March/April that year, Charles Darwin visited from HMS Beagle. He commented that:

After the possession of these miserable islands had been contested by France, Spain, and England, they were left uninhabited. The government of Buenos Aires then sold them to a private individual, but likewise used them, as old Spain had done before, for a penal settlement. England claimed her right and seized them. The Englishman who was left in charge of the flag was consequently murdered. A British officer was next sent, unsupported by any power: and when we arrived, we found him in charge of a population, of which rather more than half were runaway rebels and murderers.

—The Voyage of the Beagle

Admiral George Grey conducted a survey of the islands in 1836, and his view was a little more positive. In November 1846 he wrote:

Today the weather was beautiful and Port Louis or Solidad [sic] seen to advantage as soon as I had finished my breakfast I landed in company with the Governor to inspect the state of his little Colony, which is situated overlooking a small basin or inner harbour, the principal house of which is that inhabited by Lieut. Smith and among the miserable huts by which it is surrounded looks respectable by comparison, it is white-washed, has a flag staff before it and looks like a preventative station on the coast of Northumberland.

After they transferred the administration to Stanley in 1845, Port Louis became the quiet sheep farming settlement it is today, known for its nineteenth century houses, waterfowl and wading birds.

References

• Ewen Southby-Tailyour, Falkland Island Shores.
• Thomas Helsby: Account of the Port Louis Murders