Feb 11, 2013: Pope Benedict XVI announces resignation
Feb 15, 2013: Major meteor impact in Chelyabinsk, Russia

As discussed in Part 1 the very first foreign land he officially visited as the pope was... Rio de Janeiro.

Jul 22, 2013 Pope Francis arrives in Rio de Janeiro

 

Jul 22, 2013 Royal baby arrives: Duchess Kate gives birth to a boy
Jul 23 Prince William and Kate debut royal baby boy

1. Prince Charles
2. Prince William
3. Prince George (William's baby)

It just so happens that Pope Francis's real name is also "George". (Full name: Jorge Mario Bergoglio.) And George Michael just died on Christmas, the biggest Christian holiday mere days before New Year's Day.

Perhaps there is something special about Prince George? I talked extensively about the "Grail bloodline" symbolism surrounding the British royal family, particularly on the Diana side and Prince William, in my 2011 article "Lucifer's Destiny".

 

Perhaps this year (2017) the Pope and/or the Queen will die/exit which will trigger a chain reaction that leads to:

• the FALL of the Roman Catholic Church
• the RISE of the "Holy Grail" via British Royal Family after QE2

This duality would make a lot of multicontextual sense since the Holy Grail tradition has a lot - if not is all about - the Gnostic/Hermetic/Egyptian underground stream, the "religion" or philosophy (as well as bloodlines in some capacity) embodied in the figure of Isis, suppressed by the Roman Christianity which came into power via Constantin the Great. I'm not saying the bloodline of Princess Diana (Prince William, Prince George, etc.) has to be literally of the Holy Grail a la "The Da Vince Code", but even just a symbolic rise of "King Arthur" in this manner would be... well, symbolic of "Isis rising".

Isis is Sirius, and Sirius is "The Star", which is tarot card #17 as in 2017.

Sir Francis Drake (c. 1540 – 28 January 1596) was an English explorer and privateer best known for making the second circumnavigation of the world in a single expedition between 1577 and 1580 (being the first English expedition to accomplish this). Having started as a simple seaman, in 1588 he was part of the fight against the Spanish Armada as a vice-admiral.

At an early age, Drake was placed into the household of a relative, William Hawkins, a prominent sea captain in Plymouth. In 1572, he set sail on his first independent mission, privateering along the Spanish Main. Drake's circumnavigation began on 15 December 1577. He crossed the Pacific Ocean, until then an area of exclusive Spanish interest, and laid claim to New Albion, plundering coastal towns and ships for treasure and supplies as he went. He arrived back in England on 26 September 1580. Elizabeth I awarded Drake a knighthood in 1581 which he received aboard his galleon the Golden Hind.

Drake's circumnavigation inaugurated an era of conflict with the Spanish and in 1585, the Anglo-Spanish War began. Drake was in command of an expedition to the Americas that attacked Spanish shipping and ports. When Philip II sent the Spanish Armada to England in 1588 as a precursor to its invasion, Drake was second-in-command of the English fleet that fought against and repulsed the Spanish fleet. A year later he led the English Armada in a failed attempt to destroy the remaining Spanish fleet.

Drake was a Member of Parliament (MP) for three constituencies: Camelford in 1581, Bossiney in 1584, and Plymouth in 1593. Drake's exploits made him a hero to the English, but his privateering led the Spanish to brand him a pirate, known to them as El Draque ("The Dragon" in old Spanish).^[1] He died of dysentery after his failed assault on Panama in January 1596.

Francis Drake was born at Crowndale Farm in Tavistock, Devon, England.^[4] His birth date is not formally recorded – such writers as E. F. Benson have claimed that he was born while the Six Articles of 1539 were in force,^[5] but British naval historian Julian Corbett, writing of William Camden's account, on which this information is based, writes that "As a slip of memory, too, we must put down his difficult assertion that Edmund Drake was driven from Devonshire during a persecution under the Six Articles Act of 1539."^[6] His birth date is estimated from the wording of texts in contemporary sources such as: "Drake was two and twenty when he obtained the command of the Judith"^[7] (1566). This would date his birth to 1544. A date of c. 1540 is suggested from two portraits: one a miniature, painted by Nicholas Hilliard in 1581, when he was allegedly 42, which would place his birth c. 1539, while the other, painted in 1594 when he was said to be 52,^[8] would give a birth year of c. 1541.

He was the eldest of the twelve sons^[9] of Edmund Drake (1518–1585), a Protestant farmer, and his wife, Mary Mylwaye. The first son was said to have been named after his godfather, Francis Russell, 2nd Earl of Bedford.^[10]

Due to religious persecution during the Prayer Book Rebellion in 1549, the Drake family fled from Devon to Kent. There Drake's father obtained an appointment to minister to the men in the King's Navy. He was ordained deacon and was made vicar of Upchurch Church on the Medway.^[11]

At an early age, Drake was placed into the household of a relative, sea-captain William Hawkins of Plymouth, and began his seagoing training as an apprentice on Hawkins' boats.^[12] By 18, he was a purser, according to the English chronicler Edmund Howes,^[13] and in the 1550s, Drake's father found the young man a position with the owner and master of a small barque, one of the small traders plying between the Medway River and the Dutch coast. Drake likely engaged in commerce along the coast of England, the Low Countries and France.^[14] The ship's master was so satisfied with the young Drake's conduct that, being unmarried and childless at his death, he bequeathed the barque to Drake.^[15]

In 1562, the West African slave trade was a duopoly dominated by the Portuguese and the Spanish. Sir John Hawkins devised a plan to break into that trade, and enlisted the aid of colleagues and family to finance his first slave voyage. Drake was not part of that group of financiers,^[16] though his presence as one of hundreds of seamen on Hawkins's first two slaving voyages has been assumed.^[17] There is some anecdotal evidence to support Drake serving as a common seaman on the first two voyages, and good evidence of his presence for the last two of four slaving voyages made by Hawkins' ships between 1562 and 1569.^[12][18][19]

In 1562, Hawkins sailed to the coast of the Sierra Leone, seized Portuguese slave ships, and sold the Africans in the Spanish Indies.^[20] It was highly profitable, so for his second slave voyage in 1564, Hawkins gained Queen Elizabeth I's support. She lent him one of her ships, Jesus of Lübeck, which served as his flagship.^[21] Hawkins attacked an African native town and sold many of its inhabitants in Spanish ports on the Caribbean mainland, making another large profit for himself, the Queen and the consortium of investors from her court.^[17][20] Sources vary on the dates and the age of Drake at the time;^[22] Harry Kelsey says he was twenty years old, "[a]ccording to Howes" (in reference to the English chronicler Edmund Howes writing in 1615).^[23] Drake was not a member of that consortium, but the crew would have received a small share of the profits.^[24][25] Based on this association, scholar Kris Lane lists Drake as one of the first English slave traders.^[26]

The Spanish and Portuguese were aggrieved that the English had entered into the slave trade and were selling slaves to their colonies despite being forbidden from doing so. Queen Elizabeth I, under pressure to avoid an armed conflict, forbade Hawkins from going to sea for a third slave voyage. In response, he set up a slave voyage with a relative, John Lovell, in command in 1566.^[17] Drake accompanied Lovell on this voyage.^[17] The voyage was unsuccessful, as more than 90 enslaved Africans were released without payment.^[27]

In 1567, Drake accompanied Hawkins on their next and last joint voyage.^[28] The crew attempted to capture slaves around Cape Verde, but failed. Hawkins allied himself with two local kings in Sierra Leone who asked for help against their enemies in exchange for half of any captives they took. Attacking from both sides, they took several hundred prisoners, though Kelsey says the kings kept "the larger share of slaves and dared Hawkins to do anything about it".^[29]

Events worsened for the fleet as it faced storms, Spanish hostility, armed conflict, and finally a hurricane that separated one ship from the rest, and it had to find its own way home.^[30] The remaining ships were forced into the port of San Juan de Ulúa near Vera Cruz so they could make repairs. Soon afterward the newly appointed viceroy of New Spain, Martín Enríquez de Almanza, arrived with a fleet of ships. While still negotiating to resupply and repair, Hawkins' ships were attacked by the Spanish ships in what became known as the Battle of San Juan de Ulúa.^[31] The battle ended in an English defeat with all but two of the English ships lost. The Spanish launched a fireship against Hawkins' flagship Jesus of Lübeck, and the crew of Minion in panic and fear cut the lines securing them to Jesus. Hawkins was among those who jumped from the flagship's bulwarks to Minion's decks.^[32] Drake, by this time the captain of Judith, fled leaving Hawkins behind. Hawkins escaped on Minion and limped back to England with dozens of his men dying along the way,^[33] and arriving with a crew of just 15.^[34] Hundreds of English seamen were abandoned.^[35]

After arriving back in England, Hawkins accused Drake of desertion and of stealing the treasure they had accumulated. Drake denied both accusations asserting he had distributed all profits among the crew and that he had believed Hawkins was lost when he left.^[25][36] The bitter end of the fourth voyage turned Drake's life in a different direction: thereafter he would not pursue trading and slaving but would, instead, dedicate himself to attacking Spanish possessions wherever he found them.^[37] Drake's hostility towards the Spanish is said to have started with the battle and its aftermath.^[38]

The voyage of 1567–1569 was Drake's last association with slaving. In total, approximately 1,200 Africans were enslaved on these four voyages,^[39] and an estimated three times as many Africans were killed (based on the contemporaneous accounts of slavers).^[19] On the issue of slaving, scholar John Sugden writes that "Drake was in his twenties and did not question what his elders accepted", but must share some culpability for his participation.^[40]

On describing the port and naming it Port Egmont, in Byron’s Journal of his Circumnavigation, 1764-1766, he wrote:

“Port Egmont (which I so named after the Earl of Egmont) I think it without exception one of the finest Harbours I ever saw in my life.”

Byron went on to claim the islands for King George III and wrote:

“I took Possession of this Harbour & all these islands for His Majesty King George the Third / of Great Britain & His Heirs, tho’ they had been before taken Possession of by Sr Richd Hawkins in the Year 1593” [actually in 1594]

Unbeknown to Byron there was French settlement on the East Falkland. French explorer Louis-Antoine de Bougainville had colonised the island in 1763. He named the area Iles Malouines, which was named after the point of departure for his ships and colonists – the port of Saint-Malo in Brittany, western France.

In 1766 France agreed to leave the island after Spain complained about the French presence in areas that were considered Spanish territories. The agreement was based on the alliance between the Bourbon kings of France and Spain – the Pacte de Famille. The Spanish name for the archipelago is Islas Malvinas, which is a translation of the French name of Iles Malouines.

The Spanish were aware of the British presence on the islands when their close ally France handed back East Falkland. On 28 November 1769, Captain Anthony Hunt observed a Spanish vessel surveying the western island. The commander of the vessel was sent a message requiring him to depart. In 1770, the Spanish authorities in Buenos Aires began issuing warnings to the British on West Falkland to leave what they considered their territory. The British also issued warnings, to the Spanish, for them to leave the British territory. In June 1770, the Spanish surprised the British settlement and captured Port Egmont. The British were evicted and allowed to set sail for England.

The incident, known as the Falklands Crisis of 1770, nearly led to war. The matter was addressed to the court of Madrid by the British. During the court discussions the question of sovereignty was evaded, with neither nation relinquishing its claim over the islands. Eventually, when France refused to back Spain, the Spanish court backed down and an agreement was made to disavow the actions of Buenos Aires and restore Port Egmont as it existed before being captured. The British agreed that they would disavow the conduct of Captain Hunt, who ordered the Spanish away from East Falkland.

The plaque placed at Port Egmont, Saunders Island to commemorate the first British colony on the Falkland Islands.

British and Spanish settlements coexisted on the islands until 1774, when Britain’s economic pressures led to a withdrawal from many overseas settlements. On leaving the Falkland Islands Britain left a plaque that claimed continuing sovereignty. During the period that followed a number of countries laid claim to the British territory, including Spain, which never gave up its claims to the Falkland Islands based on the Pope’s papal bulls.

Between 1810 and 1818 The Argentine War of Independence was fought. During this war, in 1816, Argentina declared independence. Prior to then the territory was part of the Spanish Empire. The Argentines claim to the Falkland Islands is based on inheriting them from Spain when sovereignty passed to Argentina.

Since the Falkland Islands had no inhabitants at the time, in 1823 Buenos Aires granted land to Luis Vernet. Vernet had also requested permission from the British Consulate in Buenos Aires and agreed to provide regular reports when they gave their consent. Later, Buenos Aires proclaimed him governor of the islands which the British protested restating their claim to the islands.

In December 1831, British naval officer, Robert Fitzroy, commanded the voyage of HMS Beagle which sailed around the world with Charles Darwin aboard. While at the Falkland Islands, Darwin studied the relationships of species to habitats. During the exploration he found ancient fossils like those he had found in Wales in the summer of 1831. When organising his notes as the ship sailed home, Darwin wrote that, if his growing suspicions about the mockingbirds, the tortoises and the Falkland Islands fox were correct then such facts;

“seemed to me to throw some light on the origin of species.”

The voyage provided Charles Darwin with much of the material on which he based his theory of evolution.

Captain Robert Fitzroy was not only the commander of the voyage, but also a scientist. He was a pioneering meteorologist who went on to make accurate daily weather predictions. In 1854 he established what we now know as the Met Office. Daily weather data was collected at 9am from set locations around the UK coast. These Daily Weather Reports assisted FitzRoy in developing charts that allowed predictions to be made which he called a weather forecast.

The data is still collected today and they form the longest continuous series of data in the National Meteorological Archive. The full series of reports is available from their Digital Library & Archive.

In December 1832, Britain returned to West Falkland. The first actions of Captain John Onslow and the crew of HMS Clio were to repair the fort at Port Egmont and affix a notice of possession. The Clio was later joined by HMS Tyne. On 2 January 1833, Onslow arrived at the east island and the Spanish settlement on East Falkland was asked to leave and replace the Argentine flag with the British flag.

“I have to direct you that I have received directions from His Excellency and Commander-in-Chief of His Britannic Majesty’s ships and vessels of war, South America station, in the name of His Britannic Majesty, to exercise the rights of sovereignty over these Islands. It is my intention to hoist to-morrow the national flag of Great Britain on shore when I request you will be pleased to haul down your flag on shore and withdraw your force, taking all stores belonging to your Government.”

Written request presented to Argentine officer – 2 January 1833

British forces disembarked on 3 January 1833 and switched the flags. British sovereignty of the islands was reasserted and Britain has held the territory ever since, apart from a 74 day period in 1982. It is the proud British history associated with the Falklands that led to Britain’s resolve to take back the islands when Argentina invaded on 2 April 1982.

Al describir el puerto y nombrarlo Puerto Egmont, en el Diario de su circunnavegación, 1764-1766, Byron escribió:

“Puerto Egmont (al que bauticé en honor al conde de Egmont) es, sin excepción, uno de los puertos más hermosos que he visto en mi vida”.

Byron continuó reclamando las islas para el rey Jorge III y escribió:

“Tomé posesión de este puerto y de todas estas islas para Su Majestad el Rey Jorge III de Gran Bretaña y sus herederos, aunque ya habían sido tomadas en posesión por el Sr. Richard Hawkins en el año 1593” [en realidad, en 1594].

Byron desconocía la existencia de un asentamiento francés en la isla Malvina Oriental. El explorador francés Louis-Antoine de Bougainville había colonizado la isla en 1763. Bautizó la zona como Îles Malouines, nombre que debía su nombre al punto de partida de sus barcos y colonos: el puerto de Saint-Malo en Bretaña, al oeste de Francia.

En 1766, Francia accedió a abandonar la isla tras las quejas de España por la presencia francesa en zonas consideradas territorio español. El acuerdo se basó en la alianza entre los reyes Borbones de Francia y España: el Pacto de Familia. El nombre español del archipiélago es Islas Malvinas, traducción del francés Iles Malouines.

Los españoles estaban al tanto de la presencia británica en las islas cuando Francia, su aliado cercano, les devolvió la Malvina Oriental. El 28 de noviembre de 1769, el capitán Anthony Hunt observó un buque español que inspeccionaba la isla occidental. El comandante del buque recibió un mensaje exigiéndole que partiera. En 1770, las autoridades españolas en Buenos Aires comenzaron a advertir a los británicos en la Malvina Occidental para que abandonaran lo que consideraban su territorio. Los británicos también advirtieron a los españoles para que abandonaran el territorio británico. En junio de 1770, los españoles sorprendieron al asentamiento británico y capturaron Puerto Egmont. Los británicos fueron desalojados y se les permitió zarpar hacia Inglaterra.

El incidente, conocido como la Crisis de las Malvinas de 1770, casi desembocó en una guerra. Los británicos llevaron el asunto a la corte de Madrid. Durante las discusiones judiciales, se eludió la cuestión de la soberanía, y ninguna nación renunció a su reclamación sobre las islas. Finalmente, cuando Francia se negó a respaldar a España, la corte española cedió y se llegó a un acuerdo para repudiar las acciones de Buenos Aires y restaurar Puerto Egmont tal como existía antes de su captura. Los británicos acordaron repudiar la conducta del capitán Hunt, quien ordenó a los españoles abandonar las Islas Malvinas Orientales.

La placa colocada en Puerto Egmont, Isla Saunders, para conmemorar la primera colonia británica en las Islas Malvinas.

Los asentamientos británicos y españoles coexistieron en las islas hasta 1774, cuando las presiones económicas británicas provocaron la retirada de muchos asentamientos de ultramar. Al abandonar las Islas Malvinas, Gran Bretaña dejó una placa que reclamaba la soberanía permanente. Durante el período posterior, varios países reclamaron el territorio británico, incluida España, que nunca renunció a sus derechos sobre las Islas Malvinas basándose en las bulas papales.

Entre 1810 y 1818 se libró la Guerra de la Independencia Argentina. Durante esta guerra, en 1816, Argentina declaró su independencia. Anteriormente, el territorio formaba parte del Imperio español. El reclamo argentino sobre las Islas Malvinas se basa en haberlas heredado de España cuando la soberanía pasó a Argentina.

Dado que las Islas Malvinas no estaban habitadas en ese momento, en 1823 Buenos Aires otorgó tierras a Luis Vernet. Vernet también había solicitado permiso al Consulado Británico en Buenos Aires y se comprometió a presentar informes periódicos cuando este diera su consentimiento. Posteriormente, Buenos Aires lo proclamó gobernador de las islas, ante lo cual los británicos protestaron, reafirmando su derecho sobre las islas.

En diciembre de 1831, el oficial naval británico Robert Fitzroy comandó el viaje del HMS Beagle, que dio la vuelta al mundo con Charles Darwin a bordo. Durante su estancia en las Islas Malvinas, Darwin estudió la relación entre las especies y los hábitats. Durante la exploración, halló fósiles antiguos similares a los que había hallado en Gales en el verano de 1831. Al organizar sus notas mientras el barco regresaba a casa, Darwin escribió que, si sus crecientes sospechas sobre los sinsontes, las tortugas y el zorro de las Islas Malvinas eran correctas, entonces tales hechos...

“Me pareció que arrojaba algo de luz sobre el origen de las especies”.

El viaje proporcionó a Charles Darwin gran parte del material en el que basó su teoría de la evolución.

El capitán Robert Fitzroy no solo fue el comandante del viaje, sino también un científico. Fue un meteorólogo pionero que realizó predicciones meteorológicas diarias precisas. En 1854, fundó lo que hoy conocemos como el Servicio Meteorológico. Los datos meteorológicos diarios se recopilaban a las 9:00 de la mañana desde puntos determinados de la costa del Reino Unido. Estos informes meteorológicos diarios ayudaron a FitzRoy a desarrollar cartas que permitían realizar predicciones, a las que él llamó pronóstico del tiempo .

Los datos se siguen recopilando hoy en día y constituyen la serie continua más larga del Archivo Meteorológico Nacional. La serie completa de informes está disponible en su Biblioteca y Archivo Digital.

En diciembre de 1832, Gran Bretaña regresó a las Islas Malvinas Occidentales. Las primeras acciones del capitán John Onslow y la tripulación del HMS Clio fueron reparar el fuerte de Puerto Egmont y colocar un aviso de posesión. Posteriormente, el HMS Tyne se unió al Clio. El 2 de enero de 1833, el Onslow llegó a la isla este y se solicitó al asentamiento español en las Islas Malvinas Orientales que abandonara la isla y reemplazara la bandera argentina por la británica.

Debo informarle que he recibido instrucciones de Su Excelencia y Comandante en Jefe de los buques y navíos de guerra de Su Majestad Británica, en la estación Sudamérica, en nombre de Su Majestad Británica, para ejercer los derechos de soberanía sobre estas islas. Tengo la intención de izar mañana la bandera nacional de Gran Bretaña en tierra, cuando le solicito que tenga a bien arriar su bandera y retirar sus fuerzas, llevándose todos los pertrechos de su Gobierno.

Solicitud escrita presentada a oficial argentino – 2 de enero de 1833

Las fuerzas británicas desembarcaron el 3 de enero de 1833 y cambiaron las banderas. Se reafirmó la soberanía británica sobre las islas y Gran Bretaña ha mantenido el territorio desde entonces, salvo por un período de 74 días en 1982. Es la orgullosa historia británica asociada con las Malvinas la que motivó a Gran Bretaña a tomar la decisión de recuperar las islas cuando Argentina las invadió el 2 de abril de 1982.

Stanley, Falkland Islands

Coordinates: 51°41′42″S 57°51′02″W

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

"Port Stanley" redirects here. For the town in Canada, see Port Stanley, Ontario.

For the legislative constituency, see Stanley (constituency).

Stanley
Capital city
Aerial view of Stanley, Falkland Islands
Map showing the Port Stanley area
Stanley Stanley within the Falkland Islands Show map of Falkland IslandsShow map of South AmericaShow all
Coordinates: 51°41′42″S 57°51′02″W
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Territory	Falkland Islands
Settlement established	1843
Made capital	July 1845
Falklands war	1982
Awarded city status	June 2022
Area
• Total	2.5 km2 (1.0 sq mi)
Population  (2016)
• Total	2,460
• Density	980/km2 (2,500/sq mi)
Time zone	UTC−3 (FKST[a])

Stanley (also known as Port Stanley) is the capital city of the Falkland Islands. It is located on the island of East Falkland, on a north-facing slope in one of the wettest parts of the islands. At the 2016 census, the city had a population of 2,460.^[1] The entire population of the Falkland Islands was 3,398 on Census Day – 9 October 2016.

Stanley is represented by five of the eight elected members of the Legislative Assembly of the Falkland Islands: Stacy Bragger, Barry Elsby, Mark Pollard, Roger Spink, and Leona Vidal Roberts. An elected Town Council of Stanley existed from 1948 to 1973.

On 14 June 2022, Stanley received letters patent, formally awarding it city status.

Facilities and infrastructure

[edit]

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Stanley post office, with British red post and telephone boxes.

Stanley is the main shopping centre on the islands and the hub of East Falkland's road network. Attractions include the Falkland Islands Museum, Government House—built in 1845 and home to the Governor of the Falkland Islands—and a golf course, as well as a whale-bone arch, a totem pole, several war memorials and the shipwrecks in its harbour. The Falkland Islands Company owns several shops. Stanley has four pubs, 11 hotels and guesthouses, three restaurants, a fish and chip shop and the main tourist office. There are three churches, including the Anglican Christ Church Cathedral, the southernmost Anglican cathedral in the world, and the Roman Catholic St. Mary's Church. A bomb disposal unit in the town is a legacy of the Falklands War.

The town hall serves as a post office, philatelic bureau, law court, and dance hall. The police station also contains the islands' only prison, with capacity for 13 inmates.

The cathedral and whalebone arch

The community centre includes a swimming pool (the only public one in the islands), a sports centre, and school. A grass football pitch is located by the community centre. A separate building houses the college of further education and the library. A new sports centre is under construction to the south of the town centre, next to a newly-laid floodlit all-weather pitch.

Stanley Racecourse, located on the west side of Stanley, holds a two-day horse racing meeting every year on 26 and 27 December. The Christmas races have been held here for over 100 years.

Stanley Golf Course has an 18-hole course and a club house. It is also located to the west of Stanley.

King Edward VII Memorial Hospital is the islands' main hospital, with doctors' practice and surgery, radiology department, dental surgery and emergency facilities.

The Port Stanley Airport operates internal flights, and scheduled international passenger flights operate from the RAF Mount Pleasant military airbase.

Stanley is also home to the Falkland Islands Radio Station (FIRS), the Stanley office of the British Antarctic Survey, and the office of the weekly Penguin News newspaper.^[2]

History

[edit]

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The original capital of the islands was at Port Louis to the north of the present site of Stanley, on Berkeley Sound. Captains Francis Crozier and James Clark Ross were recruited by Governor Richard Moody in his quest to find a new capital for The Falklands. Both Crozier and Ross (who are remembered in Crozier Place and Ross Road in Stanley) were among the Royal Navy's most distinguished seafarers. They spent five months in the islands with their ships Terror and Erebus, later lost looking for the Northwest Passage. Governor Moody (after whom Moody Brook is named), however, decided to move the capital to Port Jackson, which was renamed "Stanley Harbour", after a survey. Stanley Harbour was considered to have a deeper anchorage for visiting ships. Not all the inhabitants were happy with the change; a JW Whitington is recorded as saying, "Of all the miserable bog holes, I believe that Mr Moody has selected one of the worst for the site of his town."^[3]

Settlement at Port Stanley, May 1849, by Edward Fanshawe

Work on the settlement began in 1843 and it became the capital in July 1845. It was named after Lord Stanley, Secretary of State for War and the Colonies at the time. In 1849, 30 married Chelsea Pensioners were settled there to help with the defence of the islands and to develop the new settlement.

The settlement soon grew as a deep-water port, specialising at first in ship repairs; before the construction of the Panama Canal, Port Stanley was a major repair stop for ships travelling through the Straits of Magellan. The rough waters and intense storms found at the tip of the continent forced many ships to Stanley Harbour, and the ship repair industry helped to drive the island economy. Later it became a base for whaling and sealing in the South Atlantic and Antarctic.

Later still it was an important coaling station for the Royal Navy. This led to ships based here being involved in the Battle of the Falkland Islands in the First World War, and the Battle of the River Plate in the Second World War.

Landslides caused by excessive peat cutting destroyed part of the town in 1879 and again in 1886, which killed two people. At about midnight on 29 November 1878 a black moving mass, several feet high, was moving forwards at a rate of 4 miles per hour (6.4 km/h) or 5 miles per hour (8.0 km/h). The next morning the town was cut in two; the only way to travel between the two parts was by boat.^[4]

During the Second World War, a hulk in Stanley Harbour was used for interning the British Fascist and Mosleyite Jeffrey Hamm.^[5] A minor figure in the British Union of Fascists (BUF) at the time, Hamm moved to the Falkland Islands in 1939 to work as a teacher. He was arrested there (under Defence Regulation 18B) in 1940 for encouraging fascist views among his pupils and his BUF membership and later transferred to a prison camp in South Africa.

The 1982 Liberation Memorial, Stanley

Stanley Airport is used by internal flights and provides connections to British bases in Antarctica. Flights to Argentina ended after the 1982 conflict. A weekly flight to Punta Arenas in Chile commenced in 1993, which now operates out of RAF Mount Pleasant. Scheduled passenger flights between the Mount Pleasant airfield and the UK are also operated twice a week by a civilian airline contractor on behalf of the Royal Air Force.

Stanley was occupied by Argentine troops for about 10 weeks during the Falklands War in 1982. The Argentinians renamed the town Puerto Argentino, and although Spanish names for places in the Falklands were historically accepted as alternatives, this one is considered to be extremely offensive by many islanders.^[6] Stanley suffered considerable damage during the war, from both the Argentine occupation and the British naval shelling of the town, which killed three civilians. After the British secured the high ground around the town the Argentines surrendered with no fighting in the town itself. The beaches and land around it were heavily mined and some areas remain marked minefields.

Since the Falklands War, Stanley has benefited from the growth of the fishing and tourism industries in the Islands. Stanley itself has developed greatly in that time, with the building of a large amount of residential housing, particularly to the east of the town centre. Stanley is now more than a third bigger than it was in 1982.

In 2022, as part of Queen Elizabeth II's Platinum Jubilee Civic Honours, Stanley was one of the successful bids for city status, coinciding with the 40th anniversary of the invasion and liberation of the port. On 14 June 2022, Stanley received letters patent from the monarch awarding city status.^[7][8] The Governor of the Falkland Islands, Nigel Phillips, read out the document outside the town hall on the same day.^[9]

Etymology

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Stanley is named after Edward Smith-Stanley, 14th Earl of Derby.

A number of variants of the city's name have appeared in both English and Spanish. Stanley Harbour was originally known as "Port Jackson", and this name would have applied to the area before the town was built. Although the town is officially known as "Stanley", it is frequently referred to as "Port Stanley", especially in British reports about the Falklands War. This is in line with various other settlements around the islands, e.g. Port Howard and Port Stephens. However, "Stanley" without the "Port" prefix was established long before the war, and on 2 August 1956, the Officer Administering the Government of the Falkland Islands reported to the Secretary of State for the Colonies in London as follows:

There is some difficulty over the correct name of the capital. Early despatches contain reference to both Port Stanley and Stanley. Port Stanley was accepted by the Naming Commission set up in 1943 to consider the names then being included on the War Office maps. Local opinion differs on the matter, but there is no doubt that Stanley is now common usage and has been for some considerable time. The capital is defined as Stanley in the Interpretation and General Law Ordinance. In the circumstances I would advise that the correct name for the capital is Stanley.^[10]