Estados Island is separated from mainland Argentina by the Le Maire Strait and has lain on the route of ships traveling from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean since the 17th century. There was also a lighthouse here that inspired Jules Verne’s novel The Lighthouse at the End of the World.
In the early 1870s, the island was handed over to Luis Piedrabuena, but no permanent settlement ever appeared there. During an expedition for penguins, from which fat was extracted, his crew lost the schooner-brig Espora, and then built the Luisito from the wreckage and sailed it to Punta Arenas, Chile.
In January 2026, researchers reached the island on sailing vessels with the support of the Argentine Navy and surveyed Lacroix Bay in Franklin Bay. The shore there is steep and exposed to strong southwesterly winds, and there is still no consensus on the location of the Espora’s wreck, although Piedrabuena’s own account and other documents point precisely to this bay.
At low tide, archaeologists found the lower part of a wooden ship’s hull and an iron chain lying nearby. Just above the tide line, remains of another hull were discovered, preserved up to deck level, and on the northern shore — a small fragment of a third; wood samples should show whether the wreckage belongs to one ship or several.
About 150 meters from the finds, at the foot of a steep hill near a stream, the researchers recorded traces of a short human stay. On the surface lay glass beads, ceramic buttons with four holes, sheets of corrugated galvanized iron, and a bottle, and nearby — a deck prism and a small metal hinge for attaching the rudder to the stern.
The authors believe that the camp was associated with the nearest wreckage, and therefore possibly with the crew of the Espora. The Espora itself was originally called Nancy: it was built in the U.S. state of Maryland, and the ship’s displacement was 157 tons.
The finds cast doubt on historical accounts of the ship’s fate, because one of the hulls has been preserved up to deck level, and archaeologists have not yet found traces of the shipyard that Piedrabuena set up on the shore to build the Luisito. The researchers also emphasize that the island remains a reserve, and Franklin Bay is one of the most isolated places in the region, and it was precisely this that helped the traces of the 19th century survive.
Sources
