Deception Bay Whaling Station

One of the more haunting and fascinating stops we may see on our Antarctic journey is the abandoned whaling station at Deception Bay, located inside the flooded caldera of Deception Island. Once a bustling hub for early 20th-century whaling operations, the site is now a ghostly reminder of a bygone era. Scouts walking among the rusted boilers, whale-oil tanks, and crumbling buildings can almost hear the echoes of the men who once worked here, enduring harsh conditions in pursuit of whale oil — a vital resource at the time.

It’s a powerful, hands-on history lesson, connecting us to the industrial legacy of Antarctica and the environmental consequences that followed. Standing there, surrounded by steam rising from the island’s geothermal vents, Scouts witness the contrast between human ambition and the raw power of nature — and reflect on how far we’ve come in our stewardship of this fragile continent.