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The Yelcho
History
Chile
Name	Yelcho
Owner	1906–1908 Sociedad Ganadera e Industrial Yelcho y Palena de Puerto Montt 1908–1958 Chilean Navy 1958–1962 Astilleros y Maestranzas de la Armada (ASMAR)
Builder	George Brown & Company Greenock, Yard No 34, Engines by Muir & Houston, Glasgow
Launched	23 June 1906
Commissioned	1908 (Navy)
Decommissioned	1945 (Navy)
Reinstated	1945-1958 as tender
Honours and awards	Rescue of the Endurance crew of Ernest Henry Shackleton (1916)
Fate	Scrapped 1965
Notes	Bow preserved in Puerto Williams
General characteristics
Tonnage	219 grt
Displacement	467 t
Length	120 feet (37 m)
Beam	23 feet (7.0 m)
Depth	9.9 feet (3.0 m)
Installed power	350 ihp
Propulsion	compound steam engine by Muir & Houston Ltd, Glasgow
Speed	10 knots
Crew	22 men
Armament	1 Hotchkiss 37mm Cannon
Notes	There are two other Yelchos in the Chilean Navy, Chilean tug Yelcho (AGS-64) and Yelcho (1971).

The Yelcho was built in 1906 by the Scottish firm Geo. Brown and Co. of Greenock, on the River Clyde for towage and cargo service of the Chilean Sociedad Ganadera e Industrial Yelcho y Palena, Puerto Montt. In 1908 she was sold to the Chilean Navy and ordered to Punta Arenas as a tug and for periodic maintenance and supply of the lighthouses in that region.

The rescue of the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition

After the dramatic voyage of the James Caird, Ernest Shackleton had attempted and failed three times to rescue the crew left on Elephant Island: the ships Southern Sky (loaned by the English Whaling Co, 23–31 May 1916), Instituto de Pesca N°1 (loaned by the Government of Uruguay, 10–16 June 1916) and Emma (a sealer, funded by the British Club, Punta Arenas, 12 July – 8 August 1916) all failed to reach Elephant Island.

In July 1916, Yelcho was authorised by the president of Chile, Juan Luis Sanfuentes, to escort and tow Emma to a point 200 miles (320 km) south of Cape Horn. but this third attempt was also unsuccessful.

At dawn on 7 August Yelcho under the command of Captain Luis Pardo was ordered to Port Stanley in order to tug Emma and the British explorers back to Punta Arenas to make a fourth attempt.

The Chilean government offered Yelcho although she was totally unsuited for operations in Antarctic waters. With no radio, no proper heating system, no electric lighting and no double hull the small ship had to cross the 500 miles (800 km) of the Drake's Passage in Antarctic winter.

On 25 August 1916 at 12:15 am, she sailed bound for Elephant Island with 22 men under command of Pardo, carrying Shackleton, Frank Worsley and Tom Crean. After making it safely through the complex tides and channels of the west side of the Tierra del Fuego, Yelcho headed out into the Beagle Channel.

On the 27th at 11:15 am, she arrived at Picton Island, where she bunkered 300 sacks of coal (a total of 72 tons were in the ship) from the Puerto Banner Naval Station. The process was completed within only 12 hours and on 28 August at 3:30 pm she weighed anchor and left for Elephant Island. 60 miles (97 km) south of Cape Horn the lookout spotted the first icebergs

At 11:40 am on 30 August, the fog lifted and the camp on Elephant Island was spotted, and Yelcho immediately entered the bay. Within an hour, in two trips of a small boat, all the Elephant Island party were safely aboard Yelcho, which sailed for Punta Arenas.

The 23 crew of Yelcho at the rescue was:

Aftermath

After the successful rescue mission of 1916 the name Yelcho has been given to streets and ships of Chile, particularly to Chile's southernmost city Puerto Williams, and it is there that the prow of the Yelcho has been preserved and is prominently displayed as a tribute to Captain Pardo's ship and crew.

In 1945, the ship was decommissioned and used as tender in the Petty officer School of the Chilean Navy. On 27 January 1958 Yelcho was retired by decree 190 and in 1962 sold to ASMAR under terms of Law 14.564 (5 May 1954) for 300,000 CLP.

See also

List of Antarctic exploration ships from the Heroic Age, 1897–1922

References

1. ^ "Yelcho". Clyde Built Ships. Caledonian Maritime Research Trust. Retrieved 16 July 2017.
2. "histamar".
3. "Emma".
4. James Caird Society Shackleton, Piloto Pardo, a reluctant hero Archived 17 February 2012 at the Wayback Machine, retrieved on 17 April 2012
5. Mateo Martinic, Crónica de las tierras del sur del canal Beagle, page 110. The station had been built short before as response to the sinking of the Norwegian ship Drummuir by British ships.
6. Alfonso M. Filippi Parada, Shackleton versus Pardo Archived 21 January 2019 at the Wayback Machine, retrieved 15 April 2012
7. Mann, John F. "The SS Yelcho". The Endurance Obituaries. Archived from the original on 30 November 2016. Retrieved 16 July 2017.
8. Website of the Chilean Navy, Yelcho (1906) Archived 21 July 2012 at archive.today, retrieved on 17 April 1906

• 1906 ships
• Ships built on the River Clyde
• Auxiliary ships of the Chilean Navy