Tonsberg House
Base H - Signy Island Antarctica

  ©Copyright R. Sherman - picture taken 1956

A classic design of Antarctic hut from the beginning of the age when science rather than exploration became the main reason for a presence in Antarctica. The hut is named for the Tonsberg Hvalfangeri company from the town of Tonsberg in Norway, the owners of the whaling station that had stood on this site.

The whaling "plan" was still intact and gave service for many years to come. This is a large softwood platform some several inches thick laid over the rock near to the shore at a shallow angle onto which whales were winched for flensing by the whalers. It would now put in many decades of service as a useful level area amongst all the broken rock providing a perfect place to put cargo once it had been landed and before it was sorted as stowed elsewhere.