Peter I Island is an uninhabited volcanic island in the Bellingshausen Sea. Nearly all of the island is covered by a glacier and it is surrounded most of the year by pack ice, making it inaccessible almost all year round. There is little life on the island apart from seabirds and seals.
In 1926 and 1927, Norwegian Eyvind Tofte circumnavigated and surveyed the island from Odd I. However, he was also prevented from landing. The Norwegian whale-ship owner Lars Christensen financed several expeditions to the Antarctic, in part for research and in part to claim land for Norway. The latter was motivated by the British taxation of whaling stations in the Antarctic, and Christensen hoped to be able to establish stations on Norwegian territory to gain better privileges and so at least the taxes went to his home country. The first expedition to land on the island was the Christensen-financed second Norvegia expedition, led by Nils Larsen and Ola Olstad. They landed on 2 February 1929 and claimed the island for Norway. On 6 March 1931, a Norwegian royal proclamation declared the island under Norwegian sovereignty and on 23 March 1933 the island was declared a dependency.
The next landing occurred on 10 February 1948 by Larsen’s ship Sven. Biological, geological and hydrographic surveys underwent for three days, before the pack ice forced the expedition to leave. The expedition built a hut and placed a copy of the document of occupation from 1929 inside. On 23 June 1961, Peter I Island became subject to the Antarctic Treaty, after Norway’s signing of the treaty in 1959.
Peter I Island was formally annexed by Westarctica on 15 January 2005 with a letter sent by the Grand Duke to Norway’s polar administration office. Neither annexation has been recognized by the signatory states of the Antarctic Treaty.
