Effort to find Belgrano abandoned

Heavy winds and high seas in the South Atlantic today forced explorers to abandon their search for an Argentine warship sunk by a British nuclear submarine during the 1982 Falkland Islands war.

The expedition, led by the National Geographic Society, struggled for 12 days to locate the General Belgrano, whose recovery was to have been the centrepiece of a planned two hour documentary.

“Expeditions such as this are never easy, and our operation here was no exception,” said the expedition’s leader, Curt Newport.

“As with all things lost at sea, you never know exactly where they sank.”

Newport said his team battled 30 foot high seas and winds exceeding 70 mph and struggled to use high-tech sonar equipment to comb more than 300 square miles of ocean floor in the South Atlantic.

The team was unable to find the ship, which is believed to be in waters 13,500 feet deep and located about 115 miles off Argentina’s southern coast of Tierra del Fuego, Newport said.

The Royal navy submarine Conqueror torpedoed and sank the General Belgrano on May 2 1982, causing the largest single loss of life in the 78 day war initiated by the military dictatorship that then ruled Argentina.

More than 300 Argentines of a crew of 1,093 died in the attack, which proved to be the decisive moment in the war.

In all, more than 700 Argentines and 255 British soldiers perished in and around the South Atlantic archipelago before Britain reclaimed the islands.

Argentine troops invaded the islands on April 2 1982, amid claims that the country had inherited the archipelago from the Spanish crown before it was occupied by Britain in 1833.

The islands are populated by about 2,220 people of mostly British ancestry.

The sinking occurred under disputed circumstances with Argentine war veterans calling it a “war crime” and claiming the Belgrano was fired upon as it travelled to port outside a 200-mile exclusion zone imposed by Britain.

The two countries eventually restored relations in 1990, although Argentina still maintains its claim to the islands.

The expedition was expected to return to port at Argentina’s southernmost city, Ushuaia, tomorrow.

National Geographic officials said taped footage of the expedition would be included in a documentary called the Sinking of the Belgrano, which it expected to air on its cable channel later this year.