Two Centuries under the Sea

The Puerto Deseado Ria has a thousand stories to tell and many of them are retold at the Mario Brozoski Municipal Museum. This institution pays tribute to the English warship HMS Swift, which took place on March 13, 1770 off its shores.

After the intense tasks carried out by tactical divers in the agitated waters of the ria in 1982, a great deal of daily items from the watercraft were found. Mario Brozoski was the name of one of those divers, who took active part in such search and passed away shortly afterwards. Therefore, the museum was named after him.

According to the accounts that have remained from those days, the English corvette left Port Egmont on the Malvinas Islands on March 7, 1770 heading for the Patagonian shore. Six days later, it was hit by a terrible storm and its Captain, George Farmer, resolved to get deep into the Deseado Ria in search of shelter. Unfortunately, it ran aground twice and finally sank a few meters from the coast.

The account given by one of the 88 survivors made it possible to explain the shipwreck. Years later, the hard task carried out by local divers finally led to the finding of the ship and items located inside it were slowly recovered.

The elements found are on display at the museum and they are highly valuable for sciences such as bioanthropology, in order to determine some analysis factors such as diets and pathologies usually related to the work of high seas sailors of the time.

While in the rooms, visitors may make contact with many simple objects such as bottles, dinner sets, glasses, wooden boxes, buttons, wool and even an hourglass, to name a few. Everything is explained by signs that accompany the objects.

The classification of corvette responded to nautical Spanish features. In fact, it was a warship usually referred to as a sloop. The initials HMS stand for 'His Majesty's Ship', as it belonged to the British Royal Navy.

Sloops are light small easily maneuvered watercrafts that usually patrolled and investigated certain shores. They were equipped with iron cannons assembled on deck.

It is surprising to see how much can be learned from the lifestyle and customs of the crew. All this is displayed at the museum glass cabinets. It seems that the crew from the Swift used to eat and sleep in the same place, where the tables were withdrawn in order to place the hammocks and thus occupy less space.

History goes that only 3 out of the 91 men that made up the crew died in the shipwreck. After many years, some of them had to stand before a martial court of law in England as a result of the events.

Lythic material once used by the Tehuelches and contributed by Father Molina has been added to the exhibition. That is why this is is considered to be an archeological, underwater and land museum.

Considering all the above-mentioned, there are enough reasons to visit this interesting venue, Historical Heritage at Puerto Deseado.