The Pilot house and the collaboration of the local pilots in the scientific-naval expeditions in the Patagonian coast

GARCÍA, SUSANA VALERIA

Praga

Congreso; 26th International Congress of History of Science and Technology; 2021

Division of History of Science and Technology of the International Union of History and Philosophy of Science and Technology (IUHPST/DHST)

This paper examines a particular node of encounter and circulation of information during the first half of the 19th century: the pilot house at the mouth of the Río Negro, in Patagonia. From that place, the pilots watched over the navigation in the area and facilitated the entrance to the port of Carmen de Patagones, the southernmost town of the South American Atlantic coast at that time. Expert captains of the Patagonian navigation offered their services as pilots to merchant ships and naval expeditions. They also got engage in corsair activities, coastal trade and seal hunting. They provided reports and assisted in hydrographic surveys and they took the opportunity to copy maps and talk about the things of nature. In 1832, Captain Robert Fitz-Roy hired the services of two of these English pilots and their boats to carry out the hydrographic survey of the Patagonian coast along with officers of the HSM Beagle. The following year, Darwin stayed at the pilots' house and talked to them about these works. This paper argues that the sites such as the Pilot?s house in Patagonia operated as places of sociability and information exchange among seafarers, travellers and residents.