History of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands in the Arctic claiming Jan Mayen and Sverdrup Islands, but also in Antarctica. Norway claimed Bouvet Island and looked further south, formally inquiring with Foreign Office about the international status of the area between 45° and 65° south latitude and 35° and 80° west longitude. Following a second such diplomatic démarche by the Norwegian Government dated 4 March 1907, Britain replied that the areas were British based on discoveries made in the first half of the 19th century, and issued the 1908 Letters Patent incorporating the British Falkland Islands Dependencies with a permanent local administration in Grytviken established in 1909.
Thompson Island (South Atlantic) Thompson Island (South Atlantic) Thompson Island was a phantom island in the South Atlantic. According to the Global Volcanism Program, it was thought to be about north-northeast of Bouvet Island, a small Norwegian dependency between South Africa and Antarctica. The island was first reported and named by whaling ship captain George Norris in 1825. The last reported sighting was in 1893. When, however, the German survey ship "Valdivia" fixed the position of Bouvet in 1898, it then looked for Thompson, but did not find it. If Thompson ever existed, it is probable that it disappeared in a volcanic eruption sometime