Between Africa and Antarctica one of the most remote islands in the world rises out of the water, discovered only in 1739, and then found again only in 1927. A sinister and gloomy island, which hides unsolved mysteries!

In 1964 the icebreaker HMS Protector reached the island of Bouvet to investigate a volcanic eruption a few years earlier. The crew found in the frozen lake Selbadet, near Nyrøysa, site of the current weather station, an abandoned half-sunken lifeboat carrying oars, a drum, firewood, a copper tank and supplies, but they did not come never found the passengers or the bodies of the passengers of the lifeboat itself. In 1966 a second expedition found that the boat and all the objects it contained had disappeared. Being the island far from any trade route, and practically inaccessible throughout the year, it made this discovery a mystery, still unsolved today.

In 1979 there was a mysterious nuclear explosion recorded by the US “Vela” satellites, put into orbit in the 1960s to check compliance with the US-USSR treaty against nuclear tests in the Earth’s atmosphere. The thesis was immediately confirmed by scientists in the Antarctic Territory who detected radioactive dust. All this proved that a secret nuclear test had been carried out in the area between the Prince Edward Islands and the island of Bouvet, which was classified under the name of the Vela Incident. No nation ever admitted responsibility for the test even if the most widespread opinion was that Israel or South Africa could be behind this test.

Bouvetøya, the Norwegian name of the island of Bouvet, is recognized as a nature reserve. Almost totally covered by ice, it is a hostile environment to life, both vegetable, in fact some lichens and some algae and animals grow on it, on the island there are only colonies of seals, penguins and other sea birds.

In 1739 this island was discovered by Jean-Baptiste Lozier Bouvet de Lozier, a French explorer and navigator, who, during the voyage in the South Atlantic, with boats, Marie and Aigle, on behalf of the company of the East Indies, stumbled upon the island , but without being able to circumnavigate it, due to the diseases spread on board, he was forced to return quickly first to Africa and then to his homeland.

In 1927 the ship Norway, a Norwegian expedition to Antarctica, found the island, rediscovering it again and the crew that landed on land claimed it by hoisting the Norwegian flag.