Grytviken is built on a substantial area of sheltered, flat land and has a good supply of fresh water. Although it was the largest settlement on South Georgia, the island's administration was based at the nearbyBritish Antarctic Survey research station atKing Edward Point. The whaling station closed in December 1966 when dwindling whale stocks made it financially unviable.
Grytviken no longer has permanent residents but occasionally accommodates researchers and British administrative and military personnel. It is also temporarily inhabited during summer months by a few staff who manage theSouth Georgia Museum. The settlement has become a popular attraction for Antarctic cruise lines, with many tourists visiting the resting places of polar explorersSir Ernest Shackleton andFrank Wild inGrytviken's graveyard. Grytviken is located 900 metres (3,000 ft; 0.56 mi) west ofKing Edward Point, theadministrative capital of South Georgia and its only remaining continuously inhabited settlement.
The settlement at Grytviken was established on 16 November 1904 by the Norwegian sea captainCarl Anton Larsen, as a whaling station for hisCompañía Argentina de Pesca (Argentine Fishing Company).[4] It was successful, with 195 whales taken in the first season. The whalers used every part of the animals – the blubber, meat, bones and viscera were rendered to extract the oil, and the bones and meat were turned into fertiliser and fodder.Elephant seals were also hunted for their blubber. Around 300 men worked at the station during its heyday, operating during the southern summer from October to March. A few remained over the winter to maintain the boats and factory. Every few months a transport ship would bring essential supplies to the station and take away the oil and other produce. The following year theArgentine Government established ameteorological station.
Carl Anton Larsen, the founder of Grytviken, was a naturalised Briton born inSandefjord,Norway. In his application for British citizenship, filed with the magistrate of South Georgia and granted in 1910, Captain Larsen wrote: "I have given up my Norwegian citizen's rights and have resided here since I started whaling in this colony on the 16 November 1904 and have no reason to be of any other citizenship than British, as I have had and intend to have my residence here still for a long time." His family in Grytviken included his wife, three daughters and two sons.
As the manager of Compañía Argentina de Pesca, Larsen organised the construction of Grytviken, a remarkable undertaking accomplished by a team of sixty Norwegians between their arrival on 16 November and commencement of production at the newly built whale-oil factory on 24 December 1904.
Larsen chose the whaling station's site during his 1902 visit while in command of the shipAntarctic of theSwedish Antarctic Expedition (1901–03) led byOtto Nordenskjöld. On that occasion, the name Grytviken ("The Pot Cove") was given by the Swedish archaeologist and geologistJohan Gunnar Andersson who surveyed part ofThatcher Peninsula and found numerous artefacts and features from sealers' habitation and industry, including a shallop (a type of small boat) and several try pots used to boil seal oil.[5][6][7] One of those try pots, having the inscription "Johnson and Sons, Wapping Dock, London" is preserved at theSouth Georgia Museum in Grytviken.[8]
Managers and other senior officers of the whaling stations often had their families living together with them. Among them was Fridthjof Jacobsen, whose wife, Klara Olette Jacobsen, gave birth to two of their children in Grytviken; their daughterSolveig Gunbjørg Jacobsen was the first child ever born south of theAntarctic Convergence, on 8 October 1913, and was raised there. Several more children have been born on South Georgia, recently[when?] even aboard visiting private yachts.
The whale population in the seas around the island was substantially reduced over the following sixty years until the station closed in December 1966, by which time the whale stocks were so low that their continued exploitation was unviable. Even now, the shore around Grytviken is littered with whale bones and the rusting remains of whale oil processing plants and abandoned whaling ships.
Grytviken is closely associated with the explorerSir Ernest Shackleton. Shackleton'sImperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition set out from London on 1 August 1914, to reach theWeddell Sea on 10 January 1915, where the pack ice closed in on their ship,Endurance. The ship was broken by the ice on 27 October 1915. The 28 crew members managed to flee toElephant Island off Antarctica in three small boats. Shackleton and five other men managed to reach the southern coast of South Georgia inJames Caird. They arrived atCave Cove and camped atPeggotty Bluff, from whence they trekked toStromness on the northeast coast. From Grytviken, Shackleton organised a rescue operation to bring home the remaining men.
He again returned to Grytviken during theShackleton–Rowett Expedition and this is where he died, aged just 47, shortly after New Year's Day, prior to the expedition heading south to Antarctica. His widow chose South Georgia as his final resting place, so this is where he was buried. His grave is located south of Grytviken, alongside those of whalers who had died on the island.
On 27 November 2011, the ashes ofFrank Wild, Shackleton's "right-hand man," were interred on the right side of Shackleton's grave-site. The inscription on the rough-hewn granite block set to mark the spot reads "Frank Wild 1873–1939, Shackleton's right-hand man." Wild's relatives and Shackleton's only granddaughter, Alexandra Shackleton, attended a service conducted by Richard Hines, rector of theFalkland Islands. The writer Angie Butler discovered the ashes in the vault ofBraamfontein Cemetery,Johannesburg, while researching her bookThe Quest for Frank Wild. She said "His ashes will now be where they were always supposed to be. It just took them a long time getting there."[9]
During theFalklands War, Grytviken was captured by Argentine forces in early April 1982 following a brief battle withRoyal Marines. The Royal Marines,SAS andSBS retook the settlement three weeks later without a shot being fired in return.[citation needed]
While the British magistrate and other civilians and military present in Grytviken were removed from South Georgia, another 15 Britons remained beyond Argentine reach. The losses suffered at Grytviken prevented Argentina from occupying the rest of the island,[citation needed] withBird Island base, and field camps atSchlieper Bay,Lyell Glacier andSt. Andrew's Bay remaining under British control.
On 25 April, theRoyal Navy damaged and captured the Argentine submarineARA Santa Fe at South Georgia. The Argentine garrison in Grytviken surrendered without returning fire. The following day the detachment inLeith Harbour commanded by CaptainAlfredo Astiz also surrendered. One prisoner, Felix Artuso, was shot when guards mistakenly believed he was trying to sabotageSanta Fe, and was buried atGrytviken Cemetery. The Argentine personnel were removed from theSouth Sandwich Islands by HMSEndurance on 20 June. Due to evidence of an unauthorised visit, the closed stationCorbeta Uruguay was destroyed in January 1983.[citation needed]
Along with the surrounding area, the station has been declared an Area of Special Tourist Interest (ASTI).
Grytviken is a popular stop for cruise ships visiting Antarctica, and tourists usually land to visit Shackleton's grave. TheSouth Georgia Museum is housed in the manager's house of the former whaling station, and is open during the summer tourist season.
Thestation's church is the only building which retains its original purpose; it is still used occasionally for services. There have been several marriages in Grytviken, the first being registered on 24 February 1932, between A.G.N. Jones and Vera Riches.
On 28 January 2007, a service was conducted in remembrance of Anders Hansen (a Norwegian whaler buried at Grytviken Cemetery in 1943) and to celebrate his great-great-grandson Axel Wattø Eide's baptism occurring in Oslo the same day.
Panorama view of Grytviken
Multiple wrecks dot Grytviken, and its environs.[10][11] The shipsPetrel,Dias andAlbatross were beached, and left to rust, after decades of service.
Grytviken and King Edward Point have atundra climate (KöppenET) with long, cold winters and short, cool summers. The highest temperature ever recorded at Grytviken/King Edward Point was 28.8 °C (83.8 °F) on 10 March 1922.[12]
Climate data for Grytviken/King Edward Point (1991–2020 normals, extremes 2006–2023)
^"Grytviken Whalecatchers".Submerged.co.uk. Retrieved5 April 2019.She was one of the first whale catchers to have a catwalk so that the gunner could run from the bridge to the harpoon gun.
^"Temp/Rain 1901–1950"(PDF). Globalbioclimatics. April 2012. Archived fromthe original(PDF) on 1 August 2020. Retrieved10 December 2018.
^abCappelen, John; Jensen, Jens."South Georgia–Grytviken"(PDF).Climate Data for Selected Stations (1931–1960) (in Danish). Danish Meteorological Institute. p. 242. Archived fromthe original(PDF) on 27 April 2013. Retrieved10 December 2018.
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