Grytviken

Grytviken
Location of Grytviken and King Edward Point
Location of Grytviken and King Edward Point
Coordinates: 54°16′53″S 36°30′29″W / 54.28139°S 36.50806°W / -54.28139; -36.50806
Country United Kingdom
British Overseas Territory South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands
Disestablished1966
Population
 (2018)
 • Total3 (summer)
Time zoneUTC−2 (GST)

Grytviken (/ˈɡrɪtviːkən/ GRIT-vee-kən Norwegian: [ˈɡɾŷːtviːkn̩]) is a hamlet on South Georgia in the South Atlantic and formerly a whaling station and the largest settlement on the island. It is located at the head of King Edward Cove within the larger Cumberland East Bay, considered the best harbour on the island.[1] The location's name, meaning "pot bay", was coined in 1902 by the Swedish Antarctic Expedition and documented by the surveyor Johan Gunnar Andersson, after the expedition found old English try pots used to render seal oil at the site.[2][3][4] Settlement was re-established on 16 November 1904 by Norwegian Antarctic explorer Carl Anton Larsen on the long-used site of former whaling settlements.[5][6]

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 nearby British Antarctic Survey research station at King 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 the South Georgia Museum. The settlement has become a popular attraction for Antarctic cruise lines, with many tourists visiting the resting places of polar explorers Sir Ernest Shackleton and Frank Wild in Grytviken's graveyard.

  1. ^ Holskjær, Lars (2017). Kamper uten tall. Forlagshuset i Vestfold. Page 225. ISBN 9788293407294.
  2. ^ Andersson, Johann Gunnar (1944). Antarctic (in Swedish). Stockholm: Saxon & Lindström. p. 192.
  3. ^ Robert Headland (21 May 1992). The Island of South Georgia. CUP Archive. pp. 63–. ISBN 978-0-521-42474-5.
  4. ^ Ian B. Hart (2001). Pesca: The History of Compañia Argentina de Pesca Sociedad Anónima of Buenos Aires : an Account of the Pioneer Modern Whaling and Sealing Company in the Antarctic. Aidan Ellis. p. 24. ISBN 978-0-85628-299-7.
  5. ^ Headland, Robert (1992). The Island of South Georgia. CUP Archive. Page 130. ISBN 9780521424745.
  6. ^ "The Beginnings". Archived from the original on 12 June 2018. Retrieved 3 July 2018.