We sailed from Golthul to Grytviken arriving during the night into a much calmer bay.
Grytviken, Swedish for ‘pot bay’ referring to the old trypots used for rendering blubber from seals and whales, is a sparsely populated town on the island of South Georgia in King Edward Cove in Cumberland Bay. The explorer, Frank Wild, described it as ‘the finest natural harbour’ of the island. Sealers, who had worked there during the 19th century, had been fully aware of the wonder of this bay. It was the first permanent whaling station in South Georgia, being established in 1904 by the Swedish whaler, Carl Anton Larsen. He was known as the father of South Georgia’s whaling industry. A dwindling supply of whales, making the industry uneconomical, led to this station closing in 1966.
The town of Grytviken is built on a stretch of flat land with a good supply of fresh water. Although the largest station on South Georgia it was administered by the British Antarctic Research Survey research station. There are no longer permanent residents in Grytviken but occasionally, during the summer months, researchers, administrative staff for the museum and post office and military personnel. There are still both a church and cemetery on site. There was a cinema, kino in Norwegian, but this was destroyed by hurricane strength winds in 1994. The only item left from it was a sign which is now in the museum.
This Norwegian Lutheran Church was a prefabricated building, built in Norway in 1913 by CA Larsen and erected by the Whalers. On Christmas Day of that same year, it was consecrated and Larsen’s granddaughter was baptised. The 2 bells were rung for the first time the night before. There was a Lutheran pastor present most of the time until 1931. The church is still occasionally used for services, including a few marriages and baptisms. In fact, one of the scientists on board with us was married there a few years ago. Sadly, it is funerals which have been the more common services, including explorers Sir Ernest Shackleton and Frank Wild, both of whom who are buried in the town cemetery.
This would be the last time we would use the zodiacs and Special Ops Boats and Isabel, Expedition Leader, and her Assistant, Olivia, were adamant that I went on shore. Once again, only zodiacs would be used and I had never been on one because it was very difficult for me to climb on and off this type of boat. This was due to my wearing orthopaedic boots and using a stick (called a cane in the US). That did not deter Isabel and Olivia one little bit. They were going to see me walking on South Georgia one way or another. When landing, it was always in shallow water as the zodiac could not go right on to the shore. The design of my boots would allow water to flow into them and I could not wear the boots supplied by Viking. over mine. “Not to worry” they said, “we will lift you on and off the zodiac.”
In the morning, we donned our excursion clothes and went down to Deck A. I was accompanied down to the zodiac by 2 crew members as there were many stairs to negotiate and, when we got to the boat, a 3rd crew member appeared and, between them, they did almost lift me on to the boat. On arrival at the island, I waited while the others got off and then the boat was carefully manoeuvred closer to the shore, a step placed next to it and three ladies assisted me on to the step and then on to the shore. The same was done in reverse when we returned.
This was such a wonderful experience. I finally saw Fur Seals up close, as they were all over the landing area. Many were still babies feeding off their mothers. They ran around making their deep growling sounds. Should a person get too close the seal would run straight at the person suggesting that it would attack. To keep the seals at bay we had been given ski poles and we were told to place one in front of us and they will stay away. Standing among the seals were a few Brown Skuas. As they do eat baby seals, they were probably watching for any which were left unattended.
Besides the seals, there were Gentoo Penguins but they were on the far side of the bay. To keep an accurate record of the penguins weight and feeding habits, researchers built a ‘weighing station’ across which the birds had to walk as it was on their path to the sea. Close to this was a single cross and a group of 3 crosses a bit further away. The single cross was where Shackleton was first buried before his remains were moved to the cemetery. The 3 crosses are for 3 South African fishermen whose boat capsized near the island.
As we walked up from the landing bay, we passed lots of pieces of equipment used by the former whalers and sealers, including an anchor, a trypot and a cannon. The seals quite happily lay around among these. Behind the equipment was the museum which bore a sign saying that it opened at 13:30 but it was still closed at 13:45. Anyway, it opened soon thereafter, and we found it to be excellent with some very interesting artefacts. There was also a small shop with memorabilia on sale.
As we walked up to visit the church, we passed a large number of rusted oil tanks, one bearing a date of 1890, and so it was clear that it was used from the days of catching seals. It was probably also used for rendered blubber oil obtained from whales. Also rusting away beside the dock were two whaling ships.
Oil tanks with the cemetery in the distant background
Special, caring ladies and gentlemen made sure I landed at Grytviken that day. It was wonderful and my gratitude to all the people who got me there will never be forgotten.
The Daily Viking
This evening there was a lecture by Specialist Loreen Niewenhuis entitled: Shackleton’s Imperial Trans-Continental Expedition … THE ENTIRE STORY. We learnt of a remarkable story of courage and survival in the harshest place on earth. Shackleton and two men rowed 800 miles (1200kms) in a small boat from the Arctic Peninsula to South Georgia, surprising the residents there as their ship had not been heard from for 497 days. Once the winter ice had thawed the remaining crew were rescued from the Peninsula.
The cover story of the Daily Viking was about Grytviken about which this whole post is written so I won’t repeat it here.
The birds about whom we were told were the Southern Rockhopper Penguins. On their heads they among the world’s smallest penguins, growing to only 22ins (55cm) and weigh up to 6lbs (2.5kgs). Instead of sliding on their bellies like most other penguins, they hop over the rugged terrain of the Antarctic. may be slow on land but are strong and fast swimmers, diving to 300ft (91m) to catch their food which consists of squid, fish and krill. They gather in massive breeding colonies, up to hundreds of thousands of birds, and hope to find their original burrow and mate. Each female will lay 2 eggs and both parents take turns to incubate them for 34 days when the babies hatch.
