Grytviken
| Grytviken | |
|---|---|
 |
|
 South Georgia settlements |
|
| Coordinates: 54°16′53.4″S 36°30′28.8″W / 54.281500°S 36.508000°WCoordinates: 54°16′53.4″S 36°30′28.8″W / 54.281500°S 36.508000°W | |
| Country |
 United Kingdom
|
| British Overseas Territory |
 South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands
|
| Population (2008) | |
| • Total | 20 |
| Time zone | GST (UTC−2) |
Grytviken (Swedish for "the Pot Bay") is a settlement on the island of South Georgia, part of a British Overseas Territory in the South Atlantic. It was so named in 1902 by the Swedish surveyor Johan Gunnar Andersson who found old English try pots used to render seal oil at the site. It is the best harbour on the island, consisting of a bay (King Edward Cove) within a bay (Cumberland East Bay). The site is quite sheltered, provides a substantial area of flat land suitable for building, and has a good supply of fresh water.
The settlement at Grytviken was established on 16 November 1904 by the Norwegian sea captain Carl Anton Larsen, as a whaling station for his Compañía Argentina de Pesca (Argentine Fishing Company). It was phenomenally successful, with 195 whales taken in the first season alone. 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 fertilizer 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 the Argentine Government established a meteorological station.
Carl Anton Larsen, the founder of Grytviken, was a naturalised Briton born in Sandefjord, 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.
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