In my South Georgia post of 4th February, I outlined a little of the history of whaling operations on the island. I also covered my trip to the island in more detail and photos of the whaling station at Grytviken.
There were seven whaling stations operating on the island for various periods of time between 1906 and 1962, overall the largest being Leith Harbour.
The station was built by and operated between 1906 and 1962 by the Edinburgh based Christian Salvesen. At its peak in housed 500 men and was the largest whaling station in the world. For the last three year of its operational life, it was sub-leased to the Japanese company Nippon Suisan Ltd.
The station was established in 1909, and finally abandoned for good in 1965. It is now off-limits to visitors due to dangerous buildings and high levels of asbestos.
A sequel to its whaling operations, it was briefly occupied by Argentine special forces, who landed at the station in March 1982 posing as scrap metal merchants. This was one of the first events leading to the Falklands War.
A 200 metre land and sea exclusion zone now exists around the site due to the ruinous state of the buildings and quantity of asbestos which is known to be there. It’s understood that access can be gain by applying to the Government of South Georgia & the South Sandwich Islands’, but undoubtedly consent is not easily obtained due to the dangerous state of the site.
The photos were all taken from a zodiac inflatable boat off shore on 9th November 2024.
There were seven whaling stations operating on the island for various periods of time between 1906 and 1962, overall the largest being Leith Harbour.
The station was built by and operated between 1906 and 1962 by the Edinburgh based Christian Salvesen. At its peak in housed 500 men and was the largest whaling station in the world. For the last three year of its operational life, it was sub-leased to the Japanese company Nippon Suisan Ltd.
The station was established in 1909, and finally abandoned for good in 1965. It is now off-limits to visitors due to dangerous buildings and high levels of asbestos.
A sequel to its whaling operations, it was briefly occupied by Argentine special forces, who landed at the station in March 1982 posing as scrap metal merchants. This was one of the first events leading to the Falklands War.
A 200 metre land and sea exclusion zone now exists around the site due to the ruinous state of the buildings and quantity of asbestos which is known to be there. It’s understood that access can be gain by applying to the Government of South Georgia & the South Sandwich Islands’, but undoubtedly consent is not easily obtained due to the dangerous state of the site.
The photos were all taken from a zodiac inflatable boat off shore on 9th November 2024.
