South Georgia

I was chuffed to find out the Harry Robertson was on South Georgia With the Antarctic Fleet. I've been intrigued with whaling there since I found Grytviken Whaling Station, the first of ultimately seven shore bases, was established in 1904, by the Norwegian, Cpt C A Larsen, in 1904. Between 1923 and 1933 his Rosshavet Whaling Company of Sandefjord, Norway made nine expeditions to the Ross Sea in Antarctica from their "Whalers Base" in Paterson Inlet, here on Stewart Island.

If you don't know where South Georgia is, go to Expedia and type south Georgia in the "Place name" box. You'll have to select one of the first two options that come up to get there.

This thread got me checking out South Georgia websites for the first time in a couple of years, there's a heap more now. Most are Cruise Ship's that visit the Island, or trip reports of their passengers. However, there are a few "real bloke's" sites that cover whaling history. Here's a selection.

Subantarctic Islands - by Paul Carrol has good information on the history of the island.

Pesca is a review of the book of that title by Ian B Hart (Salcombe, Devon, UK: Aidan Ellis Publishing, 2001) 548 pp. £45. ISBN 0 85628 299 5. It's the history of C A Larsen's venture at Grytviken. It looks fantasic, but 45 quid is way outside my pocket. I'll have to see if our local library can interloan it.

Kaipipi Shipyard and the Ross Sea Whalers - Me old cobber Jim Watts descrition of his excellent book about Larsen's activities here on Stewart Island. There's quite a bit of info in the book about the old New Bedford whaleship Othello, which later worked in Autralian and New Zealand waters. When I the book, I found that the stranded steam trawler Phyllis, which I clambered over at Waikanai Beach, north of Wellington in 1953, was one of the Rosshavet fleet of Star whale chasers. I couldn't find the book for sale on-line. There's an e-mail address for Jim on this page - Just tell him "Sam from Stewart Island snet you".

South Georgia Pictures - Jim McLaren spent eleven years working on the Oil Mariner between the Falkland Islands and South Georgia. He's got dozens of photos of the whaling stations when he was there in the 1980s. When they closed in the 60s, they literall walked out, leaving machinery, and even the books on the library shelves. It's a a fantasic site. I spent a couple of hours looking round. There's even some historic photos from around the time when Harry Robertson was there. It's the site to visit if you want backgound for With the Antarctic Fleet.

That's all for now. I can post more South Georgia links if anyone is interested.

Cheers - Sam