Grytviken (/ˈɡrɪtviːkən/GRIT-vee-kənNorwegian:[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.
^Holskjær, Lars (2017). Kamper uten tall. Forlagshuset i Vestfold. Page 225. ISBN 9788293407294.
^Andersson, Johann Gunnar (1944). Antarctic (in Swedish). Stockholm: Saxon & Lindström. p. 192.
^Robert Headland (21 May 1992). The Island of South Georgia. CUP Archive. pp. 63–. ISBN 978-0-521-42474-5.
^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.
^Headland, Robert (1992). The Island of South Georgia. CUP Archive. Page 130. ISBN 9780521424745.
^"The Beginnings". Archived from the original on 12 June 2018. Retrieved 3 July 2018.
Grytviken (/ˈɡrɪtviːkən/ GRIT-vee-kən Norwegian: [ˈɡɾŷːtviːkn̩]) is a hamlet on South Georgia in the South Atlantic and formerly a whaling station and...
The invasion of South Georgia, also known as the Battle of Grytviken or Operation Georgias, took place on 3 April 1982, when Argentine Navy forces seized...
first permanent habitation at Grytviken in 1904. It operated through his Argentine Fishing Company, which settled in Grytviken. The station operated until...
most important historically being Grytviken. The main settlement and the capital today is King Edward Point near Grytviken, a British Antarctic Survey research...
Georgia. At his wife's request, he remained on the island and was buried in Grytviken cemetery. The wreck of Endurance was discovered just over a century after...
interests with the Compañía Argentina de Pesca which had started whaling at Grytviken since December 1904 was settled by the British authorities with the company...
Kerguelen and the Norwegian Lutheran Church, a former Lutheran chapel in Grytviken, South Georgia (since 1913). After years of abandonment and weathering...
The South Georgia Museum is situated in Grytviken, near the administrative centre of the UK overseas territory of South Georgia and the South Sandwich...
for the Museum curator's family at Grytviken. The jetty, the church, dwellings and industrial buildings at Grytviken have recently been renovated by the...
during the busy winter fishing season. Summer staff from the Museum at Grytviken are also accommodated at KEP. The continued occupation of the station...
across Cumberland East Bay and set up an OP at Brown Mountain overlooking Grytviken. The SAS plan was more ambitious, and called for a helicopter insertion...
Falkland Islands on 2 April 1982 and took Grytviken the following day, leaving 44 marines. Despite seizing Grytviken and Leith, the Argentines were not able...
polar region was a Norwegian girl, Solveig Gunbjørg Jacobsen, born in Grytviken on 8 October 1913. Emilio Marcos Palma was the first person born south...
Cook. In the Second World War the whaling stations were closed except Grytviken and Leith Harbour. Most of the British and Norwegian whalers and factory...
man", were interred on the right-hand side of Shackleton's grave site in Grytviken, South Georgia. Wild's relatives and Shackleton's granddaughter, the Hon...
subsequently named after him. In 1904, Larsen re-founded a whaling settlement at Grytviken on the island of South Georgia. In 1910, after some years' residence on...
unprofitable, and are now abandoned. These settlements include: Whaler's Bay Grytviken Husvik Leith Harbour Ocean Harbour Prince Olav Harbour Stromness Aghdam...
Falkland Islands Dependencies with a permanent local administration in Grytviken established in 1909. Fridtjof Nansen Land (Franz Josef Land), now part...
flensing became more specialized. Soon the entire whale was being used. At Grytviken, a whaling station at South Georgia, after the blubber had been stripped...
trekked over South Georgia to raise the alarm at the whaling station Grytviken. In 1946, US Navy Rear Admiral Richard E. Byrd and more than 4,700 military...
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South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands