Grytviken

Grytviken is found on the Island of South Georgia, a British island in the South Atlantic. The name derives from the Swedish for "The Pot Cove" by a Swedish surveyor. The small town of Grytviken was founded in November 1904 by a Norwegian Captain, working on behalf of an Argentinian company. The town was created as a whaling station and at its height 300 people lived and worked there.

The Norwegian Captain who founded Grytviken, called Captain Carl Anton Larsen actually became a British citizen by living on the island, in fact he sent a message to the British government saying: "I have given up my Norwegian citizens 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."

Grytviken flourished because the whaling season proved lucrative with many whales caught, but is most well known for being the resting place of the intrepid explorer Shakleton who died at sea close to South Georgia in 1922 and was buried there.

The town was deserted in 1966 when the whaling station was closed because of a decline in whales caught. The only time since 1966 that there has been anyone living at Grytviken was at the outset of the Falklands war when the Argentinians landed and took control of the area. This was a shortlived use of the town.

The church in Grytviken is still used from time to time by people on the island for services but other than this it is a ghost town with no one living there and only seen time to time by tourists passing by in cruise ships.

Image courtesy of Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research, Bremerhaven, Germany