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Stromness Harbor is situated in the central arm of Stromness Bay; Leith Harbor and Husvik are the other two arms. Whaling stations were located at all three, but Stromness is best known for another event. It was at the Stromness station where Ernest Shackleton finished his epic journey from Elephant Island to South Georgia. As a whaling station, Stromness operated from 1907 until 1931, and then continued as a ship repair yard until 1961. The derelict station is now off limits to visitors, due to dangers from both blowing sheet metal debris and asbestos. In the protection of the harbor, the seas were calm and gave us the opportunity to cruise along the abandoned station by Zodiac. This was the first time for any Photo Safaris trip to have this opportunity. Many seals, both fur and elephant, now occupy both the old buildings and the beach immediately in front of the station.
After lunch we returned to Stromness, but this time we landed north of the station, near the collection of whale catcher propellers. These were just outside the boundary markers for the visitation exclusion zone and circled the entire station site. We were allowed to explore the entire valley floor, which is quite flat with a patchwork of wet, swampy spots.
Grytviken (Norwegian for “pot cove”) is named after sealers’ trypots found on the site. Grytviken was a landing with many attractions. It’s the historic seat of government for South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, the location of the famous South Georgia Museum, a research station for the British Antarctic Survey, and the gravesite of the legendary polar explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton. We had three sunny hours to explore and photograph the area before the group met at Shackleton’s grave where we joined Chris Edwards. He toasted “the boss” with a shot of rum, gave some historical background, and added a memorable quote about Shackleton by Sir Raymond Priestley of the Nimrod expedition, “Incomparable in adversity, he was the miracle worker who could save your life against all the odds and long after your number was up. The greatest leader that ever came on God’s earth, bar none.”
We had only 3 hours at Grytviken. I would have wished for much longer, and concentrated on making semi-abstract compositions from the rusting relics of oil processing machinery.
