Template:FP-Grytviken

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Grytviken whaling station on South Georgia

Grytviken

Grytviken is the principal settlement on the island of South Georgia, part of the territory South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands in the South Atlantic. It is the best harbour on the island, consisting of a bay (King Edward Cove) within a bay (Cumberland East Bay). The site is quite sheltered, provides a substantial area of flat land suitable for building on, and has a good supply of fresh water.

The name "Grytviken" is Swedish for "The Pot Cove" and the place was so named by a 1902 Swedish surveyor who found at the site old try pots, used to render seal oil.

The settlement at Grytviken was established on in 1904 by Carl Anton Larsen as a whaling station. It was phenomenally successful, with 195 whales taken in the first season alone. Whaling has since ceased, and Grytviken is inhabited by personnel of the British Antarctic Survey. (Read more)