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This Web Site contains images of South Georgia, the whaling stations of Grytviken, Leith Harbour, Husvik, and Stromness. The wildlife found there such as Elephant Seals, Fur Seals, Penguins and Reindeer. HMS Endurance and the re-supply ship Tijuca are also featured

My personal experience working in the South Atlantic between the Falkland Islands and South Georgia covers the period from 1989 to 2000.

This is a private home page and has no official connection to South Georgia, apart from my love of the place, and the Domain being appropriately registered in South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands.

All images in these pages are of the landscapes of South Georgia, the whaling stations and wildlife around Stromness Bay and the Cumberland East Bay areas. This includes stills from video, black and white photographs from the 1950s and old images in a photograph album from the early 1920s which would appear to have been taken by a crewman from the stores ship "Tijuca".

The following extract is taken from a leaflet produced by the Commissioner, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands and is reproduced to bring the pages into proper context:

"Few people would now support whaling as it was carried out over the sixty years of Grytviken's history, but we should recall that attitudes were very different a generation ago and whaling was a highly respectable profession for many Norwegians.  Through the development of its whaling industry, Norway became one of the world's leading industrialised nations, with special skills in shipbuilding and oil technology.  Whaling is an example of human folly but Grytviken is also an example of human endeavour that built a heavy industry in a desolate corner of the world, 10,000 miles from home."

These pages are not intended as a complete history of the islands of South Georgia - others have done this far better than I could. Links are therefore provided to a more concise history of the islands, the geography, wild life and more difficult to find information. The site is personal and not meant to be in any way political.

The last Oil Mariner crew in South Georgia.  From left to right:

John Partridge, wearing hat - Dean Wilson, red coverall - Stewart Cumming, Dark pullover - Al Harrison, red shirt - Mansen Geddes, dark shirt/cap - Jim Dunn, dark collar - Martin van Tuyl, white shirt/cap - Mick Quinn, sitting - Dean Ross, red coverall - Jim McLaren, Graham Davidson.

Photo by Graham Davidson on timed exposure.

RMAS Throsk on the harpoon jetty behind Dias and Albatros.

In 1990 the RMAS Throsk, with a team from the Falklands arrived to do a clean-up of all the oil tanks. It was funded by Christian Salvesen.  Even though whaling officially ended in the 1960s, Christian Salvesen were still paying the licenses for the whaling stations.  After the clean-up there would be no possible oil contamination, and the licenses fees were discontinued.

Left of centre - Petrel (still afloat), Centre - RMAS Throsk, Right of centre - Dias and Albatros.

The Garrison raised Petrel in 1989.

A couple of years later, seas swamped the stern and she sank again.