Elephant Island, South Georgia
Grytviken (Little Pot)

Grytviken, South Georgia “Little Pot” is an historic whaling station with rusted hulls of long abandoned whalers a whaling museum and Sir Ernest Shackleton’s burial site.
This breathtaking destination of towering snow-covered mountains, mighty glaciers, and low-lying grasslands attracts an astounding concentration of wildlife: Southern fur seals, southern elephant seals and a variety of albatross species including black,-browed, light-mantled sooty, grey-headed and the spectacular wandering albatross, plus 450,000 pairs of flamboyant king penguins well over a million pairs of macaroni penguins and thousands of pairs of gentoos and chinstraps. Known for its unexpected and ferocious catabatic winds, South Georgia is also linked to the early Antarctic explorers, Captain James Cook first stepped ashore in 1775, but perhaps more famous is Ernest Shackleton’s arrival in 1916 following the sinking of his ship, the ENDURANCE.¯ South Georgia processed 90% of the world’s whale catch, in excess of 46,000 whales in 1938.

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Notable Quotes on Ernest Shackleton:

“Incomparable in adversity, he was the miracle worker who would 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.” (Raymond Priestley, 1956, Antarctic Geologist, Member of Shackleton’s Nimrod Expedition).

“Shackleton privately forced upon me his one breakfast biscuit, and would have given me another tonight had I allowed him. I do not suppose that anyone else in the world can thoroughly realize how much generosity and sympathy was shown by this: I DO, and by GOD, I shall never forget it. Thousands of pounds would not have bought that one biscuit.” (Frank Wild, January 31, 1909, Nimrod Expedition).

“We were the fools who could not rest in the dull earth we left behind, and burned with passion for the South, and drank strange frenzy from its wind. The world where wise men sit at ease fades from our unregretful eyes, and thus across uncharted seas we stagger on our enterprise.” (St. John Lucas, English novelist and poet, 1879-1934), quoted by Shackleton upon departure from South Georgia Island on board ENDURANCE, Christmas Eve, December 24, 1914.

“There was some crooked work in the drawing as Sir Ernest, Mr. Wild, (second in command), Captain Worsley, and some of the other officers all drew wool bags. The fine warm fur bags all went to the men under them. I think that action was enough to show what wonderful men were in charge. They always took the brunt of things and when there was any danger they were first to go ahead. The safety of his men was Sir Ernest’s first thought, his own last.”¯ (William L. Bakewell, “The American on the ENDURANCE”).

“. . . The fewer men, the greater share of honor.¯ But he’ll remember with advantages what feats he did that day ā€¦But we in it shall be remembered; We few, we happy few, we band of brothers: and gentlemen in England now a-bed shall think themselves accurs’d they were not here.” (Act IV, “Henry V”¯ - Shakespeare).

“. . . he had been at sea over forty years; that he knew this stormy Southern Ocean intimately, from South Georgia to Cape Horn, from Elephant Island to the South Orkneys, and that never had he heard of such a wonderful feat of daring seamanship as bringing the twenty-two foot open boat from Elephant Island to South Georgia, and then to crown it, tramping across the ice and snow and rocky heights of the interior, and that he felt it an honor to meet and shake hands with Sir Ernest and his comrades. He finished with a dramatic gesture: ‘These are men!’”

“For a joint scientific and geographical piece of organization, give me Scott; for a winter journey, give me Wilson; for a dash to the Pole and nothing else, Amundsen; and if I am in the devil of a hole and want to get out of it, give me Shackleton every time.” (Apsley Cherry-Garrard, polar explorer; 1922. Author: “Worst Journey in the World.” Vol. I. Page viii, Preface.

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