South Georgia Island History

Captain Cook's reports on South Georgia's wildlife were seized upon by one group: sealers. The first recorded sealing expedition was made in 1786 and showed there were rich profits to be made from the island. American sealing ships were particularly active, shipping fur seal pelts to be sold in China. Elephant seals were also hunted for the valuable oil in their blubber.

The work was hard and bloody for the men but they were brutally effective in their work. When the explorer James Weddell visited South Georgia in 1823 he noted that at least 1.2 million fur seal skins had been exported from the island. In less than 50 years the fur seal was driven virtually to extinction.

In 1843 Great Britain formally established its governance over South Georgia, overseeing it from the Falkland Islands. Sealing for oil continued intermittently throughout this period. In 1882/3, an expedition of German scientists spent a year living on South Georgia carrying out the first sustained exploration of the island as part of the International Polar Year.

Attempts were made to grow potatoes, wheat and barley in the semi-frozen, and cows, sheep and goats were introduced. None of these introductions lasted, but two other species – rats and mice from the sealing ships would go on to have a devastating effect on South Georgia's wildlife

In 1914 South Georgia received its most famous visitor, the celebrated polar explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton, who was planning to embark on the first crossing of Antarctica. The whalers at Grytviken warned him that the sea ice that season was too severe to make a landing on the continent: a lesson he only learned when Endurance sank after being crushed by the pack in the Weddell Sea.

After his men took shelter on Elephant Island, Shackleton made the almost unbelievable 800 voyage to South Georgia in the tiny James Caird lifeboat, then walked across the unmapped interior to raise the alarm at Stromness whaling station.

In 1922 Shackleton returned on the Quest expedition but died of a heart attack in Grytviken, where he was buried in the whaler's cemetery.

South Georgia's whaling industry finally shudders to a halt, as production moves offshore onto roving factory vessels supported by fleets of catcher ships that can penetrate farther into Antarctic waters. Grytviken closes in 1964, with the largest operation at Leith Harbour shutting down the following year. The whaling companies abandon the stations in near-perfect working order, expecting to eventually return. They never do. Over the 61 years of whaling at South Georgia, 175,020 whales were killed in its waters.

In 1969 South Georgia becomes a home for science when the British Antarctic Survey starts operating from a new base at King Edward Point.

On 3 April 1982 South Georgia is occupied by Argentinian soldiers at the start of the Falklands conflict, with British Antarctic Survey staff taken prisoner. The island was recaptured by British forces after three weeks, and is garrisoned by the British Army for the next 19 years.

Civilian administration returns in 1990, with the island having been declared a British Overseas Territory five years earlier.