Landscape South Georgia

W00208

Landscape South Georgia

 

Towards the end of the 19th century, much exploration was being undertaken around Antarctica - one of the world's last frontiers. The discovery of rich waters, full of krill, the crustacea on which whales feed, and also an abundance of humpback, blue and fin whales, led to the development of a thriving industry. Whaling stations were quickly set up on South Georgia, mostly by Norwegian companies who had dominated whaling in the northern hemisphere for many years. Chr. Salvesen & Co was a British whaling company run by a Norwegian family. They quickly became the world's largest whaling organisation. With the demise of whaling in the north, many thousands of Shetlanders went to the Antarctic whaling with Salvesen's.

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