Ocean Harbour

Historical and modern settlements of South Georgia Island, showing Ocean Harbour

Ocean Harbour is a deeply indented bay on the north coast of South Georgia which is entered 1.5 miles (2.4 km) west-northwest of Tijuca point. It was an active whaling station between 1909–1920. At one point, South Georgia was the whaling capital of the world.

The names New Fortune Bay and Neufortuna Bay, probably for the Fortuna, Norwegian-Argentine whaling vessel which participated in establishing the first permanent whaling station at Grytviken, South Georgia in 1904-05, were used for this feature in 1922 by Filchner, following the German Antarctic Expedition, 1911-12. Following a survey of the island in 1951-52, the South Georgia Survey reported that the feature is known to whalers and sealers as Ocean Harbour, a name derived from the Ocean Whaling Co. which at one time had a station there. The name Ocean Harbour is approved for this feature on the basis of local usage, and also to avoid confusion of the name New Fortuna Bay with Fortuna Bay, only 22 miles (35 km) to the northwest.

History

Old sealing trypots can still be seen here, and there is also the wreck of the Bayard here, a 1300 tonne, 67 m (220 ft) long, iron hulled boat, built in 1864. It was moored at the cooling station at 1911, when a gale blew her loose across the bay. Ocean Harbour was the site of the first introduction of Reindeer to South Georgia by Norwegian whaling entrpreneur Carl Anton Larsen and his brother in November 1911.

Ocean Harbour has a small cemetery with eight graves including the oldest known grave on the island - that of Frank Cabrial (1820) of the sealer Francis Allen. The marker has gone though some of the others are still marked.

References

 This article incorporates public domain material from the United States Geological Survey document "Ocean Harbour" (content from the Geographic Names Information System).

Coordinates: 54°20′S 36°16′W / 54.333°S 36.267°W / -54.333; -36.267