Northeastern Bays

Ocean Harbour.

Ocean Harbour was first used by sealers in the 1818 to 1819 season. Little remains of the old whaling station that was erected in 1909 with the arrival of the Ocean Whaling Co. The station was moved almost entirely to Stromness. An old railway engine lies at the head of the bay. The wreck of the Bayard, a three masted iron rivetted transport ship lies in the bay. She was moored on the coaling jetty on the north side of the harbour when she broke loose in a storm and was blown onto the rocks on the southern side of the harbour. Herds of reindeer can sometimes bee seen in the Bay.

Godthul Harbour.

Godthul was a shore base for a moored floating factory operated by Messrs Bryde and Dahl. A building and some storage tanks were put ashore in about 1909. Little remains today apart from a collapsing building. Some old wooden whalers lie rotting in the tussock grass and a pile of barrel staves and metal hoops lie beside them. Elephant seals and fur seals lie on top and amongst the remains. A Gentoo penguin colony is situated high above the bay, giant petrels and skewers nest on the ridges over looking the bay. The beach is strewn with whale bones, bleached white in the sun.

Royal Bay.

King and Gentoo penguins live here with blued eyed shags. The massive Ross, Hindle glaciers flow down into the north side of the bay while the Weddell Glacier flows into the sea south of Will Point. At Little Moltke Harbour on the northern flank of the Bay is the site of the first scientific expedition to the island. The expedition arrived on 20 August 1882 and built a station to study meteorology, tides, astronomy, magnetrometry, gravimetry and other scientific subjects. The station's remains can still be traced today in the tussock.

Gold Harbour.

The Bertrab glacier leads down to Gold Harbour on the north east side of the southern end of the island. In this remote corner, Gold Harbour has an abundance of varied wildlife and beautiful scenery. About 10 bird species breed in this striking bay.

Cooper Bay.

Cooper Bay is at the south-east corner of the island and was named by Captain James Cook after his first lieutenant, Robert Palliser Cooper. Cooper Island, a site of special scientific interest, is separated from South Georgia by Cooper Sound. Cooper Bay consists of 3 shallow bays of both beauty and interest. On the northern flank of the bay macaroni penguins have found their homes. On the southern most point is a colony of chinstrap penguins that are rarely seen outside the Scotia Arc, much further south. A hinterland of rolling tussac grass, grassy plains and uplands form a backdrop to this beautiful bay.

Larsen Harbour / Drygalski Fjord.

At the south-eastern tip of South Georgia, the dramatic steep sided fjord flanked by the snow-covered jagged volcanic peaks of the Salvesen Range provide the backdrop to the narrow entrance to Larsen Harbour. The ranges highest mountain is Mount Carse (6,100 feet), named after Duncan Carse, who completed the first survey of the islands interior in the 1950s. This steep sided fjord is about 8 miles long and les than a mile wide and ends abruptly in the Risting and Jenkins Glaciers. Near the entrance to the fjord is the narrow and almost hidden entrance of Larsen Harbour, named after Captain C A Larsen. He started the onshore whaling industry in the South Georgia at Grytviken in 1904. Whalers used Larsen Harbour for shelter and to leave their whale carcasses tied to buoys moored near its entrance for later transportation to the whaling stations further north. Now this cold and barren cove is home for a small colony of Weddell seals, the only group to breed away from the Antarctic Continent. The entrance to the Harbour is hidden, narrow and requires navigational skill to enter by boat.