Stock Photo - Views of Grytviken Swedish for ´Pot Cove´ on South Georgia in the South Atlantic MORE INFO It was so named by a 1902 Swedish surveyor who found old English try pots used to render seal oil at the site The settlement at Grytviken was established on November 16, 1904, by the Norwegian sea captain Carl Anton Larsen as a whaling station for his Compañía Argentina de Pesca Argentine Fishing Company It was phenomenally successful, with 195 whales taken in the first season alone Elephant seals were also hunted for their blubber Around 300 men worked at the station during its heyday, operating during the southern summer from October to March The whale population in the seas around the island was substantially reduced over the following sixty years until the station closed in December 1966, by which time the whale stocks were so low that their continued exploitation was unviable Sir Ernest Shackleton returned to Grytviken, but posthumously, in 1922 He had died unexpectedly from a heart attack at sea at the beginning of another Antarctic expedition, and his widow chose South Georgia as his final resting place His grave is located south of Grytviken, alongside those of the whalers who died on the island