a-solitary-sea-rover:

trenchmints:

aber-flyingtiger:

comradehidashi:

@sixpenceee these are abandoned naval ships in Grytviken , Antarctica 

Grytviken is a real place and the same creepy abandoned human town in Antarctica seen in the failure of a movie “Happy Feet” 

These are not naval ships, they are whalecatchers, relics of the now-defunct whaling fleets. Also, Grytviken is in South Georgia, not Antarctica.

Also Happy Feet wasn’t a failure lmao

South Georgia Island is a British territory within the Antarctic and below the Antarctic Convergence, although it is not on the Antarctic mainland, so calling it part of Antarctica or not is probably personal preference. ‘Depends on where one draws the distinction between “Antarctica” and “The Antarctic”… 

Grytviken was a whaling station occupied from the 1900s through the 1960s. In 1916, it was very famously the outpost that Sir Ernest Shackleton and his men struggled to reach after their ship was crushed by pack ice farther south. Sailing across hundreds of miles of ocean and climbing over the unmapped mountains of the island’s interior, they finally reached Grytviken and were able to arrange a rescue for their companions still stranded on Elephant Island, far to the south. (I’m not remotely doing this incredible story of adventure and survival justice, it’s incredibly fascinating and there are a ton of great books and documentaries about it that you should check out.)

During the Falklands War of 1982, South Georgia Island was briefly occupied by Argentinian soldiers, becoming one of the only parts of the Antarctic to have ever been involved in war. Today, the island is occupied by a few dozen scientists and fisheries officials, and sometimes visited by cruise ships. 

In addition to Happy Feet (which was awesome), the rusting whaling stations of South Georgia Island may have also inspired the creepy abandoned town seen in Alien vs. Predator (which was awful), which was actually set on Bouvet Island, 2500 kilometers to the east. 

Reposted from http://ift.tt/2fiHIIU.

Tags: shackelton's boat journey, will always be the standard, by which all other nautical accomplishments, are judged.

This entry was posted by jbc on Wednesday, September 13th, 2017 at 6:40 am and is filed under Tumblr. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.