Carl Anton Larsen - Larsen and South Georgia

Larsen and South Georgia

In 1904 Larsen settled on the British island of South Georgia in the Antarctic, starting the new era of modern whaling. On Christmas Eve, 1904, he produced the first whale oil of the season in the newly built whaling station of Grytviken. With Argentine, Norwegian and British capital he founded the first Antarctic whaling corporation, the Compañía Argentina de Pesca (Argentine Fishing Company). Within a few years the Antarctic was producing about 70% of the world's oil.

As the manager of Compañía Argentina de Pesca, Larsen organized the construction of Grytviken ― a remarkable undertaking accomplished by a team of 60 Norwegians. Larsen also established a meteorological observatory at Grytviken, which from 1905 was maintained in cooperation with the Argentine Meteorological Office under the British lease requirements of the whaling station until these changed in 1949. Larsen had chosen the whaling station's site during his 1902 visit while in command of the ship Antarctic of the Swedish Antarctic Expedition (1901–03) led by Otto Nordenskjöld. Larsen was also instrumental, with his brother, in introducing Reindeer to South Georgia in 1911, as a resource for recreational hunting for the people involved in the whaling industry.

A Norwegian Lutheran Church was pre-built in Norway and erected in Grytviken by whalers led by Carl Anton Larsen. This typical Norwegian church, one of the most southern churches on earth, was consecrated on Christmas Day in 1913. In 1922, a funeral service for Sir Ernest Shackleton was conducted in this church before his burial in the church cemetery.

Similarly to other managers and senior officers of the South Georgia whaling stations, Larsen lived in Grytviken together with his family including his wife, three daughters and two sons. In 1910 they obtained British citizenship, following an application filed with the British Magistrate of South Georgia in which Larsen declared: "I have given up my Norwegian citizens rights and have resided here since I started whaling in this colony on 16 November 1904 and have no reason to be of any other citizenship than British, as I have had and intend to have my residence here still for a long time."