Hello, my name is Dag Einar Winsnes. As mentioned on my mainpage, these photos were taken by my grandfather Svend Johannes Winsnes. He worked at Leith Harbour as a welder that season of 29/30. Since childhood I've been aware of this "whalealbum", but it's not until recent years I've realised the importance of it. After going through books and searching the Internet, I've found that pictures as old as these are rather rare.

12 of these pictures can be viewed in a medium resolution by clicking on them.
 
Leith Harbour (left picture) was the largest of the whaling stations on South Georgia and is sited near the mouth of Stromness bay.

South Georgia is sited in the arctic sea 700 nautical miles east of the Falkland Islands. The inner part of the island is mountainous. See bottom picture. The southwest coast is steep while the northeast side is divided into fjords and islands. Mount Paget is the highest mountain; 2804 meters. The climate and vegetation is sub-arctic, without trees.
Check out this mclaren.gs page to see a recent picture of the bay taken just a stone's throw away from where my grandfather stood. This site also has a lot of other information, pictures and links about South Georgia.
 

On the equator. Svend in the picture in the middle.
  
First glimpse of South Georgia.
 

The Coronda
to the left.

The picture to the right and the two below show Leith Harbour.
 
 

The reindeers on South Georgia. Asgrim Opdal wrote me an e-mail and told that ..."the reindeers was sold by my great-grandfather Ivar Opdal to C. A. Larsen in 1911. He bought 8 females and 3 male reindeers, one died on the journey down to South Georgia. Today there are about 4000 reindeers on South Georgia (according to a university in Scotland). The reindeers on South Georgia originate from Filefjell in Valdres, Norway." (My translation)
 
 

Leith Harbour
Hospital.

Pigs in the
front.

Blown
down
tank.
 
 

Leith Harbour lies at the innermost end of the northside of Stromness Bay, on the shore below steep mountains. Several times there were avalanches, the most serious one in 1929 when 3 men died. The material damage was considerable. According to the gravestones shown on Pat Lurcock's web-pages, the date was August 15th 1929. On these pages you'll find maps of this and other cemeteries on South-Georgia, including names and pictures of most of the graves. The names of theses three were Uli Johanessen, Anders Jørgensen and Johan Herman Gøtz.

 
 

Leith Harbour cemetery.

 
 
 

 

At the grave of
3 comrades.
F.l. Arne Arnesen,
Konrad Ringstad,
Svend J. Winsnes.

 
 
Christmas of '29

In lack of trees on
the island, my grand-
father made one. He
drilled holes in a tree-
trunk and mounted
sticks covered with
felt.

The stage is seen in
the background.

Whalers laid-up for Christmas.
 
 
"Tro og Evig"
Arne Arnesen and Konrad Ringstad		 The welders workshop.
Svend to the left.		 Funny catching.
 
 

"Now I live here in the 2nd floor - We're two
men sharing a nice
small room."		 "This is the kitchen barrack - The x shows
where I first lived."		 Penguin running. Good evening...
 

Roommates. Working party on top of a tank. Svend - "Tiny" - David.
 
 

  Stromness "This plain is a big spider's web of rails and in the back one can see coaches with coal from the mine."
 
"My cozy
corner."

 

In a whale's
mouth.
 
 
 

In front of a partly flensed whale.

 

Whale being harpooned.    
 

Partly flensed whale. "A 22 feet long whale fetus and that's the biggest found here. It's me standing next to it." 6 small whale embryos.
 

Blue whale  -  98 feet long.  The longest specimen found was a female brought in to Grytviken

 between 1904 and 1920. It was 110 feet. The average measure of newborns are between 21 and 28 feet.
 
 

Gull protecting it's egg. Did cameras in 1929 have a zoom-function? Sea lion.
 

 
 

Hey youuuu!!
It's close enough.		 Svend with eternal
snow in the background.		   Svend
 

 

Some of the pictures of icebergs.
Judging by the number of them, it must
have been quite an exotic sight back then.

 

Sunset in the tropics.

 

Preparing for the
home-coming?
 
 
Photos by Svend Johannes Winsnes.
Photos scanned and digitally enhanced by Dag Einar Winsnes
 Numbers of visitors on this page since  January 2003:  

Another interesting site:

  • Photos of and information about Capt. William Williams and Grytviken can be found at rhiw.com.