YOUNG VISITOR JACK BARNES WROTE A POEM AFTER GOING ON THE SOUTH GEORGIA MUSEUM WHALING STATION TOUR
Over the course of the summer we see quite a few yachts and at the end of January sailing boat s/v Sila sailed in to Grytviken. On board were parents Molly and Chis Barnes, their two sons, Porter and Jack, and family friend Adam. They spent several days exploring Grytviken and went on a tour of the whaling station with curator Deirdre Mitchell. They then sailed away to further explore the island. A couple of weeks later they were back alongside and Jack read us his poem about the whaling station. We thought it was so good we wanted to share it with you. He has very kindly agreed to let us post it here, and you can also read it on sila’s own blog – http://svsila.blogspot.co.uk/. We hope you enjoy it as much as we did!
Jack and his poem at Grytviken
The place that is called Grytviken
Is more than it seems to be
It has some rusty old buildings
But behind them is great history
First a Norwegian named Larsen
Noticed the Northern Seas fail
Blubber oil was running real short
Almost extinct was the whale
Larsen came down to South Georgia
Where he saw whales crowding around
He built a good whaling station
Here where his prey was found
Six weeks after he landed
Their first whale lost its oil
And after a bit of hard practice
Tons of whales succumbed to their toil
They’d take one of the boats
Then find and chase down the prey
After shooting it with a harpoon
They’d let it drift and be on their way
They then towed the whales to Grytviken
All 14, the catch of the day
Grytviken was in the right place
Lots of whales were close in the bay
A whale was hauled on to shore
On a deck called the flensing plan
Three men then jumped right up
To shave off the blubber by hand
One man went up on top
And one man went on each side
With sharp sticks they then peeled the whale
Like a banana, off came its hide
Hooks were put deep in the whale
And winches pulled off the skin
They had big pressure cookers
That all the blubber went in
This process went on for years
But their work did not suffice
A new law was then passed
By the Falkland Governor Allardyce
He said, “Use the whole whale
Or don’t even catch it at best
Because it is just a big waste
To use blubber and dump all the rest.”
A third of the oil’s in bones
So the law benefitted the whalers
And they began to use the whole whale
Instead of being carcass bailers
The meat was made into meat-meal
Or else served to the pets to eat
Fertilizer was made from the bones
And scrimshaw, no other bone could beat
However, the age of success
Was over, but what about?
The whalers hunted the whales
And their numbers had nearly died out
The whaling companies crashed
And Grytviken was not so great
They then stopped hunting the whales
But their numbers were in a bad state
The population is slowly increasing
Now that whalers aren’t out to kill
South Georgia might have more whales
And I really hope that it will
-Jack Barnes, aged 10.