The Place That is Called Grytviken

Porter already wrote and posted a blog that details the history of Grytviken but I was inspired to write this poem.

The Place That is Called Grytviken by Jack Rabbit

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