The first sighting of South Georgia is believed to have been by English merchant Antoine de la Roché, who was blown of course while rounding Cape Horn. However nobody landed or surveyed this remote island for another hundred years until the arrival of Captain James Cook, who planted the Union Flag in 1775 and claimed the island for King George III - giving the island the name we know today.
Word of the rich wildlife of the island spread quickly, and before the end of the century, British and Anerican sealers were swarming the island, first slaughtering fur seals for their pelts (pushing them to the brink of extinction), then harvesting elephant seals for their oil-rich blubber. As whale stocks in the Arctic collapsed during the 1800s, whalers set their sights on the Southern Ocean - beginning South Georgia's period as whaling capital of the world. Various companies from Norway, Argentina, Chile and the United Kingdom set up based on the island to harvest whales - beginning a period of industrialised slaughter never seen before or since. Diplomatic tensions during this period let the British to establish administration on the island at Grytviken - the longest operating whaling station on the island. Whale stocks in the Southern Ocean had more or less collapsed by the 1960s, and whaling ceased in 1964.
In the early stages of the Falkland Islands Conflict in 1982, Argentine special forces landed on the island, capturing Grytviken and the British administration (consisting of a magistrate, and civilian British Antarctic Survey personnel). The daring Operation Paraquet was planned to retake the island using British special forces onboard two Royal Navy vessels, crippling the Argentine submarine ARA Santa Fe and capturing Grytviken and the Argentine forces stationed there. The Union Flag was again raised on the island on 25th April 1982. The Battle of Grytviken remains the southernmost battle ever fought.
Attentions have since been turned towards conservation; reindeer introduced by Norwegian whalers had degraded the tundra on the island, and rats had devastated the island's bird life, driving many species almost to extinction. Ambitious habitat restoration plans have since removed the reindeer, and the rats have been eradicated, leading to a remarkable rebound in bird numbers on the island. The territory is financially self-sufficient, funding the British presence on the island by selling fishing rights and landing permits to visiting vessels.
Undoubtedly the most famous figure in the history of South Georgia is Sir Ernest Shackleton; he and the heroic story of the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition have become synonymous with this remote island. South Georgia was the expedition's last stop en route to Antarctica during the ill-fated Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition in 1914. Shortly afterwards, the Endurance became trapped in the icy Weddell Sea. Shackleton hoped that the vessel would drift with the ice back to open water, however the ice conditions deteriorated, and the Endurance began to take on water, sinking under the ice in October 1915.
After the Endurance was crushed, Shackleton and his men set out across the ice, making first for Paulet Island, and then for any land they could. The party eventually reached Elephant Island, an inhospitable rock at the northern tip of the Antarctic peninsula. While nearby Deception Island held a whaling station from which help could be raised, the constant westerly winds and current made reaching it impossible. Therefore, Shackleton and five men set out to raise the alarm in the tiny lifeboat James Caird, aiming for South Georgia.
After 16 brutal days at sea in the Antarctic winter, the James Caird party arrived on the western shore of South Georgia on May 8th 1916. Shackleton, Worsley and Crean crossed the island with no mountaineering equipment in only 36 hours (a record which has never since been equalled), arriving at Stromness whaling station on 20th May 1916. From here, they journeyed to Chile, from where Shackleton (after several false starts) finally arranged rescue for his men from Elephant Island. All members of the expedition survived - the expedition itself was a spectacular failure, but the tale of endurance, strength and heroism remains one of history's greatest.
Shackleton himself died of a heart attack on his next visit to the island. While in Uruguay, the team escorting his body to England recieved a telegram from his wife, requesting he be buried on South Georgia. Shackleton is buried in the cemetery overlooking Grytviken and its numerous seals and penguins. Visitors to Grytviken may pay their respects there to this most legendary of explorers to this day.