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Cruise Review: Endeavour

Thursday, February 26, 2004

Fortuna Bay, Stromness and Elsehul Bay, South Georgia Island

After more than a year stranded on ice and an epic sixteen day small boat journey from Elephant Island to King Haakon Bay, Ernest Shackleton, Tom Crean and Frank Worsley crossed unmapped South Georgia Island in thirty-six hours. They found themselves in Fortuna Bay, one fjord west of their destination, the whaling station at Stromness. The three completed their journey and eventually organized a rescue party for the twenty-two men left on Elephant Island.

This morning, about half of our group retraced the last stage of this famous adventure, climbing and then descending fifteen hundred feet in a little over three miles. Today’s hikers faced a challenge that Shackleton did not have to worry about: Antarctic fur seals. Close to extinction in the early twentieth century, these compelling creatures now carpet many of South Georgia’s beaches. Those of us who explored Stromness and Leith (a nearby whaling station) by Zodiac enjoyed not only a peek into local history, but the antics of thousands of fur seal pups such as these pictured.

Endeavour spent the afternoon cruising to the west, along the north shore of South Georgia. Clouds, occasional fog and sun played with massive tabular icebergs and mountain peaks to create a compelling visual treat.

Elsehul Bay was our final South Georgia stop before heading to the Falkland Islands. Mountains erupting from the sea frame this inlet which is home to countless fur seals, molting southern elephant seals, macaroni, king and gentoo penguins, light-mantled sooty, grey-headed and black-browed albatrosses, gulls, terns, sheathbills... Teeming with life. Among the amazing sights was a massive flock of prions, small relatives of the albatross, feeding on the water’s surface. Repeatedly, they flew up in a cloud and returned to the water to feast on zooplankton. Our Zodiacs enabled us to approach almost close enough to touch these delicate looking but very hardy birds.

Author: Larry Prussin, Naturalist; Photo: Magnus Forsberg, Naturalist