Page 2 - South Georgia

This display is an extension of the South Georgia Postal History exhibit, 80 sheets, entered into the New York
2016 competition where the judges awarded a large vermeil. For this RPSL display a further 28 sheets
featuring South Shetlands and Operation Tabarin have been added, an alternative title could be The Early Postal
History of the Falkland Island Dependencies, and its forebears.

South Georgia, located in the South Atlantic Ocean, was visited by sealing expeditionary ships going back some
hundreds of years. Their Captains reported seeing an abundance of whales encouraging a Norwegian whaler
Carl Anton Larsen to investigate, and later, to lead a whaling expedition of three ships to South Georgia. In
1904 he established a whaling factory at Grytviken in Cumberland Bay, South Georgia, with the first whale
caught in November of that year. The venture was successful, its profitability inspiring a further six factories,
some built ashore, others using factory ships anchored close inshore where a supply of clean water was readily
available. The island’s only post office opened in December 1904. Mail from all 7 whaling stations is shown.

South Shetlands has similar history but slightly later, on a smaller scale with only one shore factory, all the
others were ship borne. At times a dozen or so factory ships would be operational, each supported by a small
number of catchers. The post office opened in 1913, but just for March, and in the following years only for the
duration of the whaling season, at best December through to March, the astral summer. The depression of the
late 1920s and large unsold stocks of processed whale oil restricted whaling activities at South Shetlands to the
extent that the factory and post office closed at the end of the 1930-31 season, not to reopen again.

During WW II only one station on South Georgia remained open and operational, the others closed, a
significant factor being the capture of the Norwegian whaling fleets by the Germans. Other German naval
activity in the South Atlantic, surface raiders and the battle-ship Graf Spee for example, the battle of the River
Plate, concerns over possible Argentine expansionism, and Chilean, (believing Britain was unlikely to react
given heavy war commitments) collectively persuaded the British Cabinet to authorise a naval expeditionary
force to be formed in 1943. It was tasked to enhance British presence, so reinforcing their Sovereignty, in
British possessions in the South Atlantic and Antarctic Peninsula - hence RN party 475 formally known as
‘Operation Tabarin’. The Expedition arrived at Stanley in January 1944. Further political changes followed.
South Georgia, South Shetlands, Graham Land and South Orkneys were restructured as Dependencies of the
Falkland Islands - four sets of new stamps, overprinted current Falkland Islands KGVI definitive stamps, were
secretly prepared and delivered by Operation Tabarin as they worked through their tasks which included
establishing bases and opening post offices within the new Dependencies.

As the world returned to peaceful times with the ending of WWII, Tabarin, a Royal Navy operation, was
disbanded being replaced in July 1945 with a civilian administration known as FIDS - Falkland Island
Dependencies Survey, later retitled as BAS - British Antarctic Survey, still operational to this day.

This display shows mail from, and to but to a lesser extent, all these post offices. South Georgia opens with
inward mail predating the post office and then examples of early mail from the period, c. six months, when a FI
datestamp was used temporarily, South Shetlands initially as a limited facility for whalers to use and then as
Tabarin Base ‘B’. More post offices followed, in order of opening by Operation Tabarin, Graham Land, Base
A at Port Lockroy, Base C in South Orkneys and a second in Graham Land at Hope Bay, Base D. Under BAS,
many more were established, the majority with relatively short lives perhaps just a few summer seasons.

All the offices were located in remote parts of the world, well away from any shipping routes. There were
logistics failures generating postal historians’ interest owing to no stamps, registration labels, canceller year
slugs, and so on and the associated expedient solutions. Despatch of mail was an uncertain business dependent
on using ‘ships of opportunity’, a RN visiting ship, a supply ship or a returning tanker laden with processed
whale oil … Research has revealed much shipping data, many of which carried mail, typically to Montevideo /
Buenos Aires, Stanley or Europe.

Whaling - the technology was Norwegian as was the skilled labour, British the second largest contingent; the
law and administration was British, the governor of the Falkland Islands playing a key role.

The display ends just after the end of WWII at the close of 1945.

Hugh Osborne FRPSL Standing Display July/August 2016

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