About Ocean Harbour Cemetery

Ocean Harbour cemetery with the wreck of the Bayard in the background

Description

Ocean Harbour (formerly known as New Fortune Bay) whaling station was operated from 1909 to 1920.

The Ocean Harbour cemetery lies on the Southern shore of Ocean Harbour, a little way from the site of the abandoned station, which operated until 1920. The oldest known grave on the island (Frank Cabriel, sealer, buried 1820) is here.

Seven names are known though the markers are too badly aged to identify all but one. It is thought that the eighth marks the reburial of a skeleton that was found when the station was being built.

In his 1931 book South Georgia The British Empire's Subantarctic Outpost, L Harrison Matthews describes:

"...When the whaling station, since abandoned and now derelict, was being built at New Fortune Bay in 1910 a man's skeleton was unearthed: the skull had a bullet-hole through it, probably a relic of some quarrel...."

Explore Ocean Harbour Cemetery

Plan of Ocean Harbour cemetery
Only one of the eight graves at Ocean Harbour is marked. However, if they are arranged in date order, the grave numbers in brackets below apply.
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