Dundee’s links to South Georgia marked with new festival and Whale Memorial

They may be around 8,000 miles apart but Dundee has played a huge role in the story of the whales of South Georgia.

The two locations have been linked for nearly two centuries, firstly as Scots profited heavily from hunting the seas of the remote sub-Antarctic island that was the epicentre of the modern whaling industry.

Now, it is an ecosystem in recovery, with Tayside-based charity the South Georgia Heritage Trust playing a pivotal role.

As well as raising money for conservation missions and research, hailed by Sir David Attenborough, in 2020 they commissioned Scottish artist Michael Visocchi to create a major new Whale Memorial for the island.

It commemorates over 175,000 whales lost between 1905 and 1965, when whaling there ended, while also looking to the future and celebrating the return of the majestic creatures to the island’s waters.

Called Commensalis, at the heart is a collection of seven rust–hued circular tables made of weathering steel, similar to that of the Angel of the North.

The first section, the Key Table, will go on display next week in Dundee before heading for its permanent home in South Georgia, where it will help tell the story of whaling to the thousands of cruise ship visitors each year.

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“We want people not to forget what happened but to feel pride in the fact that Dundee has played its part in the conservation of these animals and their return,” explained Alison Neil of the South Georgia Heritage Trust.

“We also want to make sure there’s a reminder for people who visit the island who see whales on their way that, actually, it wasn’t always like that.

“Several species were close to being wiped out altogether. One of the largest blue whales ever recorded was caught and processed there.

“We think whales have got a historic memory of what’s happened, but now with the waters being protected they maybe feel safe to come back again. That’s an incredible feeling.”

The sculpture has been made in Dundee, in collaboration with local fabricator MCE Engineering.

The material matches the rusting steel of the Grytviken Whaling Station, which has a further connection to Dundee as it sits on a bay where Scott and Shackleton’s RSS Discovery, now a popular city tourist attraction, visited after it was repurposed as a whaling research vessel.

“The human story has flipped now,” Alison said. “The first boats that were involved in whaling in the South Antarctic were actually built in Dundee.

“Now, there’s a conservation charity here making really positive changes to the island. We’re based in Verdant Works, which used whale oil from South Georgia to process jute.

“We’re working with the government and other partners to try and reverse the human damage done in these environments. We want to make sure we’re as informed as we can be about future threats to whales and other marine life such as climate change, warming seas and overfishing.”

© Mhairi Edwards

Six more parts of the sculpture are planned to follow, representing each different whale species that were hunted and processed, and which are now returning to the southern oceans.

“It riffs off the industrial structures that are down there,” said designer and creator Michael.

“These whaling stations all closed down in the sixties and now they’re decrepit, almost farmyard like structures. There’s almost a Mary Celeste vibe, they were provisioned for another season that never actually happened.

“On top of the sculpture are rivets that we’ve taken from the island, each representing 50 whales lost.”

In creating the piece, Michael drew inspiration from two trips to the sub-Antarctic.

He had to first travel to the Falkland Islands, before taking a four-day journey by ship to the isolated polar spot.

“When you get there it’s a very bizarre environment,” he said. “It’s desperately sad, the whaling station, but it’s also now full of seals.

“There’s a strange conflict between the sadness of all the whaling years and a place teeming with life. It’s magical in its own way but quite emotionally draining.

“It was a pretty lucrative business. They were forensic about how many they took, what species and size they were.

“This will tell a bit of the story, hopefully in a kind of poetic way because it’s quite a harrowing story, quite brutal. I’m still overwhelmed by it myself.

“A lot of visitors are a bit bewildered when they get there, so hopefully it’ll help them unpack the story.”

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Michael hopes his piece will help inspire further conversations, also sparked by recent Attenborough documentary Ocean.

“One of my concerns has always been that the South Georgia whaling story is quite concise,” he said. “It happened over 60 years, it ended, and then whaling was banned in the 1980s.

“But whales face so many threats from us still that you could argue are actually more dangerous, whether it’s sea temperature rise which reduces krill availability or plastic pollution.

“Whales get hit by ships and the crew are none the wiser, but they go on to have a horrible, painful death.

“Maybe this, in a way, opens up dialogue through the prism of South Georgia.”

The unveiling of the Whale Memorial is part of a new three-day festival celebrating whales and Scotland’s deep-rooted connections to South Georgia.

Whale of a Weekend, running from Thursday to Sunday on Dundee’s waterfront, will include interactive exhibitions, family activities and expert talks and tours.

There will also be the opportunity to explore the Whalers’ Memory Bank, where people can find out more about the Scottish whalers based in South Georgia in a brand-new digital time capsule.

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For more about Whale of a Weekend events, visit sght.org/woaw