Spitsbergen history
The Vikings may have been the first to discover Svalbard; a passage containing the word ("Svalbard" means "cold coast") appears in the Icelandic Annals of 1194. But there is no conclusive evidence to support this claim. The first certain discovery of the archipelago was by Dutchmen Willem Barents and Jacob van Heemskerck in 1596. They were followed by Dutch and English whalers, and then by whalers from other nations. Several 18th and early 19th century expeditions were mounted by British naval ships. Exploration of a more scientific nature began in 1827, with the visit of the Norwegian geologist Balthasar Keilhau. In the 1890s and again in the 1920s, Svalbard became the starting point for expeditions to the North Pole.
Willem Barents (? – 1597)
One of the great early navigators, Barents in 1594 and again in 1595 was fleet pilot for expeditions sponsored by Dutch merchants to search for a Northeast Passage to the Orient. In 1596 he was chief pilot for a smaller expedition. The decision was made to seek a more northerly passage than before, leading to the discovery of Bear Island on 9th June 1596. The expedition then made the first verifiable discovery of Svalbard.
Travel map of Spitsbergen (Svalbard Archipelago) Norway
Featuring:
- Illustrated biographies of 27 noted explorers..
- Color photos and introductory text on plants & wildlife.
- Map showing protected areas.
- Diagram charting the rising & setting of the midnight sun.
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Henry Hudson (? – 1611)
One of the most famous early English explorers, Hudson visited many parts of the high Arctic. In 1607 he led an expedition to search for a passage to the Orient via the North Pole. He first approached East Greenland before bearing northeast to Spitsbergen where his expedition attained a farthest north of 80º 23’.
Horatio Nelson (1758 – 1805)
Britain’s most famous naval hero, Nelson received his Arctic experience as a 14-year-old midshipman on Constantine Phipps’s 1773 expedition. One night, taking advantage of a rising fog, Nelson left the ship with a comrade and set off over the ice. At three in the morning, when the fog cleared, the two were seen at a considerable distance attacking a huge bear. When Nelson’s musket flashed in the pan, he went after the bear with butt of the gun. The captain, seeing the situation, fired a canon that frightened off the bear. Upon his return, Nelson said: “I wished to kill the bear that I might carry the skin to my father.”
John M. Longyear (1850 – 1922)
What started as a relaxing holiday ended up as a career for the American businessman Longyear. In 1901 he sailed for pleasure on the Hamburg-American line tourist ship Auguste Viktoria, which made a visit to Spitsbergen. Within five years, he’d prospected for coal, bought the mining rights in Adventfjorden, and was mining commercially through his Arctic Coal Company. Longyear and his partner, Frederick Ayer, continued to operate a number of claims on Spitsbergen until 1916. The mining camp at the primary site became a large permanent settlement known as Longyear City, and now Longyearbyen, the capital of Svalbard.
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