Peter Andreas Severinsson Brandal (21 December 1870 – 23 March 1933) was a Norwegian sealer and businessman. He was one of the founders of the community of

Ny-Ålesund Ny-Ålesund ("New Ålesund") is a small town in Oscar II Land on the island of Spitsbergen in Svalbard, Norway. It is situated on the Brøgger peninsula ( Brøggerhalvøya) and on the shore of the bay of Kongsfjorden. The company town is owned and ...

on the island of

Spitsbergen Spitsbergen (; formerly known as West Spitsbergen; Norwegian: ''Vest Spitsbergen'' or ''Vestspitsbergen'' , also sometimes spelled Spitzbergen) is the largest and the only permanently populated island of the Svalbard archipelago in northern Norw ...

Svalbard Svalbard ( , ), also known as Spitsbergen, or Spitzbergen, is a Norwegian archipelago in the Arctic Ocean. North of mainland Europe, it is about midway between the northern coast of Norway and the North Pole. The islands of the group range ...

, Norway.

Biography

Brandal was born at the village of

Brandal Brandal is a village in Hareid Municipality in Møre og Romsdal county, Norway. It is located on the eastern shores of the island of Hareidlandet, along the Sulafjorden. The village lies about north of the municipal centre of Hareid and about ...

on the island of

Hareidlandet Hareidlandet is an island in Møre og Romsdal county, Norway. The island is divided between Hareid Municipality and Ulstein Municipality. The island has a population of 13,030 (as of 2015). The island is mentioned by Snorri in his reports about ...

Møre og Romsdal Møre og Romsdal (; en, Møre and Romsdal) is a county in the northernmost part of Western Norway. It borders the counties of Trøndelag, Innlandet, and Vestland. The county administration is located in the town of Molde, while Ålesund is the ...

, Norway. He was the son of Sevrin Olavius Martinus Larsen (1847–1934) and Davida Petersdatter (1842–1903). He started working as a fisher after confirmation and bought his first vessel in 1891. Eight years later it participated in its first

Arctic Ocean The Arctic Ocean is the smallest and shallowest of the world's five major oceans. It spans an area of approximately and is known as the coldest of all the oceans. The International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) recognizes it as an ocean, a ...

sealing expedition. Brandal participated in a fur hunting expedition to

Greenland Greenland ( kl, Kalaallit Nunaat, ; da, Grønland, ) is an island country in North America that is part of the Kingdom of Denmark. It is located between the Arctic and Atlantic oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Greenland is t ...

in 1901. His fleet gradually increased, with focus on Arctic Ocean sealing. He stopped active seamanship in 1911 and became a manager for the fleet. Besides the hunting of seals, it now also hunted walrus. Brandal was also engaged in the processing of products from fishing activities through the establishment of a herring factory. During

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, Norwegian access to a coal supply was limited. Brandal bought the coal mining claims at

Kongsfjorden Kongsfjorden as seen from Blomstrandhalvøya Kongsfjorden (Kongs Fjord or Kings Bay) is an inlet on the west coast of Spitsbergen, an island which is part of the Svalbard archipelago in the Arctic Ocean. The inlet is long and ranges in width fr ...

in 1916 for 250,000

Norwegian krone The krone (, abbreviation: kr (also NKr for distinction); code: NOK), plural ''kroner'', is currency of the Kingdom of Norway (including Svalbard). Traditionally known as the Norwegian crown in English. It is nominally subdivided into 100 ''� ...

. He established Kings Bay Kull Comp. A/S (KBKC) that year and started mining that summer. The following year his company established the town of

. During the first years, several names were in use for the settlement, including Kings Bay, Kingsbay and Brandal City. Ny-Ålesund came into use in the early 1920s. Later Trygve Klausen, Michael Knutsen and Trygve Jervell joined Brandal as co-owners of the company. Production started quickly, but the company eventually met difficulties throughout the 1920s. Low coal prices due to the international financial crisis led to the total loss of 1929. After all mining operations in Ny-Ålesund were stopped, the Norwegian state acquired all the shares in KBKC in 1933. Kings Bay AS is now a government enterprise owned by the

Norwegian Ministry of Trade and Industry The Royal Norwegian Ministry of Trade and Industry (Norwegian: Nærings- og handelsdepartementet) was a Norwegian ministry responsible for business, trade and industry. On 1 January 2014 it was merged into Ministry of Trade, Industry and Fisheries. ...

which operates the entire settlement of Ny-Ålesund.

References

Bibliography

External links

Kings Bay AS - Ny-Ålesund website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Brandal, Peter 1870 births 1933 deaths People from Hareid Norwegian fishers Norwegian company founders Norwegian businesspeople in shipping Norwegian businesspeople in mining Sealers

Biography

See also

References

Bibliography

External links