Prins Karls Forland or Forlandet, occasionally anglicized as Prince Charles Foreland, is an island off the west coast of Oscar II Land on

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 ...

in the Arctic archipelago of

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. The entire island and the surrounding sea area constitutes

Forlandet National Park Forlandet National Park lies on the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard. The park was created by a royal resolution on 1 June 1973 and covers the entire island of Prins Karls Forland and well as the sea around it. The Norwegian national park has a ...

(''Forlandet nasjonalpark''). Russia - Spitsbergen - Prins Karls Forland

History

The island was first seen by the Dutch explorer

Willem Barentsz Willem Barentsz (; – 20 June 1597), anglicized as William Barents or Barentz, was a Dutch Republic, Dutch navigator, cartographer, and Arctic explorer. Barentsz went on three expeditions to the far north in search for a Northern Sea Route, N ...

in 1596. In 1610, the English explorer

Jonas Poole Jonas Poole (bap. 1566 – 1612)Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (2004). was an early 17th-century English explorer and sealer, and was significant in the history of whaling. Voyages to Bear Island, 1604-1609 He served aboard vesse ...

named it ''Black Point Isle''. By 1612 the English whalers were referring to the island as ''Prince Charles' Foreland'', after King James's son,

Charles Charles is a masculine given name predominantly found in English language, English and French language, French speaking countries. It is from the French form ''Charles'' of the Proto-Germanic, Proto-Germanic name (in runic alphabet) or ''*k ...

(later king of England and Scotland). The Dutch called it ''Kijn Island'', after a merchant, who, climbing a tall hill in 1612, fell and broke his neck. The English built a temporary whaling station on the island's northern tip, known to the English as ''Fair Foreland'' (today Fuglehuken).

References

Islands of Svalbard Uninhabited islands of Norway {{svalbard-geo-stub

History

See also

References