Ytre Norskøya ( en, Outer Norway Island) is an island on the northwest coast 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 ...

, part of the

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 ...

archipelago.

History

Remains of a

whaling Whaling is the process of hunting of whales for their usable products such as meat and blubber, which can be turned into a type of oil that became increasingly important in the Industrial Revolution. It was practiced as an organized industry ...

station exist on the southern side of the island, possibly rivaling

Smeerenburg Smeerenburg was a whaling settlement on Amsterdam Island in northwest Svalbard. It was founded by the Danish and Dutch in 1619 as one of Europe's northernmost outposts. With the local bowhead whale population soon decimated and whaling deve ...

in size. It was Europe's northernmost outpost ever established until the early 19th century; and the most northerly permanent settlement established of any size until the 1950s. The station had as many as nine tryworks, some having a single furnace, others having two. To the west of these structures were buildings used by the men working ashore. Further west is found one of the largest grave sites in Spitsbergen, where 165 graves have been found. The station probably belonged to the Zeeland partners of the

Noordsche Compagnie The Noordsche Compagnie ( en, Northern Company) was a Dutch cartel in the whaling trade, founded by several cities in the Netherlands in 1614 and operating until 1642. Soon after its founding, it became entangled in territorial conflicts with En ...

, who were forced to settle on Ytre Norskøya sometime after 1619 because the whaling vessels belonging to

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the Capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population ...

would not allow them to establish themselves at Smeerenburg. A high look-out point on the island called ''Zeeusche Uytkyk'' (Zeeland Look-out) was used by the

Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...

to search for the spouts of

bowhead whale The bowhead whale (''Balaena mysticetus'') is a species of baleen whale belonging to the family Balaenidae and the only living representative of the genus ''Balaena''. They are the only baleen whale endemic to the Arctic and subarctic waters, ...

s. The name appears on Henrik Doncker's 1655 map of ''Mauritius Bay'' ( modern Smeerenburgfjorden), which, however, shows the bay as it was in the 1620s (when the Danes abandoned Smeerenburg). The station was abandoned in 1670.

References

* * *Johansen, B. F., J. Henriksen, Ø. Overrein, and K. Prestvold. 2007. Ytre Norskøya. Norsk Polarinstitutt Cruisehåndbok for Svalbard.

External links

* Norwegian Polar Institute
Place names in Norwegian polar areas
Islands of Svalbard Whaling stations in Norway Whaling in Norway Former populated places in Svalbard Whaling in the Netherlands {{svalbard-geo-stub