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History of Jan Mayen

Etymology

The island in named after the Dutch discoverer, who is the first that there is no doubt had found the island, Jan Jansz Kerckhoff. During the 17th century, the island was called Janellayen Eyland by the Dutch whalers. In modern times it has been renamed to the norwegianised Jan Mayen.

A lot of the place names on the island were originally Dutch or German, but have Norwegianised (e. g. Wilczek-Thal becomming Wilczekdalen).

Viking discoveries

During the viking age (circa 800 - 1150) Norwegian and Danish Vikings explored vast amounts of the North Atlantic, settling on places including Iceland, the Faroe Islands and Greenland. It is presumed that the Vikings knew about the island, though there is no certain written or archeological evidence about them finding the island. Still, the island is visible almost 200 km away, and there would be no doubt as to that the Vikings knew about the island, though whether any settlements were made there is a different story.

There is a scholar discussion whether or not the old Norse name Svalbarð refered to the precent Svalbard or Jan Mayen. There is some evidence that it was Jan Mayen that was origianlly called Svalbarð. Among other things the distance of Svalbarð from different locations is more in line with the location of Jan Mayen than of Svalbard.

On the other hand there is no archeological findings of any viking age settlements on Jan Mayen. The island is very baren, without any real way of making a livelyhood on it. But if there were settlements, they could have eroded away. Even the findings from the 17th century can soon be erorded away.

St. Brendans voyage

The Irish monk and saint Brendan went on a voyage to the North Atlantic at the end of the 8th century. Among the places he may have visisted is Jan Mayen. About a century afterwards his voyale was written down in Navigatio Sancti Brendani Abbatis. At one point in the book Brendan came to an island he called The Island of Smiths. He felt there was something evil with the island, and they could hear the sounds of smiths hammers. The smiths came running down to the beach where they threw burning stones at the monks. It looked like the entire island was burning.

In the next chapter the monks came to a new island (some scholars belive this to be the same island, but from a new angle). Brendan named this island The Rock of Fire. There came smoke from the mountain, so high that the monks couldn't see the top of it. One of the monks left the boat, and started walking towards the mountain, but was attacked by demons who ignited him. The other monks fled, and soon the mountain was not smoking, but on fire. It is belived that the demons that attacked the monk was fresh lava from the volcano Beerenberg.

The Zeno Map

Another explorer who may have discovered Jan Mayen are the brothers Nicolò Zeno and Antonio Zeno, venezian explorers who went on many expeditions on behalf of the king of Frisland. One of his ancestors created a map of the North Atlantic based on his expeditions, known as the Zeno Map. They may have discovered Jan Mayen. But the sources are vague, and numerous scholars have created abundant theories based on the map. The most plausible is that the island S. Thomas. Zenobium is Jan Mayen.

Dutch whalers

The first Dutch to discover the island was Jan Jansz Kerckhoff on the ship t' Cleyn Swaentgen in 1614, naming the island Mauritius after Maurits van Oranje Nassau. But Kerckhoff did not report the finding to the Dutch authorities Staten-Generaal, and there became a conflict as to the rights to the island. At that time any Dutch finding of land gave the finder the right to four expeditions within four years to the island without competition.

Noordsche Compagnie

At this time the Dutch were atempting to grow large in whaling. The largest company was Noordsche Compagnie, a cartel of trading houses throughout the Netherlands. The company soon aquired the rights to whaling at Jan Mayen in addition to their excisting rights at Svalbard and other areas in the Arctic. But also another Dutch whaling cartel got rights to whaling at Jan Mayen, namely Kleine Noordsche Compagnie. They received smaller quotas, but also operated out of Jan Mayen and Svalbard.

Noordsche Compagnie moved its base to Jan Mayen and established a number of oil cooking facilities and other infrastucture on the island. To begin with the whaling was quite profitable, and there would be up to 15 boats each year stationed at the island. But by the 1630s the profit was vanishing. The last year the Noordsche Compagnie was on the island was in 1637, and they lost their monopoly in 1642. The company lost about 300,000 guilders on the whaling at Jan Mayen between 1632 and 1635.

First residents

After a basque attack on the island the winter of 1628 Noordsche Compagnie decided to try to have a group of seven people spend the winter of 1631/32 on the island. Though this had been being planned since 1623, there was a fair bit of scepticism among workers since a group of Englishmen had died after being forgotton on Spitsbergen for the winter. Muscovy Company had so much problems finding volunteers that But also the winter 1630/1631 some Englishmen had been left on Spitsbergen by accident and so Noorsche Compagnie decided to go ahead with the attempt.

In addition to protecting the area, they expedition was to make metrological surveys on the island. Therefore there were cept two seperate diaries. The group was stationed in permanent housing, but did litte but try to stay the winter, except a little hunting and gathering of plants. Though one person actually learnt to read during the stay.

The expedition tried to gather plants (Cochlaria officinalis) to prevent scurvy, but unfortunetly their had to eat half raw polar bear meat. This resultet in trichinosis, eventually killing all seven men, probably the last one only a month before the whaling vessels returned. One of the diaries was litteraly found on the body of one of the deceised. An eqivilent expedition had survived on Svalbard the same winter, but had died the following season when they again had tried to stay the winter.

The first international polar year

The first International Polar Year (IPY) in 1882-1883 was an idea initiated by the Austrian polar explorer Karl Weyprecht who wanted to change the focus of polar expeditions from going marginally further north than other countries to an international collaboration between nations to make scientific surveys on allready discovered areas. Observations were to be conducted within metrology, earth magnetism, northern lights, astronomy and hydrography. The goal whas to answer the question why? The first IPY was initiated by the third International Polar Conference in St. Petersburg in 1881. 11 nations were to have 12 stations in the arctic and two in Sub-Antarctica.

Austria-Hungary was chosen to lead the expedition to Jan Mayen. Karl Weyprecht died in 1881, and instead the expedition was to be organised by count Hanns von Wilczek. As normal at that time, expedition members were reqruited from the navy, and Emil von Wohlgemuth was chosen as the expedition leader. A total of 15 people were selected for the expedition, of which five were officers. The expedition was to set up a permanent camp on the island, and was equipped with enough supplies for two years, in case it was not possible to leave the island the next summer.

The expedition sailed via Bergen to Jan Mayen, bud had to return to Tromsø because of ice. The ship "Pola" returned and on June 25 it returned to the island, but could not anchor up until July 12. After a bit of consideration, it was decided to make camp at Maria Much Bay. During the establishment of the camp work was conducted between 4:00 and 20:00. During packing of the ship supplies were put in nessesity order, so in case the vessel had to suddenly depart because of ice and not return, the most nessesary items would still be unpacked. The expeditions only death was on July 15 when Viscovich-Sturla, crew on Pola, died. He war burried on the island, and his grave can still be seen. On July 18 Pola had to leave land. Construction of the base started, and on July 22 Pola was back and the 50 tonnes of coal were unloaded.

Pola left the island on August 16. During the winter the expedition attempted to climb Beerenberg, conducted the nessesary scientific surveys and attemted to explore the island. The sun was gone between November 17 1882 and February 2 1883. During the fall and spring the expedition could gather some plants, as well as going hunting all winter long. There were both polar bears and arctic foxes to hunt, as well as that the expediton had brought along hens, dogs and pigs. The expedition had during the summer mapped the entire island in 1:100 000 scale, the best maps made until 1959. On August 4 Pola reappeard, and left the island on August 6, arriving in Trondheim on August 10.

References

Barr, Susan (1991) Jan Mayen, Oslo: Schibsted ISBN 82-516-1353-1

Kongsberg Station Nordagutu Station Bø Station Lunde Station Drangedal Station Neslandsvatn Station Gjerstad Station Vegårdshei Station Nelaug Station Vennesla Station Kristiansand Station Nodeland Station Breland Station Marnaland Station Audnedal Station Storekvina Station Gyland Station Sira Station Moi Station Egersund Station