ISFJORDEN

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The guest harbour in Longyearbyen is cramped, and in the middle of summer it can get quite crowded, so you just have to squeeze in as best you can. When the large cruise ships arrive, they lay bow lines across the entrance, blocking all traffic in and out of the guest harbour. It is important to coordinate these arrivals with the harbour master. Otherwise, there is both electricity and water in the harbour, and a nice service building in the same building as the harbour office.

We were only going to stay for a day to do some shopping and treat ourselves to an evening at "Huset", Svalbard's best restaurant. We spent the day browsing the shop, chatting with the other people on the boats around us, and otherwise just relaxing on board.

The wind picked up steadily from the north-west throughout the day. A brief plan was to continue on to Kapp Thordsen and Svenskehuset, but it is an unsheltered anchorage there, and since the sea was gradually turning white in Isfjorden, we decided to stay in Longyearbyen until the wind died down.

In the evening we had a table at Huset so we strolled up there and had a very cosy dinner with fantastic food and drinks.

Back in the harbour, the wind had really picked up, and gusts were now reaching 40 knots. There was a flurry of activity on all the boats as they put out extra docking lines, something we also started doing.

The next morning, we could see that everyone had survived the night, except for the Norwegian flag pole outside the harbour master's office. It had not withstood the gusts of wind.

The wind was still so strong that we desided to stay. In the evening, we strolled up to the town centre, but since the Soccer World Cup was being shown on a big screen and the place where we had planned to eat was packed, we ended up getting a table at Kroa.

Just as we were sitting there, Ulrika and Tommy showed up. We met them in Ny-Ålesund last year, and they recognised us immediately. We had a very pleasant evening with them, and the next day we were invited to their home for the soccer World Cup final, with coffee and ice cream.

They are very nice people who have lots of travel experience from Svalbard and are happy to share good advice and tips on places to go and things to do. The captain in particular appreciated some good advice on how to catch arctic char.

The wind calmed down in Adventdalen, so we took the opportunity to stretch our legs and see Longyearbyen from above. We walked the trail up to Varden on Sverdruphammaren. This was clearly a popular hike, as we met lots of friendly people along the way.

Here we got a good impression of the old mines located here in Adventdalen.

Imagine how hard it must have been to build this by hand, without today's modern machinery.

The picture below shows coal-mine 2, which was built in 1913 and was in operation until 1964.

After visiting Ulrika and Tommy, we heard that a large cruise ship was due to arrive in the harbour early the next morning. We got ready to leave before it arrived and the harbour was closed. Early the next morning, we set off from Adventfjorden on our way to Svenskehuset.

However, it turned out that the wind was still blowing strongly into Isfjorden, so instead we sailed past Kapp Thordsen and turned into Skansebukta, which is located in Billefjorden. Here we found good shelter from the wind and an incredibly beautiful spot with massive rock formations.

There are also remains of old fishing huts and mining operations here. In 1918, the first attempt was made to extract Gypsum and Anhydrite (calcium sulphate). The Gypsum quarry experiment was short-lived and closed after the first season, but it was reopened by shipowner Kjøde in the 1930s. After a few years of trial operation, it was closed down again.

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On the slopes of the impressive mountain Skansen to the east, there is a bustling bird life with thousands of nesting seabirds.

View from Skansebukta across Billefjorden towards the northwest. Nordenskiøldbreen glacier can be seen in the background.

There are many traces of Gypsum mining in Skansbukta. Here lie the remains of the loading facility on large deposits of gypsum and anhydrite. The photo on the right shows the mine entrance at the end of the remains of the railway line.

Below, the permafrost that fills the mine tunnel is clearly visible.

Isfjorden is the area of Svalbard with the mildest climate, and the area is considered highly productive in the Svalbard context. There was clearly much less snow here than we experienced further out towards the coast in the west. The air temperature was also a pleasant 10 degrees.

In 1872, on the initiative of Adolf E. Nordenskiöld, what would become the legendary Svenskhuset was built in the far north-east of Siklarhallet within Kapp Thordsen. It is a large two-storey house used for scientific expeditions and the extraction of mineral deposits in the area. It was here that the "Tragedy at the Swedish House" took place the following winter, when 17 young Norwegian trappers died of lead poisoning.

During the first International Polar Year in 1882-83, the house was used as a winter quarters for a Swedish scientific expedition. One of the participants was Salomon August Andrée, who later perished in an attempt to reach the North Pole by balloon. Svenskhuset is the only one of the large 19th-century houses on Svalbard that has been preserved.

We had perfect weather for landing at the house, as the sea was calm. Access, about 500 metres below the house, is limited to a steep stream bed that has carved its way down to the fjord. Otherwise, there is a steep mountain wall rising straight up from the sea.

The short version of the "Tragedy at the Swedish house" is as follows:

In the autumn of 1872, several whaling ships, with a total of 124 men, were trapped by ice at Velkomstpynten at the northernmost tip of Spitsbergen. The situation was critical because they had not planned to spend the winter there and were already running low on food. They knew that Nordenskiöld had built a house at Kapp Thordsen and that there were ample supplies stored there. Seventeen trappers therefore agreed to row from Velkomstpynten to Svenskhuset in Isfjorden to spend the winter there. The average age of these 17 men was 22.

They reached Svenskhuset after rowing for seven days, over 500 kilometres, and everything was in place for a safe and undramatic winter. After a few months, they were all found dead. It was first believed that the 17 trappers died of scurvy, but after extensive research over many years, everything indicates that this is incorrect. The probable cause of death is lead poisoning. Canned food at that time was sealed with lead. Instead of pouring the contents of the tins into pots when heating the food on the stove, the tins were placed directly on the stove. This caused the lead to evaporate and poison the food, which they then ate.

When researchers opened the grave in 2008, they found that the bodies were lying in permafrost and were therefore very well preserved, but as the text on the cross says, there were only 15 bodies in the grave.