Site Location: North-West Spitsbergen
-
Smeerenburg
”Blubber town” was the main base for Dutch whaling in the first half of the 1600s. The blubber produced oil for lighting, paint, soap and other products in demand, in the increasingly-expanding urban Europe. Contrary to the myth of 20 000 inhabitants and a hectic party-life in Smeerenburg, the reality was 200 hard-working men in a growing oil industry at almost 80° North.
-
Ytre Norskøya
For the whalers, catching sight of the whales as early as possible was of utmost importance. The important “spotters” were positioned in lookouts with good views of the ocean. While waiting they enjoyed their clay pipes and wine. When the first whalers arrived in 1611, the waters were “boiling” with whales. About 200 years later the big whales in the north were almost exterminated. Today visitors can walk on the old whalers` paths to enjoy the sight from this last point of land before the North Pole.
-
Sallyhamna
Sallyhamna ticked off all the needs for the earliest whalers. Some of the best preserved cultural heritage from the hey-days of bowhead whaling of the 17th Century are found here. Visitors will leave the place with a vivid imagination of the hardships of flensing the whale, rendering down blubber to oil and preparing the barreled oil for shipment to mainland Europe.