Louwrens Hacquebord

The Expeditions of the First International Polar Year

When reading through the accounts of the various IPY-1 expeditions, one is easily struck by the great variation in the courses of each expedition. These reports were originally published in five different languages and each one gives a thorough description of the execution of the specific expedition, including details that for many of us are of far more interest than the meticulously noted scientific observations.

Three 17th century whaling stations in southeastern Svalbard: an archaeological missing link

Remains of three whaling stations on small islands south of Edgeoya, Svalbard, are described. They are believed to be British stations dating from the 17th century. Construction of tryworks and dwellings may represent an intermediate stage between that of Basque whaling stations in southern Labrador and of west European stations on the west coast of Spitsbergen.

The Jan Mayen Whaling Industry

After a relatively late discovery of the island, Dutch whalers used Jan Mayen as a base for their whaling industry. They built stations on the west coast of the island where they rendered whale oil from the blubber of the Greenland right whales. Altogether the whalers stayed for twenty-two years on Jan Mayen. In this period, approximately 1000 Greenland right whales (Balaena mysticetus) were killed and processed on the island leaving much uneaten plankton behind in the sea. Plankton-eating birds must have taken advantage of the situation and it is likely that the number of seabird rookeries on Jan Mayen increased. The combination of written sources and field data makes Jan Mayen a very challenging island for research.

Some IPY-2 Histories

Already 44 countries had agreed upon their participation in IPY-2 when the International Polar Commission met in Innsbruck in 1931 for the second time. Although the world economic crisis took its toll, the execution of the Polar Year finally was decided. Austria’s economic situation was very tight, but it was agreed that the Commission’s invitation to join the international co-operation of scientific measurements of physics of the earth would be accepted. Relating to IPY-1, Austria should occupy a station on Jan Mayen once again. Norway offered free transportation on its annual supply ship to the Norwegian radio station on Jan Mayen, established in 1921.1

Book Review: Maarten Schaap, een Katwijker ter koopvaardij (1782–1870): een biografie en een dagboek

efficient Plymouth was essential to Hawkes western squadron and the new yard at Halifax the key to strangling the communications of French Canada. Now that Jonathan Coad has so well charted the development of the dockyard infrastructure of the sailing navy, more study is needed of how the navy exploited it to overcome the mundane but astonishingly frequently overlooked problem of damage from the elements and how to extend the range of its effective operations. Jeremy Black and Philip Woodfine are to be congratulated for assembling such a stimulating group of authors and essays.