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Amsterdamøya

360°-Panoramas

Ams­ter­damøya: Smee­ren­burg

Smee­ren­burg is on a flat pen­in­su­la on the sou­the­as­tern point of the island of Ams­ter­damøya in nor­thwes­tern Spits­ber­gen. It is one of the only places in the area whe­re the ter­rain allo­wed to build and to run a wha­ling sta­ti­on. It was the Dutch who took advan­ta­ge of the place and built a sta­ti­on ear­ly in the 17th cen­tu­ry (see page about 17th cen­tu­ry wha­ling for more back­ground infor­ma­ti­on).

Smee­ren­burg, which trans­la­tes as „blub­ber town“, was one of the lar­gest wha­ling sta­ti­ons in Spits­ber­gen and cer­tain­ly the most famous one. Eight com­pa­nies from dif­fe­rent Dutch towns were acti­ve the­re and had at least one blub­ber oven and 2 buil­dings. Also a Danish com­pa­ny was invol­ved at times. In its heydays, up to 200 men were working in Smee­ren­burg during the sum­mer. Remains of the blub­ber ovens can still be seen, after 4 cen­tu­ries.

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last modification: 2019-04-15 · copyright: Rolf Stange
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