Danskøya

Danskøya ( German and Danish Island) is an uninhabited island in the far northwest of the Norwegian Svalbard archipelago and part of the territory Albert I country. In 1900 the island was the starting point of several failed attempts to reach the North Pole by air.

Geography

From Spitsbergen, the main island of the archipelago, Danskøya is separated by the Smeerenburgfjorden in the east, the south by the Sørgattet ( South Gate ). The one to two kilometers wide waterway between Danskøya and the northern island Amsterdamøya means Danskegattet ( Dänentor ).

The island is about nine kilometers long and in east-west direction up to seven miles wide in north-south direction. Its area is 40.6 km ². The far invading from the west in the island Kobbefjorden forms one of the best natural harbors in northwestern Spitsbergen, which is protected from the winds and the most of the year remains ice-free. The highest point of the island is the Svedbergfjellet with a height of 351 m. The island has several small freshwater lakes.

History

1625 a Danish whaling station was established on the south bank of the Kobbefjorden which the island takes its name. 1636 followed by the Dutch station Harlingen Kokerij in Houkerbucht (now Virgohamna ) on the north coast Danskøyas. Both existed until about 1660 and then were abandoned because the whales were exterminated in the coastal waters. On post Holmen, a small island in Kobbefjorden, the whalers deposited their mail to and from the home.

To a first scientific study of the island, there was 1868, when the Swedish polar explorer Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld, a team of naturalists in Kobbefjorden ashore on August 23.

Built in 1888, the British adventurer Arnold Pike right next to the remains of Harlingen Kokerij a wooden prefabricated house and wintered here with six companions. The stable house also served later expeditions to it in 1925 mined and transported to Barentsburg.

1894, the American Walter Wellman made ​​in his first Arctic expedition stopover on Danskøya and lived three days in Pikes house.

Salomon August Andrée came in 1896 with the steamer Virgo after Danskøya to start a balloon ride to the North Pole here. In addition to Pikes house a balloon hall was built and commissioned a plant for the production of hydrogen in operation. Andrée was accompanied by eminent scientist as meteorologist Nils Ekholm, who wanted to participate in aviation, and the physicist and chemist Svante Arrhenius. The project also attracted numerous onlookers. Thus, the German journalist and polar explorer Theodor Lerner was also present with the ship Expres like Captain William Bade, the pioneer of the Arctic cruise, with Erling Jarl. As Andrée still waiting for a favorable wind for his company, the Fram ice drift ran on August 14, under Captain Otto Sverdrup after three years in the Virgohamna one. Two days later, Andrée broke off his attempt to return a year later. On July 11, 1897, Andrée and Örnen with his two companions took off at last, and left Danskøya north. The balloon lasted only ten and a half hours in the air. After a vigorous walk on the ice, the balloonists died in October 1897 on the secluded island Kvitøya.

In 1906, Wellman after Danskøya with the plan back to reach the Pole by airship, which he had built in Louis Godard in Paris. Because the airship hangar at Virgohamna was not completed in time, the envelope of the airship was leaking and the engines would not work with the expedition in 1906 did not take place. With its new, constructed by Melvin Vaniman airship America Wellman returned 1907, and ventured on 2 September 1907 start. The trip lasted two hours and ended on 15 km from the glacier Fuglepyntbreen on which America was forced to land. After all, Wellman had made the first powered flight in the Arctic. Two years later, on August 15, 1909 Wellman repeated the experiment with the improved and enlarged airship America II After reaching the pack ice, the Schleppgurt caught on the ice and tore off, making ballast and a part of Proviants were lost. Wellman decided to give up and returned with the help of Gunnar Isachsens survey ship farm after Danskøya. The airship was destroyed by carelessness during the subsequent unloading, which ended Wellman's dream of a pole.

Since 1973 Danskøya belongs to Nordvest - Spitsbergen National Park. The southern offshore island Moseøya is recognized as a bird sanctuary ( Moseøya fuglereservat ), as well as the small rocky islands before Harpunodden, the westernmost point of the island ( Skorpa fuglereservat ).