Albert-I-Land

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Albert-I-Land is the north-westernmost area of ​​the Spitzbergen archipelago . It consists of several peninsulas west of the line Krossfjord - Lilliehöökfjord - Raudfjord and the islands of Amsterdamøya and Danskøya . To the east it borders Haakon VII Land .

Coordinates: 79 ° 33 '  N , 11 ° 28'  E

Map: Svalbard and Jan Mayen
marker
Albert-I-Land​
Magnify-clip.png
Svalbard
The west coast of Svalbard was the earliest whaling base in the Arctic Ocean
Map Albert-I-Land (northern part)

Surname

Albert-I-Land bears its name in honor of Albert I of Monaco , who financially supported and carried out several Svalbard expeditions at the turn of the 20th century.

history

In the Albert-I-Land area, Willem Barents and his crew discovered Svalbard on June 17, 1596. Because the coast was steep and the mountains pointed, he named his discovery Spitzbergen. Later many bowhead whales were sighted in the adjacent sea area , whereupon the early whalers set up their whaling stations on these coasts. Therefore, in this region you can find many traces of the first settlers on Svalbard, such as the remains of their oil ovens .

Virgohamna on Danskøya was the starting point for the first attempts to reach the geographic North Pole by air. The Swede Salomon August Andrée started his tragic polar expedition with the hydrogen balloon here in 1897 . In 1907 and 1909 the American Walter Wellman made the first motorized flights in the Arctic with the airship .

The Ebeltofthafen Geophysical Observatory was built in 1912 on the Mitra Peninsula in the southwest of Albert I Land . The German station was one of the first continuously operated observation stations in the Arctic for several years (1912–1914). In World War II the operational Navy of the Armed Forces in the nearby bay Signehamna the weather station Bud (1942 Walnut ).

Another station of the Navy from 1943–1944 was the Crusader weather station on the north coast of the Liefdefjord , a western branch of the Woodfjord .

Albert-I-Land lies entirely in the Nordvest-Spitsbergen National Park .

gallery

swell