Aarvak Arctic Museum
The Aarvak Ice Sea Museum ( Ishavsmuseet Aarvak ) is located in Brandal on the western Norwegian island of Hareidlandet . Founded in 1981, the museum deals with seal hunting and other activities in the northern polar regions. In addition to around 600 exhibits, the arctic ship Aarvak is the main attraction of the museum. Numerous preparations of arctic animals such as musk , arctic wolf , arctic fox , polar bears , seals and arctic birds are exhibited in the museum. The museum building was built in the 1950s as a warehouse for equipping arctic ships and as a workshop for processing seal skins.
Brandal and the seal hunt
The village of Brandal was a seal fishing center in western Norway from 1898. The pioneer of seal fishing was Peter S. Brandal, who was the first to sail from Ålesund to the Arctic seal fishing areas in fishing boats. Later he built factories for the production of seal and herring oil in his hometown of Brandal. During the First World War, Peter S. Brandal joined forces with other shipowners and founded the mining company Kings Bay Kull Comp A / S in Ny-Ålesund on Svalbard . Peter S. Brandal was made a Knight of the Royal Order of Saint Olav in 1919. Up to 47 arctic ships were based in Brandal. Brandal experienced its economic peak at the end of the 1920s. 75 arctic vessels from western Norway took part in the seal hunt, and more than 1,000 men were employed in the industry. Sealing was a dangerous job. From 1924 to 1939, 115 arctic ships were lost due to ice pressing or storms.
Arctic Sea ship Aarvak
The Aarvak was built in Bergen in 1912 . The hull of the ship was given a shape that only became common for Norwegian arctic ships after the Second World War. The ship is 90 feet long, 21.6 feet wide, and 10.6 feet draft. It was powered by a 74 hp steam engine. The ship was rebuilt several times, including lengthening to 112.8 feet in 1956. In 1948, the steam engine was replaced by a Crossley diesel engine with 400 hp, which in turn was replaced in 1964 by a Wichmann diesel engine with 600 hp, which is still available today. The Aarvak was in operation as a seal catcher from 1912 to 1981. The ship has been part of the Arctic Museum since 1981. The ship has been exhibited in its own hall since June 2009.
Ragnar Thorseth
In October 2012 the adventurer Ragnar Thorseth got his own exhibition in the museum. Various items of equipment, models of ships and boats as well as photographs of his numerous expeditions are exhibited.
Web links
- Ishavsmuseet Aarvak - website of the museum
- Ishavsmuseets Venner - Homepage of the Friends of the Museum
- Ragnar Thorset at the opening of his exhibition
Coordinates: 62 ° 24 ' N , 6 ° 1' E