Cape Thordsen

78.45683 15.466236Coordinates: 78 ° 27 ′ 25 ″ N , 15 ° 27 ′ 58 ″ E

Cape Thordsen

Cape Thordsen ( Norwegian Kapp Thordsen ) is the southernmost point of Dickson Land on the island of Svalbard . It is located on the north coast of the Isfjorden in the Nordre-Isfjorden National Park , directly opposite the entrance to the Adventfjorden , where Svalbard's main town, Longyearbyen, is located.

Cape Thordsen got its name after the Axel Thordsen , the ship of the Swedish research expedition that visited the area in 1864. Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld , who later conquered the Northeast Passage , found the mineral resource phosphorite here . In 1872 the company AB Isfjorden built a two-story house on Cape Thordsen as the main building of a mining settlement to be founded. Today svenskhuset tragedy ( German Swedish house ) called building was in the winter 1872/73 the scene of a tragic accident: 17 sealers who sought refuge here, died from eating canned meat to lead poisoning . The house, which is now a listed building, also served as accommodation for the Swedish expedition as part of the First International Polar Year in 1882/83 .

Individual evidence

↑ Kapp Thordsen . In: The Place Names of Svalbard (first edition 1942). Norsk Polarinstitutt , Oslo 2001, ISBN 82-90307-82-9 (English, Norwegian).
^ Liesen Roll: The Remains of the Early Industrialization of Svalbard as Cultural Heritage . In: XX Polar Symposium . Lublin 1993 (English, lublin.pl [PDF; 8.0 MB ]).
↑ Ulf Aasebø, Kjell G. Kjær: Lead poisoning as possible cause of deaths at the Swedish House at Kapp Thordsen, Spitsbergen, winter 1872–3. In: BMJ (Clinical research ed.). Volume 339, 2009, p. B5038, ISSN 1756-1833 . PMID 19965937 . PMC 2789173 (free full text). doi: 10.1136 / bmj.b5038 (English)
Jump up ↑ Susan Barr, Erki Tammiksaar, Natal'ya Georgievna Sukhova: The Expeditions of the First International Polar Year . In: Susan Barr, Cornelia Lüdecke (ed.): The History of the International Polar Years (IPYs) , Springer-Verlag, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-642-12401-3 , p. 90 (English)

[1] Kapp Thordsen . In: The Place Names of Svalbard (first edition 1942). Norsk Polarinstitutt , Oslo 2001, ISBN 82-90307-82-9 (English, Norwegian).

[2] Liesen Roll: The Remains of the Early Industrialization of Svalbard as Cultural Heritage . In: XX Polar Symposium . Lublin 1993 (English, lublin.pl [PDF; 8.0 MB ]).

[3] Ulf Aasebø, Kjell G. Kjær: Lead poisoning as possible cause of deaths at the Swedish House at Kapp Thordsen, Spitsbergen, winter 1872–3. In: BMJ (Clinical research ed.). Volume 339, 2009, p. B5038, ISSN 1756-1833 . PMID 19965937 . PMC 2789173 (free full text). doi: 10.1136 / bmj.b5038 (English)

[4] Jump up ↑ Susan Barr, Erki Tammiksaar, Natal'ya Georgievna Sukhova: The Expeditions of the First International Polar Year . In: Susan Barr, Cornelia Lüdecke (ed.): The History of the International Polar Years (IPYs) , Springer-Verlag, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-642-12401-3 , p. 90 (English)