Danes Island () is an island in Norway's

Svalbard Svalbard ( , ), previously known as Spitsbergen or Spitzbergen, is a Norway, Norwegian archipelago that lies at the convergence of the Arctic Ocean with the Atlantic Ocean. North of continental Europe, mainland Europe, it lies about midway be ...

archipelago An archipelago ( ), sometimes called an island group or island chain, is a chain, cluster, or collection of islands. An archipelago may be in an ocean, a sea, or a smaller body of water. Example archipelagos include the Aegean Islands (the o ...

in the

Arctic Ocean The Arctic Ocean is the smallest and shallowest of the world's five oceanic divisions. It spans an area of approximately and is the coldest of the world's oceans. The International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) recognizes it as an ocean, ...

with an area of . It lies just off the northwest coast of

Spitsbergen Spitsbergen (; formerly known as West Spitsbergen; Norwegian language, Norwegian: ''Vest Spitsbergen'' or ''Vestspitsbergen'' , also sometimes spelled Spitzbergen) is the largest and the only permanently populated island of the Svalbard archipel ...

, the largest island in the archipelago, near to Magdalenefjorden. Just to the north lies

Amsterdam Island Amsterdam ( , ; ; ) is the capital and largest city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It has a population of 933,680 in June 2024 within the city proper, 1,457,018 in the urban area and 2,480,394 in the metropolitan area. Located in the Dut ...

. Most of Svalbard's islands, including Danes Island, are uninhabited; only Spitsbergen, Bjørnøya and Hopen have settlements.

History

In 1631 the Danish established a permanent station in Robbe Bay (

Kobbefjorden :''There is also a fjord named "Kobbefjord" southeast of Nuuk, (Greenland).'' Kobbefjorden ( English: ''Seal Fjord'') is a small fjord on the west coast of Danes Island, on the northwestern coast of Spitsbergen, the largest island of the Svalbard ...

), which was abandoned in 1658. Another station was established by the Dutch in Houcker Bay ( Virgohamna), on the north side of Danes Island in the 1630s. It was called the "Cookery of Harlingen." The remains of this station were seen by Friderich Martens in 1671.Conway, W. M. 1906. ''No Man's Land: A History of Spitsbergen from Its Discovery in 1596 to the Beginning of the Scientific Exploration of the Country''. Cambridge: At the University Press. The island is the location from which

S. A. Andrée's Arctic balloon expedition of 1897 S is the nineteenth letter of the English alphabet. S may also refer to: History * an Anglo-Saxon charter's number in Peter Sawyer's, catalogue Language and linguistics * Long s (ſ), a form of the lower-case letter s formerly used where "s ...

started.

Andrée Andrée or Andree may refer to: People * Andrée (given name) * Andree (surname) Places * Andree, Minnesota, unincorporated community in Stanchfield Township, Isanti County, Minnesota * 1296 Andrée, asteroid * Andrée Land (Svalbard) * Andrée La ...

hydrogen Hydrogen is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol H and atomic number 1. It is the lightest and abundance of the chemical elements, most abundant chemical element in the universe, constituting about 75% of all baryon, normal matter ...

balloon A balloon is a flexible membrane bag that can be inflated with a gas, such as helium, hydrogen, nitrous oxide, oxygen, or air. For special purposes, balloons can be filled with smoke, liquid water, granular media (e.g. sand, flour or rice), ...

crashed on the pack ice three days after its launch from Danes Island, and after wandering and drifting for nearly three months, the explorers finally perished on

Kvitøya Kvitøya (English: "White Island") is an island in the Svalbard archipelago in the Arctic Ocean, with an area of . It is the easternmost part of the Kingdom of Norway. The closest Russian Arctic possession, Victoria Island, lies only to the ...

, also in Svalbard.Lundström, Sven (1997), pp. 73–114

Gallery

File:Spitsbergen, Amsterdam Island.jpg, 17th century Dutch map of "Deense Eyland". File:Måleri, genrebild. Valfångst - Skoklosters slott - 88972.tif, Whaling on Danes Island, by Abraham Speeck, 1634. Skokloster Castle. File:Balloon.explorers.jpg, S. A. Andrée's balloon before takeoff on July 11, 1897. File:Danskoya Snow Angels.png, Making snow-angels on Danes Island on July 19, 2008.

Citations

References

* Lundström, Sven (1997). ''"Vår position är ej synnerligen god…" Andréexpeditionen i svart och vitt.'' Borås: Carlssons förlag. ( Swedish) Islands of Svalbard Uninhabited islands of Norway {{svalbard-geo-stub

History

Gallery

See also

Citations

References