Page Sec1:14 - Labyrint 2013 - English Edition

“They knew this was a dangerous jour-
ney, and that death could be just around
the corner. So they also packed things
like wooden boards to build a coffin and
perhaps some moss to put at the bottom
of the coffin, so that the dead would have a
comfortable place to lie,” Hultgreen said.
“If we read between the lines a bit, they
were probably motivated by a desire to
give their friends an honourable and
digni­fied burial. They did not want to bury
people at sea, it was not their custom, and
was probably seen as impersonal,” she
added.
Caringmates
Hultgreen describes graves that suggest
the whalers were particularly careful about
how they buried their dead comrades.
“Some have soft layer of sawdust or moss
at the bottom, the coffin is lined with a
thin fabric and the dead are wearing sev-
eral layers of clothing, or they are wrapped
in a blanket so they will not freeze. It was
difficult dig graves in the permafrost, but
they tried to bury the bodies as deep as
possible, covering the graves with stones to
keep them safe from predators,” she says.
All cultural heritage items from before
1946 are automatically protected on
Svalbard, and it is rare that research-
ers are given an exemption to examine
whalers’ graves. But exceptions are given
if the graves are in the process of being
destroyed, as was the case at Likneset in
north-western Svalbard in the mid 1980s.
Marine archaeologist Dag Nævestad, a
researcher at the Norwegian Maritime
Museum, led the excavation of graves
that were threatened by coastal erosion,
and says that these elaborate burials were
relatively rare.
“The type of burial certainly relates to the
status that the deceased had, but most of
the bodies we found were buried in their
nicest shirt and long socks that went up
to mid-thigh. But we found one slightly
atypical grave where the body was buried
in a handsome jacket and with a silk scarf
around the neck,” he said.
Scurvy a risk
It was not just whaling techniques that
were unknown to the whalers. Most had
very little knowledge of the harsh Arctic
climate, and had only their normal winter
clothes for the Svalbard summer.
Nevertheless, the cold itself was not a
major cause of death.
“When we analysed material from the
graves, we found that a great proportion of
the dead had symptoms of scurvy. It is not
surprising that this was a frequent cause
of death. Most came from the lower social
classes without access to healthy food, and
would have just lived through a winter in
their home country, without fresh fruit
and vegetables,” ­Hultgreen explains.
“They were probably already suffering
from a lack of vitamin C, and the unvaried
diet of salt meat and dried peas that was
served on the whaling ships was fatal for
many,” she said.
The irony is that whale meat is a good
source of vitamin C this far north, but
whale meat was not considered edible.
“They did not know what caused scurvy,
so they tried different things to cure it. If
they survived, they were not sure which
of the cures had worked – whether it was
the bear grease smeared on their joints, the
mixture of tobacco juice and ash smeared
on their gums, the meals they ate that in-
cluded fresh meat and local plants, or the
ten Hail Marys they said before they went
to bed at night,” says Nævestad.
Some whalers knew that what we now
call scurvy weed (which the Dutch called
salad) would help, and this was partly what
saved the first seven people who voluntar-
ily spent the winter on Svalbard.
Left behind
In the winter of 1630-31, a group of
­English whalers was accidentally left be-
hind by their ship at the end of the season.
Without food supplies, they were forced
to hunt for fresh meat, which saved them
from certain death. When the British came
back in the spring they were very surprised
to discover that the men had survived an
entire winter against all odds.
The Dutch were quite inspired by this
story, and when they a few years later dis-
covered that the Basques had raided one of
their whaling stations on Jan Mayen Island
after the season had ended, they decided
to leave seven men at Smeerenburg on
Svalbard, and seven men on Jan Mayen to
guard their gear.
“Among the seven new residents of
Smeerenburg were two Germans, four
Dutchmen and surprise: a Norwegian!
We have concluded there must have been
a Karsten Andersen from Fredrikstad
among the first Europeans to voluntarily
spend the winter on Svalbard,” Nævestad
says.
14 ••• Labyrint E/13 – University of Tromsø
Excerpts from the van
der Brugge diary,
Svalbard March 1634:
On the 18 th, wind and weather as
before. In the morning another bear
came to eat, in the bay, of the last
killed bear; we set off towards him, but
as soon as he perceived us he took to
flight. We shot many foxes daily, for
the refreshment of our cook, in order
that he might eat them for the scurvy;
the foxes being skinned, we let them
freeze for two or three days in the
wind, and then cook them partly with
plums and raisins; some we stewed,
with pepper and vinegar, in a pan.
On the 19 th, wind and weather as
before. To-day, we again ate a salad,
which was still of very good flavour,
and hat not decomposed much at all.
In the company of death