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The Arctic ships Axel Thorsen and Skjøn Walborg

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 July 2007

Kjell-G. Kjær
Kjell-G. Kjær*
Affiliation:
Torsvåg, 9136 Vannareid, Norway
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Abstract

The two gun schooners Axel Thorsen and Skjøn Walborg were launched in 1810 and initially served as patrol ships with the task of protecting merchant vessels leaving Archangel from British attacks during the Napoleonic wars. Following the peace of 1815, the Norwegian authorities interpreted Russian activities in Finnmark, northern Norway, with considerable suspicion and, in 1816, Axel Thorsen was sent north to remove the Russian settlers from the area and to demolish their buildings. In 1817 and 1818, Skjøn Walborg replaced Axel Thorsen on the same mission. The two vessels also carried out a cartographic programme in the far north. In 1831 and 1832 there was an epidemic of cholera in Archangel, and the two ships acted to prevent vessels from that port docking in northern Norway. In 1864, Axel Thorsen was engaged by Adolf Nordenskiöld on his expedition to Svalbard while Skjøn Walborg was used by Graf Walburg-Ziel and Baron von Heuglin on their expedition to Svalbard in 1870. Both vessels were heavily engaged in sealing and hunting walrus at Novaya Zemlya from 1869 until both were crushed in the ice and lost in 1872.

Type
Articles
Information
Polar Record , Volume 43 , Issue 3 , July 2007 , pp. 217 - 223
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2007

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