Danes Island[1][2][3] (
Norwegian: Danskøya) is an island in Norway's
Svalbardarchipelago in the
Arctic Ocean with an area of 40.6 km2 (15.7 sq mi).[4] It lies just off the northwest coast of
Spitsbergen, the largest island in the archipelago, near to
Magdalenefjorden.[5] Just to the north lies
Amsterdam Island. Most of Svalbard's islands, including Danes Island, are uninhabited; only Spitsbergen, Bjørnøya and Hopen have settlements.[6]
In 1631 the Danish established a permanent station in Robbe Bay (
Kobbefjorden), which was abandoned in 1658.[7] 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.[8]
^Peter Joseph Capelotti. 1999. By Airship to the North Pole: An Archaeology of Human Exploration. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, pp. xii ff.
^Dalgård, Sune (1962). Dansk-Norsk Hvalfangst 1615–1660: En Studie over Danmark-Norges Stilling i Europæisk Merkantil Expansion. G.E.C Gads Forlag.
^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.