St Kilda & Jan Mayen Islands
Oban to Longyearbyen - Aboard Prof. Multanovskiy
Jan Mayen is a volcanic island set in the north Atlantic Ocean, half-way between Iceland and Spitsbergen. The still active volcano, Beerenberg, is 2200m high and dominates the island.The first impression the visitor gets of the island is one of a rough, inhospitable landscape, studded with snowfields, the sides of Beerenberg swept by glaciers separated by steep, rocky faces. The weather is unpredictable: there may be heavy rain, wind and fog but then, soon after, the sun may break through and the air become clear. During the winter Jan Mayen is often surrounded by pack-ice, the slopes of Beerenberg perpetually snow-covered. The island is named for Jan Jacobsz May, a Dutch whaler who landed here in 1614 (though the island had been seen before) and was a major whaling centre for both Dutch and English whalers. In the years which followed his visit, several settlements being established. These settlements were usually only manned in the summer. Seven Dutchmen who tried to over winter in 1633-34 all died because of scurvy. When whaling ceased, the difficulties of access and the poor climate limited human activities on the island. Norway established a weather station on the island, finally claiming sovereignty in 1929. During the Second World War the island was of great symbolic importance as the last piece of 'free Norway'.
