Wreck of Arctic ship discovered

The discovery was made, according to skipper Jon Frimann Eirikson, at about 66 degrees N, midway between Iceland and Greenland, at a depth of about 370 meters. There were wreckage, ship's side, a steering wheel, a door hook and a good deal of sealskin. These skins were, according to the skipper (and the picture) of Klappmyss. The skin was with blubber. It was reasonable to believe that this is one of the between 20 and 30 Norwegian ships that sank during the summer fishing in the Denmark Strait in the first half of the 1900th century.

You would think that sealskins that have been lying on the seabed for many decades would be eaten up by microorganisms, benthic animals, hawksbills and the like. That is not true in this case. The skins look fine and well-oiled, but they smelled really bad, said the skipper.

There is reason to believe that the skin was laid flat at the bottom of a hold or, ideally, in a blubber tank, and was not torn apart when the ship hit the seabed, meaning it is well preserved.

The sunken ships captured in the Denmark Strait that we have a position on are located a good distance from the discovery area. All are closer to Greenland than the discovery site.

The last Norwegian ship to sink while fishing in the Denmark Strait was in 1935. At that time, all the ships in the field were blubbering. It is therefore less likely that these are finds from ships that caught in the Denmark Strait.

It was at Easter 1952 that the fishing vessels in the West Ice were surprised by a heavy storm. The Arctic vessels "Buskø", "Pels", "Brattind", "Ringsel" and "Vårglimt" disappeared without a trace. These five vessels were located in the far west of the West Ice and were fishing on blueback when the storm came. Despite searches by ship and plane, practically no discoveries were made that could shed light on the tragedy. Five vessels with 78 men were lost forever. 98 minor children had lost their father, and 46 wives had become widows.

The skink that "Videy" caught was of the Klappmyss. This is the species that was caught in the Denmark Strait. It is also the species that the five ships furthest west in 1952 caught until the storm ended the catch on April 3.

The reason for looking towards the West Ice and the 1952 accident, are the unbleached pelts, and the position is far west. During the winter hunt in the Vesterisen, the skins were not blanched in the field.

 

In the book "Alarm in the West Sea", the position of the six ships that were gathered furthest west when the storm came is estimated to be 68, 30 N and 19 W. In the following, we use this position when the storm came.

Of the eight ships that were lying furthest west in the West Ice when the hurricane hit, three managed to make it to Iceland. The Arctic ship "Arild" was among the five that sank when the storm hit. "Arild" barely managed to turn the ship around and began to slip away, then it was carried down through the Danish Strait at great speed. The ship first caught a glimpse of the sun on April 6, when the ship was 150 nm south of Reykjanes well on its way down into the Atlantic Ocean. The ship took almost two days before it came ashore in Bildudal in Iceland.

The distance between the discovery site in 2023 and where the five Arctic ships were when the storm hit is about 290 nm. If we look at the direction, the course is NNW, which was the wind direction in April 1952. The current in the area is southwesterly. The ships further east (north) in the West Ice are estimated to have drifted about two degrees of latitude, or 120 nm, during the storm. Farther south, the wind was stronger and the drift was probably even greater.

When the wind disappeared, and the ships did not have the engine power to go against the weather, the alternative was to turn the ship and hide away from the weather. The skippers did not like this, it was dangerous with the open ships, in the enormous sails and hurricane-force winds. All five ships that sank were open under the galley deck.

First gunner Karsten Brandal on "Buskø" said in conversation with skipper Aksnes on "Furunak" on the morning of April 4 that "now we are covering up". That was the last that was heard from "Buskø".

For a schooner that blurs away in this storm, it is reasonable to believe that it maintained a speed of at least 5 knots, maybe more. If we compare it with "Arild", it went faster. Let's assume that the ship moved at a speed of 5 knots for 18 hours on 4 April, around the clock on 5 April and then capsized in the afternoon on 6 April. Then we are at the discovery site. (18×5, 24×5, 16×5 = 290) Total 290 nm. This is a game with numbers, at the same time it seems that this is possible.

Another scenario is that the ship sank, but did not sink all at once. It was carried by storms, currents and winds for a considerable distance before sinking.

The discovery site is approximately where the ice limit for "distributed ice" was in the first days of April in 1952.

Many ships have sunk in the Vesterisen, both before and after 1952. In that case, most likely from an earlier shipwreck. There is less knowledge about the shipwreck positions before the Second World War.

No one can today confirm that the find is the wreck of one of the ships from 1952. The rails with blubber on them indicate a Vestis ship. Based on the position of the ships when the storm came, the wind direction, the current direction and the knowledge that "Arild", which escaped, came down the Denmark Strait, it strengthens the theory that this can be one of the 1952 ships.

To further establish the possibility that this is one of the ships from 1952, the steering wheel that was taken up is the first thing that can help the case further. It is so special that the hope is that someone can remember if there was such a thing on board one or more of the five ships. Furthermore, the pieces of the hull can/must be analyzed both visually and with C14 analysis.

More about the Easter Hurricane of 1952:

https://www.ishavsmuseet.no/blogger/paskeorkanen-i-vesterisen-1952/