The Ishavsmuseet was too small

Unique movie

Børre Grønningsæter was the first speaker, and he said that it was his grandfather, Bernhard Grønningsæter, who owned and operated Bolsønes Verft when "Polarbjørn" was contracted at the shipyard. Børre's father Arne, and his brother Odd, took over the operation of the shipyard in 1950. Børre's father was an avid hobby photographer. Both stills and 35mm film. He had filmed the film about the construction of "Polarbjørn" in its entirety. During the polar evening on Friday, Ishavsmuseet and Grønningsæter negotiated an agreement that will make this unique film available for viewing at Ishavsmuseet later this year.

Børre grew up and wore his childhood shoes at Bolsønes, and then worked there until the bankruptcy in 1984. Incidentally, the film about "Polarbjørn" was missing for many years. It was found behind a bookshelf when my father was moving to an apartment in his old age, Børre said. We then had the film transferred to VHS, and I got my father to read the comments on the film. Even though the owner of "Polarbjørn" bargained quite heavily when the ship was finished, there was still a fairly impressive percentage surplus for the shipyard.

17 years old and third year crew.

John Giæver had traveled from Oslo that evening to tell about his last trip with the ship. John was a member of the crew for the last three summer expeditions with the "Polar Bear", and on this trip he was 17 years old. John also stopped by a special event he had been a part of the previous year.

In 1956, the "Polarbjørn" was in the area south of Myggbukta when the news came that the "Jopeter" had been found in good condition in a fjord on Trailøya. There, the "Polarbjørn" entered into a pure race with the Danish naval cutter "Teisten" to reach the "Jopeter" first. It was also important to be first in order to claim the right of way. But the "Polarbjørn" lost that race. A tense situation arose when those responsible on the "Teisten" wanted to forcefully prevent Giæver and Marø from boarding the "Jopeter". Among other things, threats were made with weapons. But the conflict was resolved, and the "Melshorn" came to tow "Jopeter" home.

Shipwreck

"Polarbjørn" got into trouble and sank in an ice floe outside Myggbukta in Northwestern Greenland in August 1957. The ship was then on the annual relief expedition for the Norwegian Polar Institute, Arctic Business AS and Hermann Andresen's expedition. John Giæver was the expedition leader and Bernt A. Brandal was the skipper, the chief engineer was John E. Storøy. Before the lecture, Storøy and Giæver got to know each other again.

On their way out of the Greenland ice sheet, "Polar Bear" received a message that they had to turn around and go back to land to pick up one of the winterers who had developed problems. Because of this, "Polar Bear" was heavily loaded and lost a lot of time. Perhaps this contributed to the worsening of the situation and they encountered a different ice situation on their way out the second time.

The parish priest filmed

On the trip they had several passengers. One of them was the then parish priest in Ålesund, later bishop of Tromsø, Monrad Norderval. Norderval had brought a film camera and filmed the sinking. Giæver showed this film at the Ishavsmuseet on Friday. There was little drama in the film. The ship lay nicely in the ice and the weather was great. What the film did not show was that where it lay, the hull pressed in by the ice, it took in 45.000 liters of water per hour. After a while this decreased to 15.000 liters and the pumps were able to keep it that way. But there was no way to salvage the ship, and the ice was too thick for others to get in.

American rescue

Passengers and crew were picked up by an American helicopter stationed in Greenland. The helicopter was stationed in Thule, but was transported in a larger transport plane to the airport in Mestervig. The helicopter flew from there and picked up the people from the "Polar Bear" from the ice. They had to fly three times before everyone was evacuated to land. No one was allowed to take more than a maximum of five kilograms on the helicopter, but Giæver could tell that many had put on a lot of weight before the flight, in the form of wearing three pairs of pants and seven shirts.

Before they left Brandal, John had borrowed a good camera from the owner Peter Karlsen. This was used extensively, but when the "Polar Bear" ran into trouble, it was out of film. From one of the crew on the American helicopter, Giæver had received a Kodak positive color film and had received help in mounting and setting up the camera. Giæver was able to take 36 photos from the evacuation, and he showed these on Friday. Color slide film was brand new, and he had to send the film abroad to have it developed.

After the lecture, a total of 90 people enjoyed salted meat, pork and peas in the museum café. Museum director Webjørn Landmark is overwhelmed by the great interest in the polar night, but at the same time sorry that so many people could not fit in this evening. But unfortunately this is not something we can do anything about, he says. The Ishavsmuseet was simply too small that day.