Arctic veteran Tormod Jensen drew a full house at the Ishavsmuseet

The trip started from Tromsø on June 26, with a stop in Tromvik before heading to Storfjorden west of the Tusenøyane Islands in Svalbard. There were 7 men on the crew this trip. They were met by a lot of ice in the area which made fishing difficult. As the ice loosened, harbor seals and polar bears were caught.

Despite the difficult ice conditions, they have caught 147 harbor seals and 50 ringed seals. The crew has also shot 27 polar bears. In a cage on deck, they have two polar bear cubs that are going to Carl Hagenbeck's zoo in Hamburg.

As the ice gradually loosened, MK "Forland" passed through Heleysundet, or Orm-hølet as the fishermen called it. On the morning of July 19, a large iceberg drifted and hit MK "Forland". The foot of the iceberg had entered the engine room and the vessel was completely destroyed. There was no time to send out a distress signal, and the vessel was abandoned. They salvaged five Krag-Jørgensen rifles, 500 rifle rounds, a shotgun and 100 shotgun cartridges. Rifles and ammunition are important. They can get food when their provisions are used up. They do not know when or if they will be rescued.

Skipper Werner Wilhelmsen has given orders that no one is allowed to go down into the cabin anymore. If the ice suddenly lets go, the damaged ship will sink like a stone.

A grueling journey across the land ice began, where the lifeboat was dragged across the ice for 17 hours. Here was a cabin that Tormod was familiar with from the previous year. They stayed in that cabin for 11 days before trying to go north into the Hindlopen Strait.

After 11 days, with uncertainty about most things, the ice lightened enough for them to continue.

But where should they set their course? Skipper Werner Wilhelmsen knows that there are people further north in Svalbard. In connection with the International Geophysical Year, a Nordic station has been established in the Murcisonfjord in Nordaustlandet.

To get there, they have to go north through the infamous Hinlopen Strait. It turns out to be impossible. The ice is too compact. They turn around, go ashore on Bastianøya and make a shelter in the spring. There they light a large fire that they guard in shifts throughout the night.

They planned to row south through Heleysundet. The rowing trips lasted from 15 to 29 hours. Food was scarce, they shot 2 reindeer and a seal. The steward had brought 2 cases of beer and 50 kg of wheat flour. He used beer as a leavening agent when baking bread.

It is August 7, 1958. 19 days have passed since the "Forland" was crushed by the ice. Sooner or later they will reach the Poles in Hornsund, they believe. There is no indication that anyone has started looking for them.

When conditions allow, they try to sail. But most of the time they have to row. Water blisters and sprained limbs are the result.

On August 9th they reach the southern tip of Svalbard where they have to seek refuge and take shelter in a cabin due to strong winds. The engineer, Olav Wilhelmsen, is diligently looking out the window. Maybe they will be lucky enough to see other trawlers or fishing boats there.

The rescue is out there, but there is no indication that the crew is paying attention to the shipwrecked crew on shore.

The men rekindle a large fire, but the Arctic Ocean fog blocks visibility. Skipper Werner Wilhelmsen decides that they should go out to the fishing boats themselves. They pack up their equipment and row out from shore.

– If they leave without discovering us, it's Bjørnøya next, says the skipper.

The luck was that the fishing boats remained calm. The men from "Forland" docked at "Andholmen" from Bø in Vesterålen.

On board, a 15-year-old man is keeping watch on the anchor while the rest of the crew sleeps, exhausted after several days of fishing. The young man hears a commotion along the side of the ship, and suddenly sees some dirty and ugly men coming aboard. The man immediately runs down to the cabin and slams the doors behind him. Perhaps because he thought it was "the other man" himself who had stepped over the railing, but perhaps also to wake the others.

“We have a small farm in here,” joked Bjørn Schwenke to the frightened anchorman.

It had been 25 days since the "Forland" sank. Now it was agreed that the Governor's boat "Nordsyssel" would pick up the men and take them to Longyearbyen.

Afterwards, it emerged that an ice pilot on assignment for the Norwegian Polar Institute had attempted to launch a search operation for "Forland".

After the lecture, there was a real "cod feast" in the museum café, where the steward had prepared several large pots of fresh cod with liver, roe and scallops. A total of 80 people took advantage of the offer and had a cod dinner after the lecture.