The Sealbeard (II)

Built under the name "Aspinet" for fishing on the banks of Newfoundland. When the boat was purchased for Norway in 1916, it was renamed "Ullenhaug". Popularly called "The Mandolin" because of its unusually long bow. It was used for a period in freight and fishing.

In 1928 the boat was sold to Herøy and is now being rebuilt to hunt seals. In 1929, after a rather bad trip in the Denmark Strait, it went to East Greenland to hunt musk oxen live. More about this hunt here: https://www.ishavsmuseet.no/blogger/moskus-fra-gronland/

In 1934, the "Sælbarden" was chartered to bring back three expeditions from North-East Greenland: John Giæver's expedition, Governor Helge Ingstad's expedition and Sigurd Tølløfsen's expedition. They also brought with them a new expedition that they were setting out: the Suløya Greenland Expedition. On the way home, they also picked up the Cambridge Expedition on Jan Mayen.

It was a miserable fishing season in the White Sea in 1937. Many ships broke off the seal hunt and went to the West Ice. The "Sælbarden" had to break off due to a leak, and went to Tromsø for repairs. Then they also headed for the West Ice. But here too it was bad, and after having caught only 150 seals, they decided to return to the White Sea. On April 23, they were 4 nautical miles from Gorodetski. Evening and darkness came, in addition to thick fog. But the crew felt safe on the course and went at full speed. But suddenly an observation of land not far ahead and the bow. The order came to hard port rudder, but too late, the ship ran ashore at full speed. The strong current that was in the area turned the ship around, and during this twisting the keel suffered major damage, water gushing in on both sides of the stem. They had gone ashore at low tide and the "Sælbarden" now began to list to starboard as the sea fell.

All the hatches were closed because they were afraid that the ship might completely capsize. Some time after midnight the engines had to be stopped because they no longer had cooling water. With a list of 50 degrees, the deck pumps could no longer be used. At three o'clock in the morning the ship was almost dry with a list of between 70-75 degrees. It gradually righted itself as the sea rose, but the water was already high in the engine before they could start the bilges.

They had to abandon their ships and load the necessary supplies onto the fishing boats. Then they made their way ashore at Gorodetski.

The last time they saw the ship was around 5:00 PM, when the deck was almost level with the sea surface.

After drifting out to sea, the "Sælbarden" sank 7 quarter miles outside Gorodetski Lighthouse, about 400 meters from shore.

In August, a salvage company sent the "Fakstind" to the White Sea to try to salvage the wreck. The masts were sticking out of the sea, and the Russians had been there to hoist their flag on the wreck. At low tide it was only 6 meters deep. But they could tell the ship was a wreck. The hull was shattered and the engine was gone. The only thing "Fakstind" managed to salvage were the masts.