Smeerenburg

Smeerenburg was a whaling settlement on Amsterdam Island in northwest Svalbard. It was founded by the Danish and Dutch in 1619 as one of Europe's northernmost outposts. With the local bowhead whale population soon decimated and whaling developed into a pelagic industry, Smeerenburg was abandoned about 1660.

During the first intensive phase of the Spitsbergen whale fishery, Smeerenburg served as the centre of operations in the north. The name Smeerenburg is a Dutch word literally meaning "blubber town". The whalers were taking the "Greenland right whale", now known as the bowhead whale, which were then prevalent in Fram Strait. At that time, oil was rendered from whale blubber using try pots on shore, rather than on ships at sea, so the whalers needed a shore station for the try works. The image at right shows the concretised remnants of whale oil that built up around the large copper kettles in which the blubber was rendered. Leftover blubber was used as fuel for the fires.

Wikipedia