An unfortunate autumn

Together with an older Tromsø boat, Nordhop , Polarstar was chartered when Total was to start test drilling in 1971. The French were pleasant people, said Kolbjørn Nesset:

– Except that they had to have bread for every single meal, and it had to be bread! They also had to only have the white part of the bread, the crusts were left on the table, often with a cigarette butt in them. Something that irritated me, who was stowed away on board.

The oil explorers had otherwise planned poorly for an autumn stay at 74 degrees north. They had nothing but singlets for underwear. As the temperature dropped, the price of Norwegian undergarments rose. Around minus eight, a bottle of three-star cognac cost a set of long-sleeved shirts. New or old. It was good business for the crew of the Polarstar , because they picked up new Frenchmen with bad underwear from the mainland several times.

The last time they also had four guys from the Norwegian Ministry of Industry, who were supposed to approve the start of drilling on Edgeøya.

The helicopter was operated by Mørefly. It was November, and the ship was ready to head south again. Return cargo to the mainland was on board. All that remained was to fly in the next morning and pick up the last crate and get the four from the ministry back on board.

It was very cold at night. When the mechanic started the helicopter to warm it up in the early morning, the oil was thick and stiff and the engine reacted slowly. As both Kolbjørn Nesset and Rolf Nakken have told it, the mechanic did not immediately notice that the helicopter began to slide forward on the platform while he was holding on to the stick. The platform was icy, and the rotor blade hit a mast strut and then one of the davits. The helicopter then overturned over the railing.

The mechanic got out, while gasoline was starting to flow from the helicopter onto the deck and into the gutters. Because of the cold, all the drain holes were clogged. The situation was extremely dangerous. The gasoline was leaking on board, and all it took was a spark to cause a major accident. The ice wasn't strong enough to carry people, either, if they jumped overboard.

There was only one thing to do, to get the helicopter overboard. Within minutes, people had arrived from all sides of the ship, and together they managed to push the machine over the railing and into the sea, where it disappeared.

After also removing the fuel, Polarstar headed straight south to board a new helicopter in Tromsø, so they could pick up those who were still waiting at the base in Tjuvfjorden.

But Mørefly had no more machines, and it was so late in the year that others were reluctant to join them north to fly in the dark. One company, Helilift, nevertheless said they were willing to try. With the new helicopter on board, Polarstar went north once more. And as the last boat this year, they brought the Christmas mail. After visiting Bjørnøya, they set off for Edgeøya. There was a full storm in the area, and this storm had torn out masses of ice and sent it south from Storfjorden.

Polarstar had no choice but to turn and bail out of the weather. Until they were eventually 50-60 kilometers south of Bjørnøya again. High seas and really bad weather, said Kolbjørn Nesset. The sea tore the helicopter's fastenings loose, and Nesset and Rolf Nakken had to go back and tie it back down, as best they could in the storm. They wrapped a strap around the rotor and tightened it down to the deck.

When the pilot saw it the next day, he said that he would never fly that helicopter again. Because the rotor shaft could not withstand such downward pressure. So the only thing left to do was to continue towards Tromsø, and land the helicopter and pilot again.

This time Total chose to bring its own helicopter from France. It arrived at Andøya by transport plane and was assembled and placed on board Polarstar . At the same time, a message came from the base on Edgeøya that they had destroyed several of the power generators and needed to have a serviceman go north if they were to be able to winter. The serviceman arrived, and the ship headed north once more.

Along the way, they received sad news: One of the telegraph operators on Bjørnøya had been taken by a polar bear.

The man had been out routinely to read some samples a short distance from the station. Between the two points there was a wire stretched that they could follow the 800 meters in the dark. The man had gone there with a dog. When the dog returned alone, the others became suspicious and went to look for the telegrapher. They found only his remains.

– This affected us a bit, because we now knew the people and thought this was very tragic for everyone, said Kolbjørn Nesset.

Further north, Polarstar encountered a lot of ice again. This time, skipper Kåre Stokkeholm asked the French helicopter pilot to start the engine and go up to find a place for them. They were so far north that there was barely any light in the middle of the day. The pilot went up, reached 100 meters before he put the helicopter back down on the deck and said: It is not possible to fly here anymore. He saw nothing.

The ice became denser and denser, with drifts of a few meters. Finally, Polarstar was stuck. And there was no help to be had. Not even a Russian icebreaker could they find.

But the weather was nice, and the polar bear was strolling along the side of the ship. So the French serviceman, who had important business on Edgeøya, was certainly excited.

The ship was stuck for three weeks before Norvarg interrupted its work of breaking ice for the coal boats in Isfjorden and came to assist. With her as assistance, Polarstar got free. But reaching the Total base was out of the question. Instead, the ship had the ice sprayed and a temporary landing strip smoothed out for two small planes from Ny-Ålesund, so that those waiting inside the base could be flown out and over to Longyearbyen. There they were given a ride south on a coal boat.

In Tromsø, all equipment from the expedition had been put ashore. Among other things, a light boat that had been borrowed from Rieber was to be put ashore again at the Rieber facility on the Tromsdal side, close to the bridge.

This was a Saturday. There were no people at the facility who could accommodate them, and Kolbjørn Nesset has told us that they probably misjudged the situation:

– To cross and go across the Tromsø Strait in the strongest current, that was not something they did, the people of Tromsø. Because the current under the bridge here was going at a speed of 5-6 kilometers.

But the skipper chose to go, and they got so far that they were almost moored to one of the bollards on the quay. But they missed, and the ship drifted away in the strong current.

The ship lay on its side, and at great speed it headed towards the Tromsø Bridge. Skipper Stokkeholm tried to right her with what he had in the engine. Full speed ahead, but it was useless. And too late.

Polarstar went straight into one of the users and lay down.

When the current subsided and the sea turned, tugboats arrived and took the ship to the dock.

To stick to Kolbjørn Nesset: – People came from both the Norwegian Road Administration and others, and there was a lot of confusion with the sea declaration. So that was basically the end of the trip.