Governor's ship

Too many overwintering birds were Polar Star as a life partner. The one they waved goodbye to when she left, longed for when it was most lonely, cursed when she didn't come, and cheered for when they finally saw her.

Bjarne Nordnes wintered at Gråhuken 1979-80. Polar Star He set ashore in late summer with supplies, tar paper and nails to cover the cabin, and coal to keep the fire going through the winter. He writes in his book With polar bears around the walls that he became a little anxious when he realized that this landing in August was the only visit of Polar Star before winter. Nordnes had hoped to get an oven up north, so that he could bake bread. Now he was sitting with a hundred kilos of flour and a corresponding amount of yeast, but nothing to bake the bread with. It was heading towards a winter with a lot of porridge.

It could just as easily have been. The autumn was rough and stormy, and it seemed impossible for a ship to reach Gråhuken. Bjarne Nordnes writes:

"On Wednesday, October 31, I got up at eight o'clock. I opened the gunwale and looked out. Boat! I splashed cold water on my face and looked out again. Yes, the boat was still there. Boat at Gråhuken on October 31, almost two weeks into the dark, and the sea was perfectly still – for the first time in a month. What luck! It was dark outside, but I was sure it was the governor's boat." Polar Star of Ålesund who had arrived. I flashed my flashlight a few times through the hatch, after which I got dressed and went out. Before I reached the shore, they had put the light boat on the water.

The governor's officer Neverdal and two of the crew came ashore. They had the boat full of mailbags. And there are more on board, said one of the men. It was a day of surprises.

Polar Star had arrived here already at two o'clock in the morning, but they had not wanted to wake me. They had sailed back and forth on the fjord until it was so late in the morning that I gave signs of life. One can say that this is to have respect for the peace of the night. But what such a visit means to someone who spends the winter in the northern wastelands, only those who have experienced it understand.”

The crew gained great respect for the winterers. This choice to go to bed alone, solitary and isolated, in the dark, with a dog or two for company only. The cabins were small and unimpressive. Polar Star They both put the equipment ashore in the fall and picked it up again in the early summer of the following year. The engineer Per Larsen said it this way:

– When they came back on board and had a shower, yes, I think that did them good, they smelled good of blubber…

It was with good reason that the Governor demanded both new curtains and a wardrobe. Polar Star. The skipper and crew quickly felt the contrast of blood and blubber on the fishing grounds. Suddenly they had both royalty and politicians on board, people they otherwise only knew from television. No wonder the client wanted both a confidentiality agreement and a photo ban. There were the Church Committee, the Justice Committee and the Foreign Affairs Committee from the Storting, there were crown princes, ministers, NATO groups and British embassy staff, there were Supreme Court judges, state pollution inspectors and environmental protection councils.

And many of them had to go out into the most remote, desolate places to experience the wilderness. So in July 1980, wintering Bjarne Nordnes was visited by the entire environmental committee at the Storting when he was to be picked up back to civilization by Polar Star. 17 members of parliament with a dream of seeing polar bears in the tundra, writes Nordnes. He just wanted an angry teddy bear to appear, so that there would be some momentum in the parliamentary committee and he could get a good film shot. But unfortunately no bear came. Walrus, on the other hand, got to experience the people's choice, together with Nordnes:

"Long before we reached Moffen, we saw through our binoculars that there were walruses on some ice floes, we also saw animals frolicking in the water. From Moffen and northwards the sea was covered in ice. But we found an opening by the beach, so much so that we came ashore in the light boat."

While we were still on board the Polar Star, someone asked if there was a chance of seeing polar bears on Moffen. Of course there was, I thought, as much ice as there was. And it wasn't that long ago that I had been visited by bears on Gråhuken. The Minister of Environmental Protection then called out to the skipper, who was standing on the bridge: 'We should probably bring a man with a gun ashore.' The skipper then called out to me: 'You, Nordnes, probably have a gun in your hand, can't you bring it ashore?' But the only gun that wasn't packed was the saloon gun, for which I had no ammunition. I brought that ashore, to everyone's satisfaction. Fortunately, we didn't encounter any bears.

A herd of walruses put on a show right by the beach for a whole hour, to everyone's delight. He who led the rubber dinghy between Polar Star and the beach, got to run a slalom between walrus tusks and icebergs.

In this slalom race, it was sailor Rolf Nakken who excelled. In Svalbard Post was voted the drama of the year: The light boat full of Storting representatives was at the edge of its seat when a herd of 8-10 walruses began to show great interest in the boat. All it took was full throttle to get away. The huge beasts could easily overturn the boat if they came close to it.”

The visit of the Foreign Affairs Committee in 1984 was also memorable. There were some of the elected representatives who took good care of what was being exported. Per Larsen, chief engineer, is bound by confidentiality, and then the quote from him is as follows:

– Alcohol was the first thing they craved when they came on board… got drunk all the time… drank themselves to death and fell asleep on the mess bench… he alone, when they gave the acceptance speech, sat there drunk with nothing but lewd remarks… We were all going ashore on an islet there, but he wasn’t going ashore. But when he heard there was cognac, wow, he was the first man on the boat. So it was basically funny…

Alcohol was not entirely foreign to cultural exchange in Svalbard either. Polar Star was fairly new to the service when the Governor sent his ship to a Norwegian-Soviet football match in Pyramiden in late summer 1979. The Soviet Union won 2-1, but that did not dampen the mood upon departure. But when they ran aground as soon as they left the dock, there was panic, reported Svalbard PostIt was the second time in a few weeks that the governor's ship had been unlucky on such a welfare mission. During a tourist exchange in Barentsburg in July, she had become stuck in the ice.

This time they were standing until the tide lifted them off, and the good atmosphere in the lounge was back in place. The local newspaper speculated that there was probably some Russian drink from the hosts in Pyramiden in the picture. “There was singing, accordion, guitar – and a comb! So even though the boat was lying heavy in the sea and was half full of water, some people thought it was sad that the trip didn’t last longer,” it said.

But the ground shaking was so severe that Polar Star Had to go to Harstad for repairs.

Maintaining contact with the Soviet community in Svalbard was an important part of the Governor's task, and thus also for the Governor's ship. The Governor had an office day in Barentsburg every week, if possible, and it was mostly Polar Star who transported him. And the cultural exchanges were funded by the public budget.

The crew traded, too. If you had a little to trade, you could get as much Russian vodka as you wanted, assures Per Larsen.

And they were well-mannered people they met:

– When we came up to that cultural center there, or whatever we should call it, it was full of people, but they always got up when we came and were about to sit down.

In 1982, so many people took part in the Sunday trip to Barentsburg that Polar Star had to make double trips. The school band and gymnasts had to travel down Saturday evening and return early Sunday. Svalbard Post reported:

"The disappointment that they had to go home before the banquet soon subsided when they were served dinner on board the Polar Star and relax after a tiring day.

But if the attendance at the banquet was reduced, it became correspondingly longer for those who had to wait until Polar Star came back. Over five hours of lots of food, both canned and live music, and of course plenty of drinks, created a great atmosphere and extensive fraternization. There was also a lot of bartering on Sunday evening, and several samovars were included in the luggage back to Longyearbyen.”

The local newspaper rarely reported anything other than that this gathering was a great success, outstanding and successful. But festive boat trips could also be challenging. Seasickness took many people away from the fun. One year, Polar Star take an extra turn to pick up the helmet of one of the musicians who had bent over the line. Many stood bent over, but most managed to take off their headgear first.

The fall of 1984 was Polar Star at the quay in Barentsburg when a 43-year-old Soviet citizen contacted the crew of the boat one Friday afternoon and asked to speak to the Governor. The ship was in Barentsburg in connection with a meeting between the coal company Store Norske and the Soviet Trust Arktikugol, which was being held there.

There was no doubt about what the man wanted. When he learned that the Governor himself was not on the trip, he asked to go with him to Longyearbyen to talk to him personally there. The man was from Moscow and married, but had no children. He was an oceanographer and came to Polar Star straight from the research ship where he worked.

Polar Star took him to Longyearbyen, but kept a close eye on him the whole way. That's how special and unclear it all was. The crew stood guard while he was on board. At the governor's office he was questioned, and there he explained that he wanted to defect for both personal and political reasons. He also had the opportunity to speak with the consul in Barentsburg and the captain of the research ship he belonged to.

After the interrogation, he was flown to Oslo. What happened to him afterwards was unclear.

Svalbard Post concluded his note about the defection thus: “There are now four Soviet citizens and two Poles who have defected to Svalbard in recent years.”

While Norwegian-Soviet joint trips in Barentsburg and Pyramiden and class trips to Ny-Ålesund were considered welfare measures for Norwegians in Svalbard, most others with transportation needs had to pay to use the governor's ship. The governor - not unnaturally - set a higher price for renting out the vessel than he himself paid to the shipping company. The last year Polar Star was in service, it cost 32,800 kroner per day or 1370 kroner per hour to operate the ship.

And there were many people in need of such short-term rentals. The annual report after the first season with Polar Star says that the ship had been rented out for a total of 430 hours: the Norwegian Televerket, the University of Bergen, Oakham School (a British junior school), the coal companies Store Norske and Kings Bay, the Norwegian Teachers' Association, the Norwegian State Labour Inspectorate, Svalbard Airport and several private Norwegian companies.

At the same time, the Governor's ship was a standby vessel, and the Governor set limits on how far away the ship could be at any one time. He wanted to be sure that she could interrupt assignments for others at short notice. Certain official tasks were also prioritized over others. When the Norwegian Polar Institute, for example, wanted to rent Polar Star for a fire inspection for a week in 1984, the Governor had to say no when the Foreign Affairs Committee in the Storting announced a visit.

An exception of sorts was the Forecast Service for Northern Norway. The meteorologists were allowed to rent the ship twice a year to transport people and equipment between Tromsø and the stations in the north. A summer trip in July and an autumn trip in September-October. The autumn trip was important. Then the overwintering meteorologists were given vegetables and potatoes and frozen goods. The freezing capacity at the stations was limited, and it was desirable to fill up as late as possible.

The Vervarslinga also demanded direct shipping from Tromsø to Bjørnøya and Hopen. Supplies were not to go via Longyearbyen. “Who will monitor customs goods such as alcohol, beer and various stereo systems? All of this is highly valued in Longyearbyen,” it said in the correspondence from the Vervarslinga, which more than suggested that people in the town could not be trusted.

There was also plenty of drinks in the cargo. A cargo map for Bjørnøya one year said, among other things, that in addition to technical equipment and other provisions, there were to be upwards of 1200 bottles of wine and spirits and 330 cases of beer and mineral water. A total of 25 cubic meters of alcohol.

When the Governor talked about preparedness and was careful about sending Polar Star on private missions too far from home, not least with regard to rescue operations. Almost every year there were vessels that got into trouble and needed assistance. Then it was the Governor who they contacted for help. And ideally, Polar Star then lie by the quay in Longyearbyen and immediately go out from there.

Like when a whaling boat had its engine stalled outside Kvädehuken on a Sunday in June 1981 and the Governor asked for help over Svalbard Radio. Then Polar Star in Longyearbyen, and skipper Ingolf Røren had the ship and crew on their way to the casualty within 45 minutes of the radio warning. Kvadehuken is located near the entrance to Kongsfjorden further north on Spitsbergen. Polar Star arrived after ten hours, got a tug on board and took the whaleboat to Ny-Ålesund. But attempts there to repair the engine were unsuccessful, and Polar Star had to
tow the boat south to wait for new engine parts, sent by plane from the mainland. Bad weather caused the tow to break down en route. It took a day to get the casualty to Longyearbyen.

This rescue operation also had a fundamental significance. The contract with the Governor was not clear enough on the issue of salvage wages. The Karlsen shipping company managed to reach an agreement with the owner of the whaleboat for 100,000 kroner for the operation. However, both the Ministry of Justice and the Governor believed that such a payment could not be demanded since Polar Star was in the service of the Governor and assistance was an important task for a governor's boat. After a few rounds with a lawyer, Karlsen agreed to this as part of the agreement for Polar Star. The owner of the casualty thus escaped having to pay the Governor 27,000 kroner after the rental rate and the hours the rescue operation had taken.

Another kind of accident ruined the Christmas peace for Polar Star the following year. The contract with the Governor was routinely concluded at Christmas, and in such a way that the ship and crew returned south in time to reach home for the holidays. In 1982 they had left Longyearbyen early on Christmas Eve and had arrived nine hours towards the mainland when the alarm went off.

It was the Governor's helicopter that had crashed. It was on a pre-Christmas trip to various fishing stations and was about to land in front of the cabin of the famous fisherman Harald Solberg when the pilot made a mistake on the height above the ice. Solberg was staying at Kapp Wijk northeast of Isfjorden. There was no radio contact with Longyearbyen, and it was several hours before the helicopter was reported missing and Store Norske's plane was sent into the search. When the casualty was located, the weather conditions were so difficult that the sea route was the only option.

Så Polar Star turned around and made it back in record time. On Christmas Eve morning, they were left at the quay in Longyearbyen to board the second helicopter the Governor had at his disposal and head into the Isfjord. But the weather improved, and the helicopter was able to make its way to Kapp Wijk on its own and pick up the two pilots and three passengers. Only one of them had to go to hospital for treatment. And they had all had a memorable day together with the prisoner Solberg in his cabin.

On board Polar Star They improvised Christmas celebrations in the best way possible.

“We ate the Christmas steak by the fjord there,” says Per Larsen.

The contract with the Governor was for one year at a time. And every year there were many demands on the shipping company for improvements and structural changes. But it was clear that the Governor would eventually look for another vessel. In 1988, the Ministry chose to enter into a five-year contract with Polar Circle from Rieber Shipping.

Then had Polar Star was the governor's ship for eight years. The fact that she would not get a ninth year aroused strong reactions in both Brandal and Hareid. And mayor Johan E. Hareide wrote an emotional letter to the Ministry of Justice on behalf of the ship, the shipowners' association and the local community.

The mayor pointed to both the good experiences the Governor had had with a stable ship and a skilled crew, the fate of the sealing industry, and the danger of disappearing expertise and recruitment base. When the ship is now seen outside, Hareide wrote, it could mean the end of a traditional environment in the municipality and the Arctic village of Brandal in particular, and the end of an active industry in the Arctic regions for more than three generations.

We cannot sit back and accept the decision that is before us, wrote the mayor, we must have direct knowledge of why the decision had to be made. Because, he wrote, both the ship and the crew and the shipping company are so much a part of our community in the municipality, and known throughout coastal Norway northwards.

This is how Mayor Johan E. Hareide concluded his letter: “In our perspective, this matter is not just about a traditional shipping company, a ship and jobs on board. It may involve destroying the last of the expectations for a distinctive industry; which required so much human sacrifice and material effort in a coastal community – and which contributed so much to local living conditions far beyond, and to resource utilization and increased knowledge and understanding of the values ​​of the Arctic Ocean areas.”

The response from the ministry came quickly, but said nothing more than that it was the Storting and the government that this time wanted a public competition for the assignment, and that the change of vessel was not due to dissatisfaction with how the shipping company had performed the task.

Per Larsen (b. 1928) was chief engineer on Polar Star these years and have tried to understand how this developed and why Polar Star lost the lucrative contract:

– No. It was okay… there was a bit of a fuss with Polar Star, behind the mess. They didn't say early on in the game that it was going to be rebuilt, the mess moved all the way forward where the chief cabin was. It would have been a completely different boat. It was quiet and peaceful there. Back in the mess there was too much noise and vibration. It was terribly difficult to talk there when you were going under speed. If they had done this, they might have been able to keep the contract a little longer.

– Yeah, they weren't exactly known for spending money beyond what was strictly necessary, were they?

– No. And the one who spent the least money, it was actually Holstad. He didn't want to be involved in anything, he. Then he was actually much more capable, Martin. If we asked Martin enough, we got it. You know, we replaced the doors in the wheelhouse, and that was the soul of the boat that went its way, Holstad said…

– Yes, those were the teak doors that you saw through.

– Yes, and you know, they're all good. But he was a kind man, that Holstad. Oh my God. Maybe too kind. I never experienced that when a sailor stood on deck and told him to keep his mouth shut in the wheelhouse, he kept his mouth shut in the wheelhouse, he. And it didn't get out when the skipper kept his mouth shut.

– No, but Gjerde, and he had now been with different people, said that Holstad was the kindest and most honest person who had been a skipper there.

– Yes, he was, okay, he was Holstad.