No abstract

A group of 17 Norwegian sealers died in Svenskhuset, the Swedish House at Kapp Thordsen, Spitsbergen during the winter and spring of 1872–1873. The Swedish House was built by a mining company, but was left deserted as there were poor prospects for mining in the area. The house was well stocked with food, fuel and hunting gear. The death of these men has been a mystery for 135 years although the usual interpretation has been that they died from scurvy. In an effort to challenge this historical diagnosis, the authors applied for permission to open the graves to sample the bone for lead analysis, and, if possible, to examine the skeletons for evidence of scurvy. This was granted. No objective signs of scurvy were found. The level of lead in bone, however, was very high, indicating that lead poisoning very probably played a part in the tragedy. This article reveals the historical facts behind the tragedy, the excavation of the sealers’ graves in 2008, and presents a discussion of the medical evidence.

No abstract

Stephen Burrough's voyage on board Serchethrift to northern Russia and Novaya Zemlya in 1556 is a standard reference point in general surveys of polar exploration. Unfortunately, for centuries its route in Russian waters has been garbled, due to a too literal reading of the term ‘Cola River,’ used by Burrough as the name of the first harbour he sought in Russia. Where was Burrough's Cola River? Determining its location is not at all as simple as it seems. More than a hundred years ago a Russian historian maintained most emphatically that this was not the Kola River (Reka Kola), which empties at Kola town, not far from present-day Murmansk, but Kuloy River (Reka Kuloy) in the Bay of Mezen, on the eastern coast of the White Sea. This article examines this question, which is significant because where Cola River is placed on the map clearly has repercussions for how the information contained in Burrough's travel account should be interpreted.