Origin:
After Karl I, 1823-91, King of Württemberg, Germany, 1864-91. The islands were probably seen for the first time in 1617 by the English whaler Thomas Edge and called Wiches Land (after Richard Wiche, see Wichebukta). This discovery was, however, forgotten. In 1853 the islands were sighted from Edgeøya by a sealing skipper from Tønsberg, Norway, E. Eriksen, who then mistook it for Giles Land (see Kvitøya). On July 27, 1859 he sailed east of Edgeøya, and discovered the present Svenskøya, where he effected the first landing in the archipelago. He also sighted in the northeast the present Kongsøya. A few days earlier the island had been seen by Elling Carlsen of Tromsø, Norway. In 1872 Nils Johansen of Tromsø landed on the islands, and the skippers J. Altmann and J. Nilsen of Hammerfest, Norway, were near Kong Karls Land the same summer. On the basis of their observations professor H. Mohn of the University of Oslo, Norway constructed the first map of the archipelago. The islands were mapped later during Nathorst's expedition in 1898 by Kjellström and Hamberg and photographed from the air by the Norwegian Svalbard expedition in 1938. Of other visitors to the islands should be mentioned: The Englishman Arnold Pike in 1897, the German "Helgoland" Expedition in 1898 visited Kongsøya, Abeløya and Svenskøya. In 1908-09 a hunting expedition of six men led by Norwegian hunter Anton Eilertsen and equipped by Klaus Andersen of Tromsø, wintered on the central island and bagged about 100 polar bears. In 1930, members of the Norwegian Franz Josef Land Expedition led by G. Horn, were ashore on Abeløya and Kongsøya. In 1936 the expedition of the Svalbard mining inspector, H. Mercoll, visited the islands and put up two huts. The islands consist of rocks of Triassic, Jurassic, and Cretaceous age. Sills and dykes of basalt are of frequent occurrence. Access to the islands is often difficult because of ice. Kong Karl Land was reputed to be a good polar-bear hunting ground. The name König Karl Land was first used by Petermann with reference to Karl I, 1823-91, King of Württemberg 1864-91, Heuglin's and Count Zeil's "Landesfürst". In August 1870 Heuglin and Count Zeil sighted Kong Karl Land from Edgeøya. The map with Heuglin's surveys was constructed by Petermann. The name Giles Land, which the Swedes used in their map, was wrong, according to Petermann, who asserts that this island must be looked for further north. The Norwegian professor, Mohn, also employed the name, Kong Karl Land, but he referred it to Karl XV, 1826-72, King of Norway and Sweden 1859-72, in the last year of whose reign the first landing, as far as was then known, had been made on the islands. In 1872 the millenary of the union of Norway into one kingdom was celebrated, and the Viking king Harald Hårfagre was commemorated at Hårfagrehaugen on Kongsøya. In consideration of what the Norwegians had accomplished in the discovery and exploration of Kong Karls Land, Petermann adopted Mohn's motivation of the name. From England protests were made by captain Sherard Osborne against the new name for the islands which, he maintained, ought to be called Wiches Land. Since 1973 Kong Karls Land has been part of a nature reserve. See also Nordaust-Svalbard naturreservat |
