Smeerenburg

Smeerenburg • Seventeenth century Dutch whaling settlement on Amsterdam Island, Spitsbergen. The name is composed of the Dutch words smeer (fat, oil, blubber) and burg (town), and refers to the rendering of whale oil by boiling blubber. The site was successively occupied by Dutch and Danish whalers.

Country
Norway

County/ Region
Spitsbergen

First use
1619

Map showing the location of Smeerenburg on Amsterdam Island, Spitsbergen.
© Universitetymuseum of Bergen

Associated with

Rendering whale oil at Smeerenburg, painted by Cornelis de Man in 1639.