Magdalenefjorden is an 8 km long and up to 5 km wide fjord

Fjord

Geologically, a fjord is a long, narrow inlet with steep sides or cliffs, created in a valley carved by glacial activity.-Formation:A fjord is formed when a glacier cuts a U-shaped valley by abrasion of the surrounding bedrock. Glacial melting is accompanied by rebound of Earth's crust as the ice...

 between Reuschhalvøya and Hoelhalvøya, Albert I Land

Albert I Land

Albert I Land is the land area of the northwestern part of Spitsbergen, Svalbard, bordering to Haakon VII Land.The area is named after Albert I, Prince of Monaco.Albert I Land is the part of Spitsbergen that was first observed by Willem Barentz in 1596...

, on the west coast of Spitsbergen

Spitsbergen

Spitsbergen is the largest and only permanently populated island of the Svalbard archipelago in Norway. Constituting the western-most bulk of the archipelago, it borders the Arctic Ocean, the Norwegian Sea and the Greenland Sea...

, the largest island in the Svalbard

Svalbard

Svalbard is an archipelago in the Arctic, constituting the northernmost part of Norway. It is located north of mainland Europe, midway between mainland Norway and the North Pole. The group of islands range from 74° to 81° north latitude , and from 10° to 35° east longitude. Spitsbergen is the...

 archipelago.

History

William Barents was the first to explore Magdalenefjorden in 1596. Here he found walrus tusks, which caused him to name the fjord Tusk Bay. The English

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 explorer and whaler

Whaler

A whaler is a specialized ship, designed for whaling, the catching and/or processing of whales. The former included the whale catcher, a steam or diesel-driven vessel with a harpoon gun mounted at its bows. The latter included such vessels as the sail or steam-driven whaleship of the 16th to early...

 Robert Fotherby

Robert Fotherby

Robert Fotherby was an early 17th century English explorer and whaler. From 1613 to 1615 he worked for the Muscovy Company, and from 1615 until his death for the East India Company.-Family Ties:...

 entered the fjord in 1614, claiming it for King James I of England

James I of England

James VI and I was King of Scots as James VI from 24 July 1567 and King of England and Ireland as James I from the union of the English and Scottish crowns on 24 March 1603...

 and naming it Maudlen Sound, and the small, sheltered bay on its southern shore Trinity Harbor. The English subsequently established a whaling

Whaling

Whaling is the hunting of whales mainly for meat and oil. Its earliest forms date to at least 3000 BC. Various coastal communities have long histories of sustenance whaling and harvesting beached whales...

 station in Trinity Harbor, on what is now called Gravneset. It was later taken over by the Dutch

Netherlands

The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...

. The remains of four blubber ovens or furnaces have been found on Gravneset, as well as a graveyard

Graveyard

A graveyard is any place set aside for long-term burial of the dead, with or without monuments such as headstones...

 containing about 130 graves dating from the 17th to the late 18th century.

The Dutchman Joris Carolus

Joris Carolus

Joris Carolus was a Dutch cartographer and explorer. He served for both the Noordsche Compagnie and the Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie .-Career:...

(1614) was the first to label the fjord Mari mag. bay. Abraham Goos (1620) called it Magdalenen sond, and Guljelmus Cæsius (1622) S. Maria Magdalene sond.