Runde
Encyclopedia
Runde is an island in the municipality of Herøy
in Møre og Romsdal
county, Norway
. The island has a population of about 90 people, and it's connected by the Runde Bridge
to the island of Remøya
to the south.
Runde is famous for its enormous amount of birds. It is said that there are about 500,000 to 700,000 seabird
s inhabiting the island, most of them are to be found in the cliffs. The Runde Environmental Centre
is a research station at the bird island.
Runde lies on the west coast of Norway, close to towns like Fosnavåg
, Ulsteinvik
, Volda
, Ørsta
, and Ålesund
. This region of Norway is famous for its long fjord
s and steep, snowclad mountains.
and Spain
, loaded with gold
and silver
.
in Netherlands on 19 January 1725. Akerendam was a part of the Dutch merchant fleet, headed for Batavia (Indonesia
) loaded with gold and silver coins to be used for the trade of spices in the Far East
. The ship got caught in a storm in the North Sea
, and the Akerendam disappeared into the north. The ship went down on the north side of Runde, and the whole crew of 200 was lost at sea. The inhabitants of Runde started to find parts of the ship that was washed up at its shore, including dead crew members.
The wreck site was close to the shore, and during the summer of 1725 four chests and other parts of the cargo were salvaged. But then the divers gave up, and the wreck was forgotten. During the 19th century, locals often found coins at the shore. But the origin was already forgotten, and the findings created the story that the coins was from the Spanish Armada
of the 16th century.
The wreck was discovered in 1972 by sport scuba divers Bengt-Olof Gustafsson (Sweden
), Stefan Persson (Sweden), and Eystein Krohn-Dale (Norway). Under the bottom vegetation of the seabed, the sand bottom was littered with encrusted coins. The following year, the site was investigated by Bergen
Sjøfartsmuseum. Little remained of the ship but more than 500 kilograms (1,102.3 lb) of gold and silver was salvaged. In total about 57,000 coins were found; 6,600 of them being gold coins—mostly the rare 1724 Dutch Gold Ducat
minted in Utrecht
with only a handful known prior to this find, and the rest silver coins. Parts of the treasure are kept at Bergen Sjøfartsmuseum in Bergen and also at the Norwegian Coin Museum in Oslo
.
The finders were allowed to keep two thirds of the treasure, which was later sold to collectors worldwide. The 1724 Utrecht Gold Ducats can command $750 to $1,000 each and are all in uncirculated quality, the highest graded ones are NGC / PCGS MS-63. The Norwegian state received 25% and the Netherlands received 7% of the treasure. This event later initiated a new legislation, making all wrecks older than 100 years automatically protected in Norway.
is a research station on Runde which has 4 main activities: a marine station, a house and hub for small spin-off businesses, an information centre, and a conference/overnight centre with 34 hotel-standard rooms in 8 apartment suites. In 2008, the Runde Tourist office at Runde Environmental Centre was founded.
Herøy, Møre og Romsdal
Herøy is a municipality in Møre og Romsdal county, Norway. It is part of the Sunnmøre region. The administrative centre is the town of Fosnavåg on the island of Bergsøya. The industrial area of Eggesbønes is located south of Fosnavåg on the same island...
in Møre og Romsdal
Møre og Romsdal
is a county in the northernmost part of Western Norway. It borders the counties of Sør-Trøndelag, Oppland and Sogn og Fjordane. The county administration is located in Molde, while Ålesund is the largest city.-The name:...
county, Norway
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
. The island has a population of about 90 people, and it's connected by the Runde Bridge
Runde Bridge
Runde Bridge is a cantilever bridge that crosses the Rundasundet between the islands Remøya and Runde in the municipality of Herøy in Møre og Romsdal county, Norway...
to the island of Remøya
Remøya
Remøya is an island in the municipality of Herøy in Møre og Romsdal county, Norway. The island is located north of the municipal center of Fosnavåg. The island is connected to other islands via a network of bridges. The Remøy Bridge connects it to the island Leinøya and the Runde Bridge connects...
to the south.
Runde is famous for its enormous amount of birds. It is said that there are about 500,000 to 700,000 seabird
Seabird
Seabirds are birds that have adapted to life within the marine environment. While seabirds vary greatly in lifestyle, behaviour and physiology, they often exhibit striking convergent evolution, as the same environmental problems and feeding niches have resulted in similar adaptations...
s inhabiting the island, most of them are to be found in the cliffs. The Runde Environmental Centre
Runde Environmental Centre
Runde Environmental Centre is a research station at the Norwegian island of Runde. The centre has four main activities: a marine station, a house and hub for small spin-off businesses, an information centre, and a conference/overnight centre with 34 hotel-standard rooms in 8 apartment suites. The...
is a research station at the bird island.
Runde lies on the west coast of Norway, close to towns like Fosnavåg
Fosnavåg
is a city in the municipality of Herøy in Møre og Romsdal county, Norway. It is the administrative center of the municipality of Herøy. The city is located on the island of Bergsøya which is connected to Kvalsund on the island of Nerlandsøya via the Nerlandsøy Bridge to the west...
, Ulsteinvik
Ulsteinvik
is the commercial and administrative centre of the municipality of Ulstein in Møre og Romsdal county, Norway. The urban area of Ulsteinvik has a population of 5,251 people. As such, Ulsteinvik contains 74% of the population of the municipality of Ulstein...
, Volda
Volda
Volda is a municipality in Møre og Romsdal county, Norway. It is part of the Sunnmøre region. The administrative centre is the village of Volda. The municipality is located about south of the city of Ålesund.-General information:...
, Ørsta
Ørsta
is a village and municipality in Møre og Romsdal county, Norway. It is part of the Sunnmøre region of Western Norway. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Ørsta...
, and Ålesund
Ålesund
is a town and municipality in Møre og Romsdal county, Norway. It is part of the traditional district of Sunnmøre, and the center of the Ålesund Region. It is a sea port, and is noted for its unique concentration of Art Nouveau architecture....
. This region of Norway is famous for its long 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...
s and steep, snowclad mountains.
Birdlife
| Name | Pairs |
|---|---|
| Atlantic Puffin Atlantic Puffin The Atlantic Puffin is a seabird species in the auk family. It is a pelagic bird that feeds primarily by diving for fish, but also eats other sea creatures, such as squid and crustaceans. Its most obvious characteristic during the breeding season is its brightly coloured bill... |
100,000 |
| Black-legged Kittiwake Black-legged Kittiwake The Black-legged Kittiwake is a seabird species in the gull family Laridae.This species was first described by Linnaeus in his Systema naturae in 1758 as Larus tridactylus.... |
50,000 |
| Common Guillemot Common Guillemot The Common Murre or Common Guillemot is a large auk. It is also known as the Thin-billed Murre in North America. It has a circumpolar distribution, occurring in low-Arctic and boreal waters in the North-Atlantic and North Pacific... |
8,000 |
| Fulmar Fulmar Fulmars are seabirds of the family Procellariidae. The family consists of two extant species and two that are extinct.-Taxonomy:As members of Procellaridae and then the order Procellariiformes, they share certain traits. First, they have nasal passages that attach to the upper bill called... |
5,500 |
| Razorbill Razorbill The Razorbill is colonial seabird that will only come to land in order to breed. It is the largest living member of the Auk family. This agile bird will choose only one partner for life and females will lay one egg per year. Razorbills will nest along coastal cliffs in enclosed or slightly exposed... |
3,000 |
| Northern Gannet Northern Gannet The Northern Gannet is a seabird and is the largest member of the gannet family, Sulidae.- Description :Young birds are dark brown in their first year, and gradually acquire more white in subsequent seasons until they reach maturity after five years.Adults are long, weigh and have a wingspan... |
2,500 |
| Common Shag Common Shag The European Shag or Common Shag is a species of cormorant. It breeds around the rocky coasts of western and southern... |
1,500 |
| Great Skua Great Skua The Great Skua, Stercorarius skua, is a large seabird in the skua family Stercorariidae. In Britain, it is sometimes known by the name Bonxie, a Shetland name of unknown origin.-Description:... |
50 |
| White-tailed Eagle White-tailed Eagle The White-tailed Eagle , also known as the Sea Eagle, Erne , or White-tailed Sea-eagle, is a large bird of prey in the family Accipitridae which includes other raptors such as hawks, kites, and harriers... |
20 |
History
Throughout the years, several ships have gone sunk near Runde on the Norwegian coast. Some of them are said to be ships from the NetherlandsNetherlands
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...
and Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
, loaded with gold
Gold
Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au and an atomic number of 79. Gold is a dense, soft, shiny, malleable and ductile metal. Pure gold has a bright yellow color and luster traditionally considered attractive, which it maintains without oxidizing in air or water. Chemically, gold is a...
and silver
Silver
Silver is a metallic chemical element with the chemical symbol Ag and atomic number 47. A soft, white, lustrous transition metal, it has the highest electrical conductivity of any element and the highest thermal conductivity of any metal...
.
Akerendam Shipwreck
One ship from the Netherlands, the Akerendam, was a newly built vessel which set sails from an island called TexelTexel
Texel is a municipality and an island in the Netherlands, in the province of North Holland. It is the biggest and most populated of the Frisian Islands in the Wadden Sea, and also the westernmost of this archipelago, which extends to Denmark...
in Netherlands on 19 January 1725. Akerendam was a part of the Dutch merchant fleet, headed for Batavia (Indonesia
Indonesia
Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...
) loaded with gold and silver coins to be used for the trade of spices in the Far East
Far East
The Far East is an English term mostly describing East Asia and Southeast Asia, with South Asia sometimes also included for economic and cultural reasons.The term came into use in European geopolitical discourse in the 19th century,...
. The ship got caught in a storm in the North Sea
North Sea
In the southwest, beyond the Straits of Dover, the North Sea becomes the English Channel connecting to the Atlantic Ocean. In the east, it connects to the Baltic Sea via the Skagerrak and Kattegat, narrow straits that separate Denmark from Norway and Sweden respectively...
, and the Akerendam disappeared into the north. The ship went down on the north side of Runde, and the whole crew of 200 was lost at sea. The inhabitants of Runde started to find parts of the ship that was washed up at its shore, including dead crew members.
The wreck site was close to the shore, and during the summer of 1725 four chests and other parts of the cargo were salvaged. But then the divers gave up, and the wreck was forgotten. During the 19th century, locals often found coins at the shore. But the origin was already forgotten, and the findings created the story that the coins was from the Spanish Armada
Spanish Armada
This article refers to the Battle of Gravelines, for the modern navy of Spain, see Spanish NavyThe Spanish Armada was the Spanish fleet that sailed against England under the command of the Duke of Medina Sidonia in 1588, with the intention of overthrowing Elizabeth I of England to stop English...
of the 16th century.
The wreck was discovered in 1972 by sport scuba divers Bengt-Olof Gustafsson (Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
), Stefan Persson (Sweden), and Eystein Krohn-Dale (Norway). Under the bottom vegetation of the seabed, the sand bottom was littered with encrusted coins. The following year, the site was investigated by Bergen
Bergen
Bergen is the second largest city in Norway with a population of as of , . Bergen is the administrative centre of Hordaland county. Greater Bergen or Bergen Metropolitan Area as defined by Statistics Norway, has a population of as of , ....
Sjøfartsmuseum. Little remained of the ship but more than 500 kilograms (1,102.3 lb) of gold and silver was salvaged. In total about 57,000 coins were found; 6,600 of them being gold coins—mostly the rare 1724 Dutch Gold Ducat
Ducat
The ducat is a gold coin that was used as a trade coin throughout Europe before World War I. Its weight is 3.4909 grams of .986 gold, which is 0.1107 troy ounce, actual gold weight...
minted in Utrecht
Utrecht
Utrecht is a city in the Netherlands.The name may also refer to:* Utrecht , of which Utrecht is the capital* Utrecht , including the city of Utrecht* Bishopric of Utrecht* Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Utrecht...
with only a handful known prior to this find, and the rest silver coins. Parts of the treasure are kept at Bergen Sjøfartsmuseum in Bergen and also at the Norwegian Coin Museum in Oslo
Oslo
Oslo is a municipality, as well as the capital and most populous city in Norway. As a municipality , it was established on 1 January 1838. Founded around 1048 by King Harald III of Norway, the city was largely destroyed by fire in 1624. The city was moved under the reign of Denmark–Norway's King...
.
The finders were allowed to keep two thirds of the treasure, which was later sold to collectors worldwide. The 1724 Utrecht Gold Ducats can command $750 to $1,000 each and are all in uncirculated quality, the highest graded ones are NGC / PCGS MS-63. The Norwegian state received 25% and the Netherlands received 7% of the treasure. This event later initiated a new legislation, making all wrecks older than 100 years automatically protected in Norway.
Runde Environmental Centre
The Runde Environmental CentreRunde Environmental Centre
Runde Environmental Centre is a research station at the Norwegian island of Runde. The centre has four main activities: a marine station, a house and hub for small spin-off businesses, an information centre, and a conference/overnight centre with 34 hotel-standard rooms in 8 apartment suites. The...
is a research station on Runde which has 4 main activities: a marine station, a house and hub for small spin-off businesses, an information centre, and a conference/overnight centre with 34 hotel-standard rooms in 8 apartment suites. In 2008, the Runde Tourist office at Runde Environmental Centre was founded.