Svenskehuset Tragedy
Encyclopedia
The Svenskehuset Tragedy was an event in the winter of 1872–73 where seventeen men died in an isolated house on 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...
, 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...
. The cause of death was long believed to be scurvy
Scurvy
Scurvy is a disease resulting from a deficiency of vitamin C, which is required for the synthesis of collagen in humans. The chemical name for vitamin C, ascorbic acid, is derived from the Latin name of scurvy, scorbutus, which also provides the adjective scorbutic...
, but research done in 2008 has revealed that the men probably suffered lead poisoning
Lead poisoning
Lead poisoning is a medical condition caused by increased levels of the heavy metal lead in the body. Lead interferes with a variety of body processes and is toxic to many organs and tissues including the heart, bones, intestines, kidneys, and reproductive and nervous systems...
. Svenskehuset is today preserved as a cultural heritage site.
The tragedy
Svenskehuset (the SwedishSweden
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....
House) is the oldest house on Spitsbergen. The house was erected by the Swedes on Cape Thordsen in Isfjorden
Isfjord (Svalbard)
Isfjorden is the second longest fjord in the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard. It lies on the west side of Spitsbergen, an island in the Arctic Ocean about midway between Norway and the North Pole, and the largest in the archipelago. A portion of Isfjorden is included in the national parks of...
, and was intended to withstand the harsh conditions of the Svalbard winters. A group of Norwegian
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...
seal hunters
Seal hunting
Seal hunting, or sealing, is the personal or commercial hunting of seals. The hunt is currently practiced in five countries: Canada, where most of the world's seal hunting takes place, Namibia, the Danish region of Greenland, Norway and Russia...
were stuck on the island in the autumn of 1872. They sought out the Finland-Swedish explorer Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld
Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld
Freiherr Nils Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld , also known as A. E. Nordenskioeld was a Finnish baron, geologist, mineralogist and arctic explorer of Finnish-Swedish origin. He was a member of the prominent Finland-Swedish Nordenskiöld family of scientists...
, who at the time was conducting an expedition in the area, for assistance. Nordenskiöld did not have the resources to accommodate all the hunters, so it was agreed that a number of the men would make their way to Svenskehuset, where they knew there would be food, coal and equipment. Seventeen men without families were selected, and on 14 October 1872 they set out for Svenskehuset in row boats
Watercraft rowing
Watercraft rowing is the act of propelling a boat using the motion of oars in the water. The difference between paddling and rowing is that with rowing the oars have a mechanical connection with the boat whereas with paddling the paddles are hand-held with no mechanical connection.This article...
. The journey was 350 km (220 mi), and it took the crew seventeen days to get to their destination.
Next summer a Norwegian ship, led by Fritz Mack from Tromsø
Tromsø
Tromsø is a city and municipality in Troms county, Norway. The administrative centre of the municipality is the city of Tromsø.Tromsø city is the ninth largest urban area in Norway by population, and the seventh largest city in Norway by population...
, left Norway to rescue the stranded men. Outside the house they found five dead bodies wrapped in a tarpaulin
Tarpaulin
A tarpaulin, colloquially tarp, is a large sheet of strong, flexible, water-resistant or waterproof material, often cloth such as canvas or polyester coated with urethane, or made of plastics such as polyethylene. In some places such as Australia, and in military slang, a tarp may be known as a...
. On the door, which was locked from the inside, there was a sign with a warning not to enter. Inside there were dead bodies scattered in chairs, on beds and on the floor. All together the expedition found fifteen bodies, which were taken out and buried in their beds. Two more bodies were discovered by a group of researchers a few years later. One of the sealers, Karl Albertsen, had kept a diary during his stay in the house. The diary told that a man named Hans Hansen had been the first to die, in November. By Christmas
Christmas
Christmas or Christmas Day is an annual holiday generally celebrated on December 25 by billions of people around the world. It is a Christian feast that commemorates the birth of Jesus Christ, liturgically closing the Advent season and initiating the season of Christmastide, which lasts twelve days...
everyone in the house was ill. The last diary entry was written on 19 April. It is assumed that Albertsen was the penultimate man to die.
2008 expedition
A remaining abundance of food and fuel ruled out the possibility that the men might have died from starvationStarvation
Starvation is a severe deficiency in caloric energy, nutrient and vitamin intake. It is the most extreme form of malnutrition. In humans, prolonged starvation can cause permanent organ damage and eventually, death...
or exposure
Hypothermia
Hypothermia is a condition in which core temperature drops below the required temperature for normal metabolism and body functions which is defined as . Body temperature is usually maintained near a constant level of through biologic homeostasis or thermoregulation...
. It was long believed that the men had died from scurvy
Scurvy
Scurvy is a disease resulting from a deficiency of vitamin C, which is required for the synthesis of collagen in humans. The chemical name for vitamin C, ascorbic acid, is derived from the Latin name of scurvy, scorbutus, which also provides the adjective scorbutic...
; an ailment caused by lack of vitamin C
Vitamin C
Vitamin C or L-ascorbic acid or L-ascorbate is an essential nutrient for humans and certain other animal species. In living organisms ascorbate acts as an antioxidant by protecting the body against oxidative stress...
, and common in polar region
Polar region
Earth's polar regions are the areas of the globe surrounding the poles also known as frigid zones. The North Pole and South Pole being the centers, these regions are dominated by the polar ice caps, resting respectively on the Arctic Ocean and the continent of Antarctica...
s. The men were generally berated as ignorant and careless. Some parts of the historical evidence were not consistent with death from scurvy, however. First of all, the men all seemed to have fallen ill at the same time, which would have been peculiar if scurvy had been the cause. Secondly, the diary shows that the group was familiar with the dangers of contracting scurvy, and how to avoid it. Death from tuberculosis
Tuberculosis
Tuberculosis, MTB, or TB is a common, and in many cases lethal, infectious disease caused by various strains of mycobacteria, usually Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Tuberculosis usually attacks the lungs but can also affect other parts of the body...
, or botulism
Botulism
Botulism also known as botulinus intoxication is a rare but serious paralytic illness caused by botulinum toxin which is metabolic waste produced under anaerobic conditions by the bacterium Clostridium botulinum, and affecting a wide range of mammals, birds and fish...
were other theories.
In 2007, doctor Ulf Aasebø and historian Kjell Kjær applied for permission to open the graves of the victims, to establish cause of death. Their suspicion was that the sealers had in fact died from lead poisoning
Lead poisoning
Lead poisoning is a medical condition caused by increased levels of the heavy metal lead in the body. Lead interferes with a variety of body processes and is toxic to many organs and tissues including the heart, bones, intestines, kidneys, and reproductive and nervous systems...
, not from scurvy. The sealant
Sealant
A sealant may be viscous material that has little or no flow characteristics and stay where they are applied or thin and runny so as to allow it to penetrate the substrate by means of capillary reaction...
on tin can
Tin can
A tin can, tin , steel can, or a can, is a sealed container for the distribution or storage of goods, composed of thin metal. Many cans require opening by cutting the "end" open; others have removable covers. Cans hold diverse contents: foods, beverages, oil, chemicals, etc."Tin" cans are made...
s for food in the nineteenth century consisted of as much as fifty percent lead
Lead
Lead is a main-group element in the carbon group with the symbol Pb and atomic number 82. Lead is a soft, malleable poor metal. It is also counted as one of the heavy metals. Metallic lead has a bluish-white color after being freshly cut, but it soon tarnishes to a dull grayish color when exposed...
. At first the application was denied by the Norwegian Directorate for Cultural Heritage
Norwegian Directorate for Cultural Heritage
The Norwegian Directorate for Cultural Heritage is a government agency responsible for the management of cultural heritage in Norway. Subordinate the Norwegian Ministry of the Environment, it manages the Cultural Heritage Act of June 9, 1978....
(Riksantikvaren), but after further elaboration on the scientific purpose and method of the study, permission was granted in July 2008.
The researchers stayed at Cape Thordsen from 7 to 9 August. Some of the graves contained bodies still in their beds, frozen into blocks of ice. These bodies were so well preserved that the expedition refrained from exploring them further. According to Dr. Aasebø these were remains rather than skeletons, and the permission granted, as well as ethical considerations, did not allow samples to be taken from these bodies. Two other bodies were buried in a shallow double grave, and from these skeletons samples were taken. The samples confirmed the theory, as the skeletons showed extremely high concentrations of lead. Furthermore, the tins that had contained the food had inside them "so much lead, that it hung like icicles inside the cans." The findings largely cleared the men of suspicions of negligence; according to Kjær the scientific expedition helped restore their posthumous reputation.