Hornsund is a fjord on the southwest side of Spitsbergen that
extends about 30 kilometers in an easterly direction to the bottom
of the Hornbreen glacier. The fjord has an inlet between
Worcesterpynten in Wedel Jarlsberg Land in the north and
Hornsundneset in Sørkapp Land in the south. It has a width of 12-15
kilometers and a maximum depth of about 260 meters.
Hornsund
is a two major indentations. Burgerbukta goes in a northern
direction and Samarinvågen in a southerly direction. Along the north
coast are also Isbjørnhamna and Adriabukta and on the south side
Gåshamna. The partially narrowed area of Hornsund which lies east
of Treskelen is called Brepollen.
The fjord is an important
habitat for polar bears, and the most important feature for polar
bears between Storfjorden and Vest-Spitsbergen is here.
The
only settlement in the area is a Polish research station from 1957
in Isbjørnhamna at the mouth of Hornsund. At the station there were
previously up to 25-30 residents, but as of 2008, 12 permanent
Polish researchers lived here. On 1 February 1990, a Norwegian post
office was established in Isbjørnhamna with address 9177 Hornsund.
The post office was closed on September 20, 2002.
The fjord
is located within the boundaries of Sør-Spitsbergen National Park.
History
In the area around Hornsund there are a number of
cultural monuments. In Gåshamna, there have been excavations in a
whaling facility from the 17th century. The English whalers had a
land station and operated a landing down here from 1624, but no
further south than Hornsund. The fjord was named after the English
whaler Jonas Poole, who wrote: "They brought a piece of an animal
horn on board, and therefore I called this strait Horne Sound".
Poole was on Spitsbergen several times in the early 17th century.
Thereafter, the area was first used by Russian Pomors in the
early 1800s - mainly on the south coast and only exceptionally on
the north coast (a house foundation at Torbjørnsenfjellet). Remains
of a main cabin and a number of auxiliary stations from the Pomor
period have been found. In 1820, a shipwrecked lodge with 13 dead
Russians on board was found, and it is believed that the Russians
did not use the area later than this. The exception is the
Russian-Swedish degree expedition 1899-1900, where Gåshamna was used
as a Russian base with an observatory.
In the early 20th
century, Norwegian hunters started operations in Hornsund, first on
the Dunøyane and then on land where Søndre Hornsund constituted
Hunting Field number 2 on Svalbard. The main station
"Konstantinovka" was created around 1915 by the Russian Observatory
on the east bank of the bay Gåshamna. There were auxiliary stations
on the east coast ("Camp Erna") and in Stormbukta ("Hilmarhytta").
The British Northern Exploration Company also established sharps
here in search of valuable minerals, but without success.
Nordre Hornsund was Fangstfelt 3 on Svalbard, and consisted of a
number of Norwegian fishing grounds. The down islands were important
for down collecting from the beginning in the late 1800s, and here
stood a cabin at least in 1914. while Hyttevika within these islands
had the hunting lodge "Claus Andersen hut" from 1907. Then followed
Isbjørnhamna in 1908, a house (" Fuglefjell ») under Sofiekammen on
Gnålodden, and from 1926 a substation in Adriabukta.