Danes' Island

(Local Name: Danskøy) To the north of Magdalenefjord lies the island of Danskøy (Danes' Island), at the northwestern corner of Spitzbergen. In 1897 a Swede named Andrée set out from here to fly to the Pole in a balloon, but after three days was compelled to make an emergency landing and on the way back on foot through the pack-ice perished on Kvitøy, the most easterly island in the Svalbard archipelago. Both on Danskøy and on the neighboring Amsterdamøy there were whaling bases in the 17th and 18th centuries.