Aftenposten
- "Isbjørn" Leaves for Svalbard Within 8 Days
- Robert Collett's Memory
- The Coal Situation
This Aftenposten page of 28 October 1926 carried three short reports. Oslo's executive committee had unanimously agreed to lease the municipal icebreaker Isbjørn to the state; Docent Hoel was to settle the details with City Commissioner Strøm, the harbour board would fix the terms, and the ship was due to sail for Svalbard within 8 days. A lawyer's account recalled the quarrel in which Schaanning, defending the late Robert Collett's memory, accused Ørjan Olsen, editor of 'Norges Fugle', of plagiarism and literary theft. A note on the coal situation reported that Møre county's route company would release 1800 tons of its coal stock to local fishermen, strictly for the fishing fleet, and that a further 2000 tons would be sent from Svalbard to Aalesund.
Translation
"Isbjørn" Leaves for Svalbard Within 8 Days.
After the Oslo executive committee yesterday unanimously decided to let the State lease the icebreaker «Isbjørn», Docent Hoel will meet City Commissioner Strøm this morning to get the details settled more precisely. The terms of the lease will be fixed by the harbour board. The boat will leave for Svalbard at the end of the week or the beginning of next week.
Robert Collett's Memory.
The situation was, the lawyer states, that Schaanning, in order to defend Robert Collett's memory, accused Dr. Ørjan Olsen, as editor of “Norges Fugle”, of having engaged extensively in plagiarism and literary theft.
The Coal Situation.
County Governor Vik reports that an arrangement has been made with the Ministry of Trade whereby the Møre county route company will release 1800 tons from its coal stock to the fishermen of the county. The Ministry has approved the arrangement, which can be expected to take effect very soon. Among the conditions is that this coal may not be released for any use other than the operation of the fishing fleet. – In addition, a cargo of 2000 tons will be directed to Aalesund from Svalbard for the fishing fleet.
Context
Docent Hoel and Norway's Svalbard research
The paper names the state's negotiator only as "Docent Hoel". The most likely person is the geologist Adolf Hoel, who became a docent at the University of Oslo in 1919 and, from 1909 onwards, took part in about 30 government-sponsored Norwegian expeditions to Arctic areas. He is described as the leading Norwegian researcher at Svalbard in the early twentieth century. That record explains why the state would send him to work out the details of chartering an icebreaker bound for Svalbard. The excerpt translated here does not say what the ship was to do there or who would sail in her.
Why Oslo's harbour board controlled the icebreaker Isbjørn
Isbjørn was a municipal vessel. She was built in the capital and delivered by Aker mekaniske Verksted in March 1895 to the Christiania harbour authority, and from 1924 she belonged to the harbour service of Kristiania/Oslo under the same name. That ownership is why the article reports a vote by the city executive committee to let the state lease her, and why the harbour board was to fix the terms. Her later history shows the kind of work an icebreaker did in the Svalbard trade: in May 1941 she arrived to break up the ice for supply ships from Norway, which were to carry coal on their return trips. That episode belongs to fifteen years later; the 1926 excerpt translated here does not state the purpose of the autumn voyage.
Svalbard as a source of Norwegian coal
The coal note reports that a cargo of 2000 tons would be directed from Svalbard to Aalesund for the fishing fleet. Norwegian coal mining in the archipelago had an established base by then: Store Norske Spitsbergen Kulkompani was formed in 1916 after a Norwegian purchase of the American Arctic Coal Company. The excerpt does not say which mine or company supplied the Aalesund cargo. What it does show is how Møre's fishing fleet was to be fuelled that autumn: partly by releasing 1800 tons from the county route company's own stock, reserved strictly for the fleet, and partly by Arctic coal shipped south.
Britain's coal dispute of 1926
The excerpted Norwegian coal note gives no cause for the tight situation it describes. In Britain that year, a dispute over wage reductions and worsening conditions left 1.2 million coal miners locked out, and a general strike took place from 4 to 12 May 1926 as a sympathy strike in their support. The fetched account deals with the May strike and does not cover how long the miners' lockout lasted or what it did to Norwegian coal imports. A connection between the British dispute and Møre county's emergency coal arrangements in October is therefore plausible context, but these sources do not establish it.
The quarrel over 'Norges Fugle'
Ørjan Olsen worked on preparing the bird material of the late professor Robert Collett. Olsen published Norges fugle "in Collett's spirit" in 1921. Literary Norway received the work well, but it set off a fierce scientific debate that raged for a whole year. Olsen's chief opponent was the ornithologist Hans T. L. Schaanning, and accusations of plagiarism flew in both directions; Olsen issued a concluding contribution on the dispute in 1922. The 1926 report presents, through a lawyer's words, Schaanning's side of the story as a defence of Collett's memory against plagiarism and literary theft. Because the paper quotes a lawyer, the dispute evidently still involved lawyers five years later; the biographical entry consulted does not record any court case arising from it.
Original
"Isbjørn" avgaar til Svalbard inden 8 dage.
Efterat Oslo formandskap igaar enstemmig har besluttet at la Staten faa leie isbryteren «Isbjørn», vil docent Hoel ha et møte med raadmand Strøm i formiddag for at faa bragt enkelthetene nærmere paa det rene. Betingelsene for leien vil bli fastsat av havnestyret. Baaten gaar i slutten av uken eller i begyndelsen av næste uke til Svalbard.
Robert Colletts minde.
Situationen var den, uttaler advokaten, at Schaanning for at verge Robert Colletts minde beskyldte dr. Ørjan Olsen, som utgiver av» Norges Fugle «, for i stor utstrækning at ha drevet plagiat og literært tyveri.
Ku'situationen.
Fylkesmand Vik oplyser, at der er truffet en ordning med Handelsdepartementet gaaende ut paa at Møre fylkes ruteselskap overlater av sit kullager 1800 ton til fiskerne i fylket. Departementet har godkjendt ordningen, som kan ventes at træde i kraft snarest. Blandt betingelsene er, at disse kul ikke kan overlates til anden bruk end til drift av fiskerflaaten. - Desuten vil en last paa 2000 ton bli dirigert til Aalesund fra Svalbard for fiskerflaaten.