page_title: Bratvaag Expedition
hierarchical_section_title: Bratvaag Expedition
caption_attribution_description: 5 crewmembers of the Norwegian ship Bratvaag posing next to the symbol which contains a text that Victoria Island is claimed for shipowner Harald M. Leite (and thereby de facto for the Norwegian crown). In the back building material for a hut, which was not constructed due to the impossibility to guard it against storms. The claim, which was put up in secrecy, was never made official by the Norwegian authorities, which secretly supported the claim but perhaps feared a conflict with the Soviet Union. Two years later on the island was erected a Soviet flag to effectuate a Soviet claim from 1926 (disputed by Norway), annexing the island and Franz Jozefland to the Soviet Union.
context_page_description: The Bratvaag Expedition was a Norwegian expedition in 1930 led by Dr. Gunnar Horn, whose official tasks were hunting seals and to study glaciers and seas in the Svalbard Arctic region. The name of the expedition was taken from its ship, M/S Bratvaag of Ålesund, in which captain Peder Eliassen had sailed the Arctic seas for more than twenty years. The Bratvaag Expedition had a secret, but important mission: the annexation of Victoria Island for Norway. Although a successful landing on the island was achieved, Victoria Island was later annexed by the Soviet Union. The Bratvaag Expedition became nevertheless well-known due to the findings on Kvitøya of the long-lost remains of the Swedish explorer S. A. Andrée's Arctic balloon expedition of 1897.
context_section_description: The Bratvaag Expedition was a Norwegian expedition in 1930 led by Dr. Gunnar Horn, whose official tasks were hunting seals and to study glaciers and seas in the Svalbard Arctic region. The name of the expedition was taken from its ship, M/S Bratvaag of Ålesund, in which captain Peder Eliassen had sailed the Arctic seas for more than twenty years. The Bratvaag Expedition had a secret, but important mission: the annexation of Victoria Island for Norway. Although a successful landing on the island was achieved, Victoria Island was later annexed by the Soviet Union. The Bratvaag Expedition became nevertheless well-known due to the findings on Kvitøya of the long-lost remains of the Swedish explorer S. A. Andrée's Arctic balloon expedition of 1897.
caption: Picture by Gunnar Horn of the Victoria Island landing team on 8 August 1930.
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