page_title: Tønsberg
section_title: Whaling epoch
hierarchical_section_title: Tønsberg / History / Whaling epoch
caption_attribution_description: FW.S.118383 Norsk bokmål: Widerøe skråfoto fra Tønsberg kommune
context_page_description: Tønsberg, historically Tunsberg, is a city and municipality in Vestfold in Vestfold og Telemark county, southern Norway, located around 102 kilometres south-southwest of Oslo on the western coast of the Oslofjord near its mouth onto the Skagerrak. The administrative centre of the municipality is the city of Tønsberg. The city is the most populous metropolis in the district of Vestfold with a population of 52,419 in 2019. The municipality has a population of 56,293 and covers an area of 329 square kilometres in 2020.
  Tønsberg is generally regarded as the oldest city in Norway, founded by Vikings in the 9th century. Tønsberg was established as a municipality on 1 January 1838. The rural municipality of Sem was merged into the municipality of Tønsberg on 1 January 1988. The neighboring municipality of Re was merged into Tønsberg on 1 January 2020.
  It is home to Tønsberg Fortress on Castle Mountain, which includes ruins from Castrum Tunsbergis, Norway's largest castle in the 13th century. An outdoor music festival is held at Tønsberg Fortress every July. Tønsberg is also home of Oseberg Mound, where the 9th-century Oseberg Ship was excavated.
context_section_description: The center of the world's modern whaling industry was concentrated in Tønsberg and neighboring Sandefjord. Tønsberg along with neighboring Sandefjord and Larvik were dominant whaling towns in Norway. While whalers from Sandefjord established the first whaling station in the Faroe Islands, whalers from Tønsberg initiated whaling in Iceland and the Hebrides.
  During the 1850s, Tønsberg turned into a base of operation and source of expertise for whalers in the Arctic- and Antarctic Oceans. Tønsberg has been called “the cradle of modern whaling. In the 1892 publication “Handbook for Travellers in Norway” by John Murray, Tønsberg is described as “the centre of the Norwegian whaling and sealing industries in the Arctic Ocean.”
  The first whaling ventures to Antarctica was led by engineer Henrik Henriksen of Tønsberg. Henrik Johan Bull was another famous whaler from the district, famous for his expeditions to Antarctica. Bull traveled from Australia to Tønsberg in order to learn from local whaler Svend Foyn, who is recognized as the pioneer of the modern whaling industry.
  One of the city's most prominent residents, Svend Foyn, was a pioneer who embarked on an 1847 expedition to the Arctic, which led to a catch of 6,000 seals. Soon Tønsberg Harbor was home to a large fleet of sealing vessels, and the sealing industry grew further after the 1849 repeal of Britain's Navigation Acts. The hunters turned the seals to near extinction in the Arctic Ocean, and therefore turned to Bottle-nosed whales during the 1870s. Norway maintained a monopoly on European whaling until 1883, first and foremost due to Svend Foyn's patent rights to whaling techniques and inventions. Over-hunting in the Arctic eventually drove the whalers to Antarctica. By the beginning of the 20th century, Tønsberg had lost its preeminence in the whaling industry to the neighboring city of Sandefjord. Sandefjord, which lies just south of Tønsberg, later became known as the world's whaling capital.
caption: Widerøe aerial photography of town, July 1958
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