Isola di Mayen

             A rare 1690 map by Vincenzo Coronelli noting the discovery of Jan Mayen Island in 1614. 

Jan Jacobsz Mayen is credited to naming the island while seeing it in July of 1614 during a whaling exploration for Noordsche Compagnie,  a Dutch whaling cartel organized in the same year.   The Island itself was the largest hub in the arctic for processing whale fat with over two hundred whalers over the course of 28 years building massive boilers beachside to extract oil from the blubber.  From the 17th century to the 20th century  whale oil was like liquid gold.  It was used for lighting because of its ability to burn without making smoke.  It was also used for soap as well as high end lubricant for machinery before the uses of petroleum were realized.  On a side note, it was the Svalbard population of the Bowhead Whale off of Greenland that was most affected by whaling.  Whalers called them Greenland Right Whales which name is similar to the Atlantic Right Whale.  The similarity being the word "Right".

For over two hundred years history has maintained the the word "Right" with respect to certain species

meant easy or more profitable in that they swam slowly, had more baleen and oil as well as floated when killed. There is pushback over the narrative but I will leave that debate to historians, revisionists and preservationists on both sides of the fence.  The Bowhead was named for its massive archer's bow shaped head which made up one third of their body length. They have the largest baleen plates of all whales.  Noordsche Compagnie was dismantled in1642 after pressure from larger entities over territorial disputes. In the rest of the arctic the numbers of Bowhead whales now exceed 16,000 according to the International Whaling Commision.

           The island is currently just under 146 square miles in area and has 407,000 linear feet of coastline.  It is  approximately 590 miles west of Norway which could explain why it wasn't sighted until 1614.   Of course there were proclaimed sightings before, just not officially documented.  The island boasts the largest stratovolcano in the arctic at a height of 7,470 feet which last erupted in 1985.  It is a stand alone volcanic microcontinent  at what is now called Jan Mayen Fracture and the Mohns Ridge creating a transform fault which allowed magma to flow to the surface to form the island

and maintain the Beerenberg volcano.

           Joris Carolus is credited for first mapping the island.  He was the cartographer aboard the

 De Goude Cath,  the Dutch ship captained by Jan Mayen.  William Janszoon Blaeu was the first to engrave a chart of the island to copper plate which first appeared in his "Zeespiegel" atlas of 1623.

The Maker of this map, Vincenzo Coronelli was the most prolific Italian cartographers and publishers

of his time.  His maps and globes are unmistakable and are heavily sought after to this day.  He was born in Venice August 16,1650 and passed in Venice December 8, 1718.