The Whale-oil Factory on Jan Mayen Island

In the first half of the seventeenth century, Jan Mayen Island and Spitsbergen were used as whaling bases by the Noordse Compagnie (Dutch Northern Company). This painting shows the company settlement on Jan Mayen Island, with the snow-clad peak known as Beerenberg in the background. In the foreground we can see the whale-oil factory in operation. On the left, a whale is being ‘flensed’. On the right, the strips of blubber are being chopped up on wooden tables and boiled in huge vats. The resulting whale-oil was used for a number of different purposes.