ABOUT THE EXPERIENCE

Stranded on Nova Zembla

The Amsterdam Icebar takes you on a voyage to the Arctic, following in the footsteps of Dutch explorer Willem Barentsz on his third attempt to find a shorter route to the Indies, and lets you experience what it was like to be stranded on the North Pole at the end of the 16th century. 

The voyage went great until they were close to the island Nova Zembla in July 1596. The ship got stuck between the many icebergs and floes and couldn't move in any direction. Left with no other choice than to sit out the winter on Nova Zembla, Willem Barentsz crew used driftwood and lumber from the ship to build a lodge they called ‘Het Behouden Huys’ (The Saved House).

Barentsz and his crew of 16 were stranded on the island for almost a full year. During their stay, the crew were continually under threat from both polar bears and the extreme cold. Polar bears are native to the area and far outnumbered the humans, the bears even turned the stranded ship into a wintertime abode. The crew's primitive guns were no match for the great bears. Meanwhile the cold was so extreme that when the crew attempted to warm their feet by the fire, their socks would burn before they felt the heat.

By June of 1597 they grew desperate as the ice maintained it's grip on the ship. The survivors decided to take their chances on the water and took two open boats to leave the island behind. Soon after 20 June 1597, Willem Barentsz died at sea. It took seven more weeks for the boats to be rescued, with only 12 crewman surviving. It was not until November 1597 that they returned to Amsterdam.