À retenir
- At the very end of 1932 a Tromso paper reported that the fifty-four Greenland dogs for Riiser-Larsen's South Pole expedition had arrived in town, and named the two men who took delivery.
- In July 1935 the paper Tromso recorded that a British expedition arrived with twenty-three draught dogs and one puppy, eight days old, born during the journey north.
- The same expedition's dogs were on loan from Denmark, and a place had been arranged for them at an isolated spot outside Tromso until the ship sailed.
- In February 1934 an expedition's one disappointment was the animals bought in Tromso, which were supposed to pass for Greenland sled dogs.
A town that sold dogs by the dozen
You come here to drive a team for an afternoon. For about a decade either side of 1930, Tromso was where the world came to buy one.
The pattern in the newspapers is remarkably consistent. An expedition announces itself, a ship calls, and a paper counts the dogs off the quay. On the last day of 1932 Nordlys reported that the fifty-four Greenland dogs going with Riiser-Larsen's South Pole expedition had arrived the day before, and that Hallvard Devold and Kjelbotn had taken delivery of them. [1] A few days later Nordlandsposten printed Kjelbotn's own summary of the outfit: we have thirty Greenland dogs and drive with ordinary polar sledges, he said, and our equipment is about the most complete there is. [2]
Two numbers, days apart, for what may be two different parties. That is what the archive is like. What is not in doubt is the scale: dogs arriving by the dozen, in a town of a few thousand people, as ordinary freight.
The summer of 1935, and a puppy
The best-documented arrival is from July 1935. Horten Arbeiderblad reported that Croft had brought the expedition's twenty-three draught dogs to Tromso, bought in Denmark. [3] Sunnmorsposten added the detail that matters most here: the dogs were on loan from Denmark, and at an isolated place outside Tromso town a space had been arranged for them until the expedition sailed. [5]
That is a kennel. Somewhere on the edge of this town, in the summer of 1935, twenty-three borrowed Greenland dogs were kept apart from everything, waiting for a ship.
And on 22 July the local paper Tromso recorded the thing no expedition plans for. Croft had with him the twenty-three draught dogs, and a puppy eight days old, born during the transport to Tromso. [4] It is one line. It is also the whole of what a working kennel is: dogs do not pause an expedition to have their litters.
Ten dogs and a bookkeeper
The summer of 1928 was the summer of the Nobile search, and the archive shows the dogs going out of Tromso into it.
At the end of May, Harstad Tidende reported that in connection with the search the Spitsbergen coal company had placed a dog team of ten dogs at the searchers' disposal. [10] The same paper later described the discussion at Advent Bay about lending the company's excellent dog team, and noted who would drive it: the dog driver, the company's bookkeeper, was the obvious man to go. [11]
In June, Bodo Tidende reported the party reaching Ny-Alesund at ten minutes to six in the morning, with Lutzow-Holm, a mechanic, the bookkeeper Tandberg, the local man Nois, and ten sled dogs. [13] Later that month Lofotposten reported the Braganza taken over by Riiser-Larsen at Ny-Alesund, and Tandberg and Nois sent further east with a dog team. [12]
By July 1929 Lofotposten could report the scale of what had been done with dogs rather than aircraft: six dog teams had searched the north-east coast of Svalbard, from Kapp Mohn to Wallenberg Bay. [14]
Between 1928 and 1937 the Norwegian press counted dog teams off the Tromso quays by the dozen: fifty-four for the South Pole, twenty-three on loan from Denmark, ten for the Nobile search, and six that came in with the fox skins.
What a dog team was actually for
It is easy to read all this as adventure. The papers do not. In April 1936 the paper Tromso reported three workers with a small dog team crossing Isfjorden towards Alkhornet on Spitsbergen who came near to being lost when the ice in mid-fjord began to give. [15]
Three men, a small team, a fjord crossing, and ice that stopped holding halfway. That is the working version of what you will do this afternoon on a marked trail with a guide behind you.
The same year that expeditions were loading dogs, a ship came into Tromso with a cargo that says as much about the north as any of it: a quantity of fox skins, two live blue foxes, and six Greenland dogs. [6] Dogs were freight, alongside the furs.
The dog market had a reputation problem
Two entries, five years apart and in different papers, say the same uncomfortable thing about the trade this town ran.
In August 1929 Morgenposten reported that on the way up, the Germans had bought every loose dog in Tromso and trained them on the ice to be filmed as polar dogs. [8] Every loose dog. Not bred, not selected, not trained for haulage: collected, and taught enough on the ice to look right on camera.
In February 1934 Bergens Aftenblad recorded an expedition's verdict at the other end of the same trade. The one disappointment, it wrote, was the animals bought in Tromso, which were supposed to pass for Greenland sled dogs. [9]
It is worth knowing, because it is the exact opposite of what a modern kennel here is. The dogs you will drive are bred, named, worked and retired by people whose whole business is the same dogs across their whole lives. That standard is not ancient tradition. It is the correction of something the papers were complaining about within living memory.
Two puppies to Germany
The last entry is the smallest and the most human. In September 1937 Bergens Arbeiderblad reported that two Germans travelling as passengers had each been given a puppy during their stay in Tromso, two Greenland dogs, which they wanted to take home with them. [7]
The story exists in the paper because it turned into a problem about paperwork. But the impulse is one every visitor to a kennel will recognise within about four minutes of arriving.
A decade of dogs, off the Tromso quay
May 1928: ten dogs for the search
The Spitsbergen coal company puts a team of ten at the disposal of the Nobile search. [10]
June 1928: Ny-Alesund, ten to six
The party lands with a flyer, a mechanic, a bookkeeper, a local man and ten sled dogs. [13]
June 1928: sent east
Tandberg and Nois go on eastward with a dog team as Riiser-Larsen takes over the Braganza. [12]
July 1929: six teams, one coast
Six dog teams have searched the north-east coast of Svalbard from Kapp Mohn to Wallenberg Bay. [14]
August 1929: every loose dog in town
A German film party buys up the town's loose dogs and trains them on the ice to be filmed as polar dogs. [8]
December 1932: fifty-four for the Pole
The Greenland dogs for Riiser-Larsen's South Pole expedition arrive and are taken in hand. [1]
January 1933: thirty dogs, ordinary sledges
Kjelbotn describes the outfit: thirty Greenland dogs and standard polar sledges. [2]
February 1934: the complaint
An expedition's one disappointment is the animals bought in Tromso as Greenland sled dogs. [9]
July 1935: twenty-three, and a puppy
Croft lands the expedition's dogs, borrowed from Denmark, with a pup eight days old born on the way. [3] [4]
July 1935: the kennel outside town
Room is arranged for the dogs at an isolated place outside Tromso until the ship leaves. [5]
April 1936: the ice gives
Three workers with a small team crossing Isfjorden are nearly lost when the ice goes soft mid-fjord. [15]
September 1937: two pups south
Two German passengers each leave Tromso with a Greenland puppy. [7]
