Willem Barents and the Discovery of Svalbard | The Origins of Spitsbergen

Find out about the life and achievements of Willem Barentsz, figurehead of the Age of Exploration and discoverer of Svalbard, the wildlife-rich archipelago in the Arctic and last stop before the North Pole.

Who was Willem Barentsz? 

Willem Barentsz (often anglicised to William Barents) was a 16th-century Dutch navigator, explorer, and cartographer, best known for his attempts to discover the Northeast Passage, a sea route from Europe to Asia, through the Arctic to the north of Russia. 

On his third attempt to find the theorised route, Barentsz and his crew discovered Svalbard (Spitsbergen), encountering polar bears and other Arctic wildlife, and becoming among the first Europeans to overwinter in the Arctic. 

Willem Barentsz died during his third Arctic expedition, never to find the Northeast Passage. Whilst he may not have achieved his primary goal, he stands as one of the most prominent early Arctic explorers, greatly bolstering Europe’s knowledge of the High North and inspiring generations of adventurers with his determination and pioneering spirit. 

Why did Willem Barentsz want to find the Northeast Passage? 

Willem Barentsz was born on the Dutch island of Terschelling in 1550, during what is now known as the Age of Exploration. 

During this period of intense maritime and trading competition, northern European powers were desperate to find a seafaring shortcut to the riches of Asia, particularly China, India, and the Spice Islands (modern Indonesia), and its valuable commodities, including spices (pepper, cinnamon, cloves), silk, porcelain, precious stones, and other luxury items.

Established southern maritime powers monopolised existing sea trade routes around Africa (the Portuguese) and through the Americas (the Spanish), and the land-based route, the Silk Road, was disrupted by the rise of the Ottoman Empire in the 15th century. 

In this framework, northern Europeans were paying what they deemed to be unacceptably high prices for imported goods that had travelled long distances through the hands of Arab, Venetian, and Iberian middlemen. They wanted a tariff-free, direct route. 

Such a route was first theorised by Sigismund von Herberstein in his work Rerum Moscoviticarum Commentarii (Notes on Muscovite Affairs), published in 1549, just a year before Willem Barentsz’s birth. In this work, von Herberstein described the geography and political situation of Russia, and hinted at the possibility of a northern sea route to Asia.

The three expeditions of Willem Barentsz 

It was in this historical context that Willem Barentsz, a cartographer by trade, was employed by the Dutch Republic to search for the Northeast Passage.

The first Barentsz expedition (1594) reached the Kara Sea, north of Siberia, before the extreme weather conditions forced Barentsz and his crew to turn back. On the second expedition (1595), they reached the same location before their progress was once again hampered by treacherous conditions and sea ice. 

The third expedition set sail a year later in 1596. It was to be Barentsz’s final – and most famous – voyage. 

What did Willem Barentsz discover?

On Willem Barentsz’s third and final Arctic expedition, his ship was captained by fellow Dutchman Jacob van Heemskerck (Barentsz was pilot and chief navigator).

They skirted along the coast of northern Norway and continued north until an unknown landmass hoved into view. Out of the icy sea rose the jagged mountain peaks of an uncharted land. Barentsz named it Spitsbergen (Dutch for 'pointed mountains') after its defining characteristic. 

Today, we know the archipelago as Svalbard, a wonderland of Arctic scenery and wildlife, the realm of the polar bear, and the last stop before the North Pole. Barentsz, a doggedly determined Dutch cartographer, was the first to put it on the map.

Aboard the ship, Officer Gerrit de Veer kept a diary of the expedition, while also writing the history of the previous two Barentsz voyages. His is a defining account of early European Arctic exploration – including the crew’s first encounters with polar bears (it did not go well) and other Arctic wildlife – and helped pave the way for further exploration of the High North. 

Svalbard became a staging post for adventures into the wider Arctic, including expeditions to the North Pole. Barentsz’s discovery and de Veer’s account also drew attention to the archipelago’s natural resources, with the islands becoming a focal point of the whaling industry in the 17th century, and subsequently trappers and coal mining operations. 

What happened to Willem Barentsz?

As described in Officer Gerrit de Veer’s account, Willem Barentsz’s party sailed on from Svalbard, heading east through a sea congested with icebergs, eventually reaching the Russian island of Novaya Zemlya (or Nova Zembla as the Dutch call it).

Barentsz had made it to the west coast of Novaya Zemlya on his 1594 expedition, but this time his crew ploughed on, rounding the island’s northern edge. After this, the ice became impassable and Barentsz gave orders to turn back. 

The ship became ice-bound off the northeastern coast of Novaya Zemlya. The crew, finding themselves hostages to the Arctic with winter fast approaching, make land and hastily construct a shelter using driftwood and wood from their ship. They christened their hut, Het Behouden Huys, or 'The Saved House'.

The crew suffered immense hardships across the Arctic winter. The cold was brutal, the snow endless. Resources were scant, rations were meagre. Yet Barentsz and van Heemskerck managed to keep morale up and maintain discipline. The party became the first Europeans to overwinter in the Arctic. 

Along the way, the team discovered valuable survival techniques – often through their near-fatal mistakes. 

Early on in the winter, they nearly all died from carbon monoxide poisoning, having made a fire and left no ventilation in their hut. They set traps and successfully caught Arctic foxes which they used for meat and fur. But after killing a polar bear and eating its liver, they became sick with Hypervitaminosis A. Diarist de Veer was the first person to document the effects of the illness.

When the sun returned with the end of winter, the crew hoped the ice might free their ship. When it did not, on 13th June 1597, the scurvy-ridden crew boarded two open boats and made for the mainland. Seven days into the crossing, on June 20th, Willem Barentsz died. Fourteen of the 17 crewmembers made it safely to the Kola Peninsula in northwest Russia. The remains of the dead have never been found. 

The legacy of Willem Barentsz

The discoveries of Willem Barentsz and his crew captured the public imagination back in the Netherlands and across northern Europe, helping to kickstart a new wave of Arctic exploration. Their survival story became an inspiration for subsequent expeditions and their unplanned overwintering on Novaya Zemlya is held up as one of the finest stories of human endurance.

The idea of the Northeast Passage never fully retreated from view (it was finally navigated in its entirety in the late 19th century), but Barentsz’s discoveries about sea ice and mapping of the Arctic shifted the focus of explorers, traders, and nation states to the possibilities of the Arctic itself. 

Whilst he didn’t achieve his stated aim, Barentsz’s intrepidness and expeditionary skill uncovered new land to the far north of Europe, rich with polar bears, walruses, and seals, and surrounded by whale-rich waters: Svalbard.

It is unclear if Barentsz’s party actually made landfall – and some sources suggest the Vikings or Russian Pomors may have beaten the Dutchman to the archipelago – but history records Barentsz as the first to discover this isolated Arctic land. 

The effects of the overplundering and overexploitation that followed – of the whale and seal populations, and coal reserves – cannot be laid at Barentsz’s door, of course. He added a new point to the map of human understanding, which is always to be admired. 

The whole collection of islands was once referred to by Barentsz’s name for it – Spitsbergen – before it was renamed as Svalbard. Today, Spitsbergen is instead the name of the archipelago’s largest island. 

You don’t have to look far for more signs of Barentsz’s influence in the area. The Barents Sea, the body of water separating Svalbard from the Russian and Norwegian mainland, is named in his honour, along with many other locations across the Arctic and further afield. 

In the footsteps of Willem Barentsz: Explore Svalbard and Smeerenburg

Join Secret Atlas on an expedition into the frozen wilderness that Willem Barentsz discovered over 400 years ago. 

See for yourself the pointed mountains of Svalbard, rising out from the icy sea, appearing from the thick Arctic fog. This is a land that still makes the heart beat with the thrill of adventure and the mind whirr with the mysteries of the unexplored. 

The wildlife here really does make you feel a million miles from home. The cunning little Arctic foxes, impressive walrus haulouts, and of course the regal polar bear will stop you in your tracks – just like they must have stopped Barentsz and his crew hundreds of years ago. 

The dramatic fjords, glacier-carved peaks, and calving glaciers of Svalbard showcase Arctic scenery at its most impactful. Once seen, Svalbard is never forgotten. And there is always so much more to discover and explore. That’s why we go back, season after season, to gain another perspective.

During our summer and autumn tours, you might also have a chance to visit Smeerenburg, the former Arctic whaling capital, called to life by Barentsz’s discovery of Svalbard. Located on Svalbard’s Amsterdam Island, it became a hub for the lucrative whaling industry, drawing hundreds of whalers each summer. 

The settlement's name, meaning 'blubber town', reflects its purpose – processing whale blubber into oil, a highly valuable commodity in Europe. Though now abandoned, its remnants serve as a powerful reminder of Europe's Arctic ventures and the era of Arctic whaling. 

• Smeerenburg: The Origins of the First Oil Rush in the Arctic