Norway - Svalbard - Hopen

With postmark and cover collectors the polar regions have always been very popular. A collection is not complete without mail from bases in Antarctica. On the other side of the world post offices above the Arctic Circle exist in Norway, Greenland, Finland, Alaska, Canada and Russia.

In Norway there are post offices above the Arctic Circle on the mainland. Also the island of Jan Mayen has a post office. The region of Svalbard has four post offices on the largest island Spitsbergen and two on the islands of Hopen and Bear Island (Bjørnøya).

Hopen is an island in the southeastern part of the Svalbard archipelago (Norway). Hopen was discovered in 1596 by Jan Cornelisz Rijp during the third expedition by Willem Barentsz, trying to find the Northeast Passage. Later, in 1613, its name was given by Thomas Marmaduke of Hull, who named it after his former command, the Hopewell.

The Norwegian Meteorological Institute operates a manned weather station on the island with a staff of four persons. For the welfare of the crew, there are three cabins available on the island for their use.

During World War II, the Luftwaffe placed a meteorological team there under cover of Operation Zitronella.

On 28 August 1978 an early model Tupolev Tu-16 of the Soviet Air Force crashed on the island. All seven crew were killed in the accident. It was discovered two days later by the four-man Norwegian weather forecasting team. The USSR refused to admit the loss of an aircraft until the bodies of the crew were given to them. Norway transcribed the contents of the flight recorder over the objections of the Soviet government.

Although the island is small and isolated and have a small staff there is a functioning postal service at the weather station since 1986, although it closed from 2002 and 2005. The original postmark showed a walrus, but that is no longer in use. A normal Norwegian datestamp is used. Fortunately they still use the old postmark without a date as a cachet. On the card inside the envelope the staff put an extra print. As stamps I bought the most recent Norwegian Svalbard stamps from 1996. Although the postal rate for an international letter at that time was only NOK 17, I used the complete series because they look very nice on the envelope.

Date sent: 28 April 2017

Date postmark: 24 May 2017

Date received: 23 June 2017

Number of days: 56

Envelope in collection: 191