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The West Ice accidents occurred around April 5, 1952 when the five Norwegian seal hunting vessels "Ringsel", "Brattind" and "Vårglimt" from Troms and "Buskøy" and "Pels" from Sunnmøre with a total of 78 men vanished in the midst of a severe storm in the West Ice, east of Greenland.

Despite search and rescue operations for many days involving planes and naval ships, no traces of the missing boats were discovered. During Easter that year 53 Norwegian vessels were participating in seal hunting in the West Ice. Of these 7 shipwrecked, 5 of these disappeared without a trace. The first vessel to shipwreck was the Møre boat "Vestis", however the crew of this boat was rescued.

External links

• (Norwegian) Da alarmen gikk i Vestisen "When the Alarm Called in the West Ice"

Literature

• Arnold Farstad: Mysteriet i Vestisen: selfangsttragedien som lamslo nasjonen, ("The West Ice Mystery: The Seal Hunting Tragedy that Stunned the Nation") Samlaget, 2001, ISBN 82-521-5849-8
• Asbjørn T. Aagaard: Vesterisen 1952, 1995 (diary notes published by Hilde Aagaard) ISBN 82-993655-0-3

This article incorporates information from this version of the equivalent article on the Norwegian Wikipedia.