Which Dutch navigator discovered Bear Island and Spitsbergen in 1596?

Which Dutch navigator discovered Bear Island and Spitsbergen in 1596? The answer is Willem Barentsz.

Willem Barentsz was a Dutch navigator, cartographer, and Arctic explorer who made three voyages while searching for a Northeast Passage to Asia. On his third expedition in 1596, his fleet reached Bear Island on 9 June and sighted the northwestern coast of Spitsbergen on 17 June. These discoveries added important Arctic islands to European maps.

The expedition did not achieve its commercial goal. After separating from another ship, Barentsz’s vessel became trapped in sea ice near Novaya Zemlya. The crew built a shelter called Het Behouden Huys, or “The Saved House,” and survived the Arctic winter before attempting to return in open boats.

Barentsz died on 20 June 1597 during the return journey. The name Spitsbergen, meaning “pointed mountains,” was initially applied to the island and later to the wider Svalbard archipelago. A common mix-up is crediting Abel Tasman, whose voyages belong to the southern oceans and the exploration of Australia and New Zealand, not the Arctic discoveries of 1596.