Hvalfangstmuseet (Whaling Museum)

Europe's only museum devoted solely to the history of whaling occupies a purpose-built building on the Sandefjord waterfront. The permanent collection walks through the rise and fall of Norwegian whaling from the small-scale coastal operations of the 19th century to the enormous factory ships that dominated the Antarctic in the early 20th.

Highlights include model ships, hunting equipment, paintings of the Southern Ocean hunts, and vivid accounts of what life was like on a whale catcher — the physical brutality of the work, the camaraderie, and the remarkable distances covered. The outdoor exhibits include a whale skeleton and, moored alongside, the whaling vessel Pol VIII, which you can board and explore. A short film rounds out the visit with historical footage.

The museum is housed in a 1917 building on Museumsgata, a short walk from the town centre. Opening hours vary by season — check the website before visiting.

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A story
The museum's prize exhibit is the Pol VIII, one of the last whale catchers built for the Antarctic whaling fleet, moored outside and open to board. At its peak in the 1920s, Sandefjord was the whaling capital of the world, dispatching factory ships to the Southern Ocean that processed thousands of blue whales per season — an industry that came within a generation of making the blue whale extinct.