THE LAND ANNEXATIONS 1898-1925 PIONEERS Søren Zachariassen COMPANIES Norwegian German Swedish British American Russian/Norwegian Others THE CLAIM SIGNS The claim signs ADOLF HOEL SOURCES The Scottish Spitsbergen Syndicate Ltd – SSS Being encouraged by good coal analysis, Dr William Spears Bruce and Burn Murdoch established SSS in Edinburgh on the 16th of July 1919. The company had activities on large areas of Spitsbergen and got hold of significant properties west of Billefjorden and in Tempelfjorden, on Forlandet, Barentsøya and Edgeøya. Mostly they were prospecting, finding mineral occurrences and securing properties with the intentions to sell them afterwards. In 1922 the company did their last prospecting (-) expedition. In the following years, all they did were prospecting. During the financial crisis, financing got to be a severe problem and the fact was that SSS went bankrupt. The owners tried on several occasions to sell their properties. Negotiations with Norwegian interests lasted into the 1930’s. After the world war the negotiations continued, and in 1952 the Norwegian government bought all the properties for NOK 550 000.