Tollerodden

Tollerodden (spelled Tolderodden until 1917) is a small rocky promontory located at the head of the Larviksfjorden on the eastern side and a part of the town of Larvik in Larvik Municipality in Vestfold county, along the southeast coast of Norway.

The Larviksfjorden is open to the southeast, so Tollerodden was the safest place in Larvik harbour, thus the town was originally established at Tollerodden and the nearby surroundings. As the town of Larvik grew, the commercial harbour was moved further down the fjord to the south and Tollerodden became preserved to look like it was in the town's early years.

Tollerodden has become recognised worldwide as the birthplace of the naval architect Colin Archer, who had his boatyard here. He became renowned for his seaworthy pilot and rescue vessels and also the polar ship Fram.

Early history

"Tollerodden" means "The Customs peninsula" because a Customs house was situated here. The name was spelt "Tolderodden" until 1917 when Norway had its second modernization of the language replacing Danish words and spelling to those closer to Norwegian dialects. "Tolder"/"toller" means the Customs officer and "odden" means point, headland, or peninsula.

By coincidence, Tollerodden was owned by Niels Toller in 1667-69 and it has been speculated that the name had been spelt with "ll" in early days, but there is no evidence of that, and it is more likely that the Customs house gave name to the peninsula.

Larvik church

Larvik Church is located at Tollerodden close to the Customs property. The church was given permission to build in 1668 and was finished in 1677, the tower was added in 1762.^{[citation needed]}

Laurvig Hospital

In 1736 Laurvig Hospital [no], a wooden building, was built next to the church. In 1760 it was replaced with a brick building which is today in its original shape. In the early 1800s, it served as a school and today it is run by a foundation as social lodgings. "Laurvig" is the old way of spelling "Larvik" and the spelling is kept for this building.

Larvik Maritime museum

The Larvik Maritime museum [no] was built in 1714 as a brick building by a merchant. In 1728 it was severely damaged by fire and extensive repair and changes were done. The house had different uses during the years, but is still in the 1730 rebuilt shape. In 1850 the house became the Customs Office. Later, the building was used as a theatre, mineral water factory, knitwear factory and warehouse. In 1962 it became the maritime museum. The Maritime Museum is today it is a part of the Larvik Museum [no] and is only open in the summer time. The Maritime museum has some of Archer's drawings, but most of them are at the museum in Oslo. Larvik does not have a permanent Archer exhibition, but there are plans for a new building for a Colin Archer-centre to house both the rescue boat Stavanger and the pilot boat Straaholmen.^{[citation needed]}

The breakwater harbour Skotta

In 1750, a wooden pier was built at Tollerodden. This pier was destroyed by storms several times, so it was decided to make a solid stone breakwater. This was started in 1770 but was intermittent and the pier was not finished until 1805. The breakwater was again damaged several times and several extensive repairs were done. By 1835, it had the shape it has today. Wooden boats are given priority in the habour.^{[citation needed]}

Shipyard at Tollerodden until 1813

There was a small shipyard on the town side of Tollerodden, just west of where Colin Archer later had his yard. The ship owner Falkenberg, owner of Tollerodden (previously Customs house) from 1794, ran the shipyard and the last ship built, was the three masted bark Prima, built for himself in 1813.

Archer family

Tollerodden has become recognised worldwide as the birthplace of the naval architect Colin Archer, whose ancestors came from Scotland.

Scottish Archer family moves to Tollerodden

William Archer was a timber and lobster merchant in Scotland. He traded with Norway and in 1819 he visited Norway and Larvik, living there for long periods as agent for the Scottish business.

Business did not go too well, so he decided to emigrate to Larvik and be an exporter there. He bought a sailing ship Pomona and with his wife and their eight children, sailed to Larvik in 1824 and founded an export company for timber and lobster. In 1826 they bought the Customs/shipowner house which property still included the whole west part of Tollerodden with shoreline from the town side and all around to the southeast.^{[citation needed]}

Colin Archer returns home; naval architect and yard owner

When the parents were getting old, the brothers in Australia, decided to return home in 18 month shifts to look after them and a sister was also still living at home. Colin was no. 2 and arrived home in 1861. He was then well off with income from his part ownership in the farm and had also invested in other companies.^{[citation needed]}

When Colin arrived Tollerodden, the parents' house, where two of Colin's sisters also still lived, desperately needed repair. Colin estimated this to cost 2000–3000 dollars and the brothers agreed to split the costs between them.

Colin took up sailing and started building small boats in his spare time. Boatbuilding interested him so much that he started to study all available literature on Naval Architecture. Being well off, he could afford expensive books like Chapman's and Scott Russel's books. After meeting a woman who interested him, he decided to stay and build boats. They married in 1869 and had a new house built, just 25 metres from the parents' house. The house also served as his design office.

At first, the larger boats were built outdoors, but in 1872 he had a shed built on the town side of Tollerodden. After he had built his first small boats, he employed boatbuilders to work for him and became a professional naval architect. He titled himself as yard owner. Some years later further boat building sheds were added^{[citation needed]}.

The good income from his Australian interests allowed him to build boats without a customer and he introduced the latest international knowledge into his designs. The Norwegian pilot boats at the time were of the old type "cod’s head-mackerel tail" type, lightly ballasted and not very seaworthy. Colin might have thought it would be easy to get into the pilot boat market, but conservatism in the workboats industry prevented substantial changes. So, in 1873, he decided to go for larger ships and bought a share in a yard further out in the Larvik fjord at Rekkevik, called "Laurvig Strandværft".

However, he kept getting orders for pilot boats, so boatbuilding at Tollerodden was continued.

In 1877 he published his Wave-form Theory for boat and ship design in The Field and had it read at the British Institution of Naval Architects. His theory was a variation of John Scott Russell's famous Wave-line Theory. By questioning this with what many^[who?] regarded as more logical and thought-through, Colin Archer became well known long before he had taken the most important steps in improving the Norwegian pilot boats.

He gradually became famous for his fast and seaworthy pilot boats with ballast keels and especially for his rescue boats, a larger and heavy weather version of the pilot boats. In 1892 he built the polar ship Fram that became famous for its voyages close to both the north and south poles.

Colin ran his business until 1909, when he was aged 77. His young foreman would have continued the business in another location if he had not died suddenly that same year^{[citation needed]}. The Tollerodden yard was thereafter used for laying up boats for winter and for boat maintenance.

Street names at Tollerodden

The curved street that goes past the Customs house was called Tolbodgaten (Customs Street), but this was later changed to the current name, Kirkestredet (Church Path). The street leading up to the church from the town side was called Kirkegaten (Church Street) but was renamed to Colin Archers gate (street) in 1917, three years before Colin Archer died.

Tollerodden bought by Larvik town

In 1939, the Archer family sold their property to Larvik municipality. The yard was still used for laying up boats, but the boatsheds and sailmaker's house were pulled down one after the other, the last in the 1970s and the area made into a park. However, the yard’s launching slipways were kept and are still there. Tollerodden became a popular public area, especially the pond on the south side suitable for children to learn to swim.^{[citation needed]}

Tollerodden today

Tollerodden has not changed much since the Archers’ time. The Archer property with its large garden and park, still with the pond, are all restored to the Archer period, and is a popular area for Larvik citizens all year.^{[citation needed]}

Reference list

Further reading

• Colin Archer
• Serle, Percival (1949). "Archer, Thomas". Dictionary of Australian Biography. Sydney: Angus and Robertson.

Sources

• Johnsen, Oscar Albert (1923). Larviks historie. 1 : Larviks historie indtil 1814 (in Norwegian). Kristiania, Norway: Grøndahl & Søn.
• Langeland, A. St. (1953). Larviks historie. 2 : 1814-1885 (in Norwegian). Larvik, Norway: Larvik kommune.
• Langeland, A. St. (1963). Larviks historie. 3 : 1885-1940 (in Norwegian). Larvik, Norway: Larvik kommune.
• Aagaard, Aage (1900). Larvik og omegns industri og næringsliv i tekst og bilder (in Norwegian). Christiania, Norway: A.M. Hanches forlag.
• McDonald, Lorna (1997). Magic ships: life story of Colin Archer, 1832–1921, and Sailing for pleasure. Central Queensland University Press. ISBN 1875998268.
• McDonald, Lorna (1991). Over Earth and Ocean. The Archers of Tolderodden and Gracemere. Central Queensland University Press. ISBN 0702231452.
• McDonald, Lorna (1981). Sketches of Old Rockhampton. Sketches by Edith Neish. St Lucia, Queensland: University of Queensland Press. ISBN 0702216313.
• Svendsen, Terje (November 2020). Tollerodden - fra privat prakt til folkets oase. Tollerodden Foundation.
• Nielsen, Jeppe Jul; Archer, James Ronald (November 2019). Colin Archer. Den verdenskjente båtkonstruktøren på Tollerodden. Tollerodden Foundation.
• Leather, John (1979). Colin Archer and the Seaworthy Double-Ender. International Marine Publishing Company. ISBN 0877420866.
• Sannes, Tor Borch (1984). Batbyggeren Colin Archer. Oslo, Norway: Norsk Maritimt Forlag. pp. 304–417. ISBN 8290319053.

External links

• Friends of Tollerodden - Tollerodden.no (in English)
• Colin Archers History (by Jeppe Jul Nielsen)
• RS 1 COLIN ARCHER - website in English (by owners)
• The Fram Museum - in Oslo

59°02′49″N 10°02′06″E / 59.047°N 10.035°E / 59.047; 10.035