The Cold Coasts

THE COLD COASTS A detailed and factual account of the 1955 spy-ship mission of the Norwegian sealing vessel Godønes. Written and illustrated by an American who was aboard.

On that mission, American and Norwegian intelligence officers and scientists conducted an electronic intelligence mission covering Soviet mining operations in Svalbard as well as facilities on nearby Soviet shores. Members of the team also went ashore on Bear Island and Spitsbergen to locate potential sites for military airbases.

This was a Cold War adventure in the high Arctic, featuring pack ice, seals and polar bears, and frigid islands just a few hundred miles from the North Pole. It could have become an international incident until a huge ice floe intervened and abruptly ended the mission. In text and photos, the book also describes the lifestyle, now disappeared, of the Norwegian hunters.

The Cold Coasts is also the story of a young family man: a geologist who seemed to disappear from the face of the earth while on this mission. Fresh from witnessing atomic testing in the American West, he found himself bound for Russian waters, sharing food and quarters with the seal hunters.

The book is available in hardcover, paperback, and Kindle Edition formats.

Jim Burns is a retired geologist living in Charlottesville, Virginia. He is the father of three grown sons. After more than 50 years of marriage, his wife Jaquelin died in 2006.

The first half of his career, mostly with the U. S. Geological Survey, was devoted to applications of earth sciences in solving military problems. In addition to the Svalbard mission described here, he had extended field assignments in Alaska, Germany, Iran, and Vietnam. He also held a variety of research, editorial, and managerial positions.

His later career was in environmental geology. He managed a program of environmental resource inventories for the civil works programs of the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers. Returning to the Geological Survey, he was involved in the environmental impact analysis of various mineral developments on the public lands and the outer continental shelf. He retired as chief of the Survey’s office of environmental affairs.

For several years following retirement, Jim was a member and exhibiting artist in the Enamelists Gallery at the Torpedo Factory Art Center in Alexandria, Virginia.

He has written numerous articles, reports, and books on scientific and technical subjects, but The Cold Coasts is his first attempt to reach a more general audience.