[Rainer]

Hi Andy

The two vessels were not icebreakers: SELIS was a seal catcher of just 166 grt and ISBJØRN was an old coastal steamer (built 1894 of 437 grt) that had been captured during an earlier raid on Spitzbergen. There is some more information about these ships and their loss on warsailors.com:
http://www.warsailors.com/singleships/isbjorn2.html
http://www.warsailors.com/freefleet/...ts2.html#selis