Lately my interest has been the stories of the legendary old Norwegian sealer M/S Polarstar that has been hunting in the arctic North Atlantic since 1949.
In periods of time it has been used for several other things; for scientific studies, for passenger traffic and sysselmannsbåt (the boat of the local governor) at Svalbard, but was in 2007 back as a sealer doing traditional hunting.
Lots of pictures from the 70s here. And here.
It is fascinating stories both for the historical value of it, but also when it comes to the dream of the great artic adventure. It's especially interesting because of my own personal reasons -my grandfather was the chef on board M/S Polarstar for several years.