St. Helena

About

The guardhouse was built by Johan Thrane, a local merchant, postal officer and shipping agent, but was bought by the Customs Service in 1858. It is in this context that it came to be called St Helena, for while the customs officers were comfortably ensconced in the actual custom house, the lower ranks were dispatched in rowing boats to the guardhouse out on the rock in all winds and weathers, to keep a lookout for sailing ships. Most people will have heard of a certain emperor by the name of Napoleon, who, after the Battle of Waterloo in 1815, was ‘exiled’ by the British to the island of St Helena in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. 

The old guardhouse is now a customs museum, with artefacts found there from long ago. Also here is the old lifeboat RS2 Langesund, which is permanently moored at the jetty.

Tollmuseet – the customs museum – and the Gjestland collection are open to the public by request.