SANDEFJORD

town, Vestfold fylke (county), southeastern Norway. Located near the mouth of the Oslo Fjord at the head of Sandefjord Fjord, an inlet of the Skagerrak, Sandefjord was established in the 14th century, and it received its charter in 1845. In the early 1900s it became one of the world's major whaling centres, but emphasis has shifted to shipping and industrial works such as machine shops and chemical works. An international statistical bureau is located there to keep track of the destruction of whales on a worldwide basis and to develop plans for conservation of endangered whale species. West of the town is Gokstad, in which King Olaf of Vestfold was buried in the 9th century. A Viking ship was unearthed in Sandefjord in 1880. Pop. (1987 est.) mun., 35,453.