Lögberg-Heimskringla - 07.07.1989, Síða 6

6-FOSTUDAGUR 7. JULI 1989
Icelandic fishing as depicted on stamps
Some of the stamps depicting Icelandic Fishery.
by Jón Aðalsteinn Jónsson
When the first Scandinavians set
foot on Icelandic soil at thé start of
the settlement in the 9th century,
they doubtless must have started
searching for food in the lakes and
sea, in the same way that they were
used to doing on their own home ter-
ritory. And indeed, ancient docu-
ments inform us that both farm
products and fish drawn from the sea
have been providing the common
people of Iceland with their staple
diet right from the time of the settle-
ment up until the present day. Off-
shore fishing is also mentioned in old
manuscripts from the time of the set-
tlement onwards, something that
comes as no surprise since Iceland is
surrounded by some of the richest
fishing grounds in the world.
The actual fishing techniques em-
ployed by the Icelanders appear to
have changed little from the earliest
times up until this century, and for
many years, fishing was effectively
practiced alongside farming. Men
would row out to sea either in small
boats, manned by between one and
four men, or in larger vessels which
took as many as twelve oarsmen.
Usually, fishing would commence
early in the morning, the boats
returning to land on the evening of
the same day.
After each day's fishing, the boats
would be drawn up upon dry land.
Nothing was uded but hook-and-line.
Naturally, one could only row out
in good weather and on a calm sea,
and in some places, on the south
coast for example, harbours were few
and far between — if they existed at
all. In cases like the latter, the fisher-
men would be forced to row straight
out to sea, directly off the beach, and
even then, they would sometimes
have a great distance to row before
they reached the fishing grounds.
Often, too, the weather would
change during the period of the fish-
ing trip, and sometimes the fisher-
men would find it extremely difficult,
if not totally impossible to make a
safe landing on shore. Numerous
tragic accidents often occurred for
this very reason, as farmers and
farmhands attempted to risk a lánd-
ing amidst the breakers on the shore-
line right in front of their own home-
steads. The boats would all too often
capsize, resulting in the loss of entire
crews.
The Icelandic postal authorities
have commemorated this important
branch of the Icelandic economy on
a number of stamps from 1925 on-
wards. In 1925, two stamps were is-
sued, a 7 aurar and a 50 aurar, depict-
ing the same subject in which a boat
is being landed amidst surf on the
south coast of Iceland, men on the
shoreline offering their assistance.
This picture is symbolic of the ap-
proach described above, which was
known right from the time of the
earliest settlement in Iceland, and
continued far into this century. It
even occurs to this very day.
Early in the middle ages, a number
of small fishing villages came into be-
ing at the sites where men rowed out
to fish, and from these places, the ex-
portation of what is known as skreið
was taken up, skreið being a kind of
dried, pressed fish which was much
in demand amongst foreign traders,
especially those from England and
Germany. The next step was that, in
the period around 1400, the afore-
mentioned nations themselves, ac-
companied by the Dutch, began to
practice fishing off Iceland. The larg-
est fishing village at this time was off
the south coast of Iceland in the
Westmann Islands. One can see the
harbour there on three stamps, the 5
and 90 aurar, and the 2 krónur,
which were issued as part of a series
in 1950.
In the 18th, and especially in the
19th centuries, enterprising Ice-
landers began outfitting larger
decked boats for the purpose of off-
shore fishing. This brought a new
class of shipowners into being, a class
which has had a very important role
to play in Iceland over the past one
hundred years or so, especially in
terms of providing work.
Round about the turn of the centu-
ry, there was a radical change in the
fishing techniques of the Icelanders,
as larger and stronger vessels came
to be added to the fishing fleet. First
came fishing smacks, and then, a little
later, trawlers. An Icelandic trawler
can be seen on four stamps in a ser-
ies that was issued between 1950 and
1954, the 10 and 25 aurar, the 1.25
kr. and the 1.50 kr.
The coastline of Iceland, especial-
ly that of the south, has often proved
highly dangerous for seamen, and not
least for those foreign seamen who
didn't take enough care with the shal-
low, sandy waters of the coast in
their hunt for the cod. Boats would
often end up on those terrible sands
of the south coast, and particularly
those of the French seamen who on
a number of occasions sacrificed both
their boats and their lives in the per-
iod around the turn of the last cen-
tury. As is well known, the French
in their fishing smacks were frequent
visitors to the Icelandic fishing
grounds at that time. Naturally, at-
tempts were made to rescue those
seamen who found themselves in
peril off the wave-lashed coasts of
Iceland, and many famous stories tell
of men being rescued from the dead-
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ly grip of the sea. Unfortunately,
though, a great many met their
deaths along these coasts.
Sea rescue operations are depicted
on a 10 aurar and 35 aurar stamps of
a Charity Issue from 1933, and also
on a 75 aurar stamp from 1949. One
of the clearest examples can be found
on the 60 kr. stamp which was issued
to commemorate the 50th anniver-
sary of the National Life Saving Asso-
Continued on Page 7
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