Reykjavík Grapevine - 15.08.2008, Page 34

34 | REYKJAVÍK GRAPEVINE | ISSUE 12—2008
DESTINATION BY SveInn BIRkIR BJöRnSSon — pHoTo BY SveInn BIRkIR BJöRnSSon
Silver Rush in Siglufjörður
A recreAtion of A herrinG-rush dock in the boAthouse.
NATURE IS THE ADVENTURE!
www.adventures.is | info@adventures.is
Meet us at Laugarvegi 11
Booking hot-line: +354-562-7000
SNORKELING
FROM 7.990 ISK
Those who lived it still claim it was the best time of their
lives. The Great Herring Adventure of the ‘50s and ‘60s was
the Icelandic equivalent of Klondike. A gold rush (or silver
rush perhaps, as herring is affectionately
called the silver of the sea in Iceland)
where seasonal workers made a year’s sal-
ary in a few month period salting herring
for foreign markets. The herring years, as
this era is commonly known, has been
repeatedly romanticised in songs, novels
and plays in Icelandic culture, leaving
us – the post herring era generations –
to believe that this nation peaked a long
time ago, and no matter what we’ll do, or
where we’ll take this nation in the future,
it will never compare to the herring years.
And perhaps they are right. Those were
different times. Simpler times. And per-
haps they were better times.
The Herring Era Museum in Si-
glufjörður celebrates this era in an award
winning fashion. Selected as the museum in Iceland in 2000,
it managed to top itself in 2004 when it was awarded the Mi-
cheletti award as the best museum in Europe. The museum
is housed in three separate houses, each featuring an aspect
of the production cycle and the life of herring workers. The
Boat House recreates the town’s bustling harbour of the
1950s, with many old fishing boats at the dock. Loaded with
tools and memorabilia from life at sea and the equipment
used to bring the valuable herring –the silver of the sea – to
shore. Grána, a herring meal and oil factory from the 1930s
shows how men and machines processed herring into meal
and oil. Filled with old equipment used for the process. The
oldest museum building is Róaldsbrakki, built as a Norwe-
gian herring station in 1907. On the ground floor is a display
of the equipment and conditions of (mostly female) work-
ers on shore, where the herring was salted and barrelled for
export. The upper levels accurately recreate the condition
of the ladies who bunked together in small rooms, with com-
mon cooking facilities and sanitary equipment, and the offic-
es of the herring exporters, complete with pay slips, produc-
tion reports and bottles of Jenever and Icelandic Brennivín.
The work for herring salters was no picnic. The
day started whenever the boats would come in, and it end-
ed when all the herring had been salted. Each working day
could easily exceed 20 hours, standing upright, soaked in
fish gut and salt, suffering from cuts, blisters and infections.
The township of Siglufjörður in Northern-Iceland was the big-
gest herring manufacturer in Iceland from
the early 1900 until the industry crashed
around 1970. During the herring season,
the number of inhabitants multiplied when
tens of thousands of seasonal workers and
fishermen migrated to this northernmost
town of Iceland to ply their trade.
Old photos from this era, displayed in
the museum, show hundreds upon hun-
dreds of boats, filling the fjord from one
shore to the other during days when the
fleet had to seek shelter from the storm.
For sailors, these days ashore were usu-
ally accompanied with wine, women and
dance. Accordion music has become sym-
bolic, for when there was free time, there
was dance. Or so legend would have it.
Myself, I would probably have used every
spare moment to rest.
The Icelandic Herring Era Musuem
Snorragata 15, 580 Siglufjörður
Tel.: 467 1604
www.sild.is
Opening hours: 13:00 – 17:00
Admission: 800 ISK
During the 50’s and the 60’s, a great influx
of herring from the North-Atlantic created
an economic boom in Iceland. Every man,
woman and child in coastal towns along
Northern- and Eastern Iceland was drafted
to serve the country in a time of need. There
wasn’t a war going on. The herring was
here. And in those days, herring equalled
money, and it needed to be processed before
it went bad. The Grapevine travelled to
the Herring Era Museum in Siglufjörður to
learn more about this history.
Examining the Herring Era Museum in Siglufjörður
HERRING ERA MuSEuM:
The biggest maritime
museum in Iceland.
SIGLufjöRðuR
POPuLATION:
1967: 3000 people
2007: 1500 people
HERRING ExPORT:
35% of export revenues in the
most fruitful years.
BIGGEST SEASON:
1966, 691.400 tons.
LAST SEASON:
40.000 tons.