The Icelandic Canadian - 01.12.2004, Qupperneq 13

Vol. 59 #2
THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
55
The Ferry Repossessed
Part one of three
Told by Erling Palsson, Gudjon Valgeirsson and Valentinus
Olason at Akranes, Iceland
On Saturday 9 July, 1983, a chronicle
was published in an Icelandic newspaper,
on an adventurous journey of three
Icelanders from Cyprus to France. Their
story got quite a lot of attention, especially
for how unbelievable people thought it
was. It was said it could just as well be out
of a novel by Alistair McLean or Jack
Higgins.
Rumours were going around about
this journey. Those three men were sup-
posed to have received large amounts of
money for their participation. Most people
were amazed by the foolhardiness of these
men, who seemed to have put their lives in
great danger just for the adventure. No
explanations were given officially on their
behalf, since they thought it was best not to
bring any more attention to the matter.
Now, four years after the event they have
agreed to publish their mutual story on the
adventurous journey.
The three sailors involved were: Erling
Palsson mate, Valentinus Olason mate and
Gudjon Valgeirsson engineer.
The Beginning
Erling Palsson tells that It all started 31
May 1983. The phone rang at 6 o'clock in
the morning. On the line was Johan
Lampaert, salesman and marketing consul-
tant in Ledegen, Belgium. He did all kinds
of trading around Europe, including the
Mediterranean area. Johan and Philippe
Lampaert, who was a good friend of mine,
were cousins. Philippe had in been in
Iceland the year before, working among
other things as a deck-hand on my boat,
Grotta AK, and in the autumn he was also
on the trawler Vikingur AK, with Gudjon
Valgeirsson and I.
Philippe, who was a lawyer, had been
working for Johan since the beginning of
the year, and was at that time in Famagusta
on North-Cyprus. He had, for the last
three months, been handling a lawsuit for
Johan regarding a ferry that Johan had sold
to Cyprus, but never received the payment.
Johan asked me to stay by the phone at
19.00 hrs. that evening, because Philippe
was going to phone me (through Brussels,
since there isn't a direct phone connection
between Iceland and Cyprus).
I waited with excitement and at about
19.00 hrs. Philippe called from Famagusta
in Cyprus. He asked me to come to
Famagusta and bring two men with me to
sail the ferry GIRNE to Italy. He put some
pressure on me to do this. The trip would
take around a week, the wages would be
good and all travel costs would be paid.
I agreed instantly to take the job.
Actually, I had received a letter from him
in April where he described what he was up
to over there, so this didn't come as a sur-
prise to me.
What eventually made me, and all three
of us, decide to do this, was our longing to
visit exotic countries and the different cul-
ture of the Middle East and Cyprus.
Suspicions
Following is the story of Erling,
Gudjon and Valentinus.
On Friday 3 June we boarded an
Iceland Air plane to Luxembourg. Our
spirits were good and we were looking for-
ward to taking on this assignment, which
had been so suddenly offered to us. We
can't deny that we were a little suspicious
that perhaps things weren't quite what they
seemed. All such thoughts disappeared