Fróðskaparrit - 01.01.1970, Page 15

The English Letters of Pastor Schrøter
23
1850 was a vital one. The importance of the pilot-whale
fishery in this period is very clearly illustrated. Schrøter tells
with obvious excitement how 3,146 whales were killed in
1843; 2,300 in 1844; over 2,500 in 1845; and 2,962 in 1847;
and that the 1846 figures was only low because of the measles
epidemic. We read of the introduction of the net at Vest-
manna, of how in 1844 the Monopoly ran out of barrels for
this unexpected harvest of train-oil, how farmers started
feeding whale-meat to cattle, and how the very bones became
an article of export to England. We find, too, that the law
of 1833 covering the distribution of meat after a killing (still,
in essentials, the method used today) follows a system devised
by pastor Schrøter and his brother-in-law Jørgen Frands
Hammershaimb, and first used on SuSuroy as early as 1801.
Perhaps the most interesting detail in Schrøter’s account of
the development of the cod fishery is what he says of the
Icelandic fish-curer Jacobæus, whose work in Tórshavn led
to the summer labours of the Faroese fisherman henceforth
bringing a fair return. In a letter dated lst September 1845, he
says:
The klipfish curer has bought so much raw cod from poor
people here in Thorshavn and hereabout, that it dried
exceeds 6 tons. This is a great benefit to the poor fishermen,
as they otherwise in these two months, from 15th June to
15th August may lose all their fish by vermin. Now it is
paid them £15 per ton, that is, £90, or above 800 rigs-
bankdollars. It would be far more, but the stormy weather
did not permit them to go outside of Nolsøe. Still, it is to
continue. The fishcurer has bought a house here in Thors-
havn, and one of the fishing sloops is to remain here.
In 1849, the fish-curer was training some of the boys and
girls of Tórshavn in his craft.
Schrøter was keen for freeing the trade and improving
navigation to the Faroe Islands. He was concerned not only