With a new Rolls-Royce designed factory trawler on the way later this year, Samherji’s German subsidiary DFFU has sold its factory trawler Baldvin. It has been sold to Poland and renamed Polonus.
“The departure of Baldvin NC is a milestone in the history of Samherji, as now, for the first time in 25 years, there is no ship named Baldvin in our fleet”, said Samherji CEO Thorsteinn Már Baldvinsson.
“This name has brought us good fortune all these years. I am also very proud of the the ship’s excellent condition after all these years. It is a clear indication that the vessel’s crews have been diligent in taking good care of the ship and also provides proof of high quality design and construction at the time of building.”
Baldvin has a long carer behind with the company, built as Baldvin Thorsteinsson at Flekkefjord in 1992 as Samherji’s first ever newbuild. The 66 metre trawler was initially skippered by Thorsteinn Vilhelmsson and subsequent skippers were Arngrímur Brynjólfsson, Guðmundur Jónsson and Hákon Thröstur Guðmundsson.
In 1999 Baldvin Thorsteinsson broke the catch record for the fist Icelandic fishing vessel to reach one billion ISK in catch values, and the ship and its crew also broke numerous other records.
In 2001 it was sold to German subsidiary Deutsche Fischfang Union (DFFU) and renamed Baldvin NC. DFFU has operated the trawler for the last fifteen years, most recently under skippers Sigurður Kristjánsson and Sigurður Hörður Kristjánsson. Their most recent trips were to catch Greenland halibut in East Greenland.
DFFU will take delivery at the end of the year of the new Berlin NC-105, which replaces Baldvin.
