A hundred years ago Glasgow was at its peak as the second city of the British Empire and its shipbuilding yards were equipping the merchant, naval and fisheries fleets of the whole world.
Alongside the great ships which slid into the river Clyde there were also small ones, epitomised by the trawler "Coot". It set sail on a wing and a prayer of safe homecoming and arrived at her new home, the harbour of Hafnarfjörur, on 6 March 1905 from Glasgow. The pioneers who took to the sea in Iceland's first ever trawler were Arnbjorn Olafsson, Bjorn Kristjánsson, Einarorgilsson Mr. Mathiesens (the great grandfather of the present Fisheries Minister) Indri_i Gottsveinsson and Thordur from Halsi.
Their catch was mainly cod that was then processed as salted cod. The main fishing ground was Faxaflói close to the Reykjavik and Hafnarfjörur area.
Tragedy struck for this vessel with the name of the chirpy little water bird that likes to make home amidst the flotsam and jetsam of many a small harbour. She ran aground on 14 December 1908 and was destroyed -- thankfully all her crew were rescued. She weighed in at only 140 tonnes gross and phutt-phutted around with a massive (for the period) on a 48 horse power steam engine. All that remains of her is part of that engine in the museum in Hafnarfjörur.
All the years that Coot was in business the company did very well and made a profit with each succeeding season. In 1907 three more trawlers were bought to Iceland.
So much has happened since then including many trawlers who have followed in her wake and to celebrate the Century of Trawlers in Iceland the Ministry of fisheries of Iceland is to hold a conference on 4 March to celebrate the centenary arrival of the first Icelandic trawler.
Entitled Fish and the Future, it will take place in ReykjavÃk and there will be speakers from Germany, the UK, USA and Iceland. There will also be special competition in which all the schools in Iceland have been invited to take a part to produce the best website about fisheries. There will also be photographic exhibition during the summer.
No report would be genuine without detail for the inspectors of Coot's catch under the then unlimited quota system. In 1905 the catch totalled 54,435t. Almost one hundred years later the Icelandic catch stands at 2,133,327t.
