The North Atlantic Fisheries, 1100-1976 - University of Hull

The North Atlantic
Fisheries, 1100-1976
National Perspectives on a
Common Resource
Edited by
Poul Holm
David J. Starkey
Jón Th. Thór
Studia Atlantica, 1

The North Atlantic Fisheries, 1100-1976
3

Fiskeri- og Søfartsmuseets Studieserie, 7
Studia Atlantica, 1
Esbjerg, 1996
ISBN 87 87453 71 1
ISSN 0908-3421 (Studieserien)
ISSN 1396-6294 (Studia Atlantica)
© 1996 authors and publisher
North Atlantic Fisheries History Association
c/o Dr Jón Th. Thór, President
Icelandic Centre for Fisheries History Research
Hafrannsóknastofnun, Skúlagötu 4, P.O.Box 1390, IS-121 Reykjavík
e-mail jonthor@hafro.is
Editorial address for Studia Atlantica is
c/o Dr Poul Holm
Center for Maritim og Regional Historie
Tarphagevej 2-6, DK-6710 Esbjerg V
e-mail cmrhpoho@inet.uni-c.dk
Updated information
on the North Atlantic Fisheries History Association
is available on the Internet
http://inet.uni-c.dk/~cmrhpoho/nafha.htm
Editor of Studieserien
Poul Holm
Editors of Studia Atlantica
Poul Holm, David J. Starkey and Jón Th. Thór
General editor of Fiskeri- og Søfartsmuseets Forlag
Morten Hahn-Pedersen
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Preface
This volume comprises the papers presented to a symposium on ‘North
Atlantic Fisheries History, 1100-1976’, held in July 1995 on the
Westman Islands, Iceland. The meeting was generously sponsored by the
Nordic Cultural Foundation, Iceland’s Minister of Fisheries, the Mayor
of the Westman Islands, and the Icelandic Marine Research Institute.
The publication of these proceedings was financially supported by the
Fiskeri- og Søfartsmuseets Publishing Fund, the Town Council of the
Westman Islands and four companies operating from the islands, Ísfélag
Vestmannaeyja hf., Íslandsbanki hf., Sparisjóður Vestmannaeyja and
Vinnslustöðin hf. The editors are extremely grateful to all those
individuals and institutions who have supported the symposium and this
publication.
The North Atlantic Fisheries History Association (NAFHA) was
inaugurated at the Westman Islands symposium. Its aim is to promote
research into the exploitation of the living marine resources of the North
Atlantic from the Middle Ages to the present day, and to assess the
significance of this activity to the populations of the countries bordering
these seas. In pursuing this aim, NAFHA will foster international and
interdisciplinary research by facilitating the exchange of researchers
between participating institutions, and by organising regular seminars
and conferences. The results of these enquiries will be disseminated in
various forms, including the publication of a history of the North Atlantic
as a common resource over the last 600 years.
Poul Holm
David J. Starkey
Jón Th. Thór
5

Contents
Jón Th.Thór
with Kjartan Árnason, Magnús H. Helgason and Óðinn Haraldsson
Icelandic Fishing History Research ....................................................13
Jóan Pauli Joensen
The Fisheries of the Faroe Islands. An Overview...............................27
Dorete Bloch
Whaling in the Faroe Islands, 1584-1994: An Overview ...................49
Vagn Wåhlin
with Henning Mosegaard Kristensen
The Faroese Greenland Fishery. Faroese Fishery Policy towards
Denmark and Greenland in the Inter-War Period ...............................63
Axel Kjær Sørensen
Fishing by the Greenlanders ...............................................................89
Jaap R. Bruijn
Dutch Fisheries: An Historiographical and Thematic Overview ......105
Robb Robinson & David J. Starkey
The Sea Fisheries of the British Isles, 1376-1976:
A Preliminary Survey .......................................................................121
Pål Christensen & Alf Ragnar Nielssen
Norwegian Fisheries 1100-1970. Main Developments.....................145
Bertil Andersson
Fisheries in Western Sweden c1650-1950.
A Short Historical, Bibliographical and Statistical Survey...............169
Poul Holm
Catches and Manpower in the Danish Fisheries, c1200-1995 ..........177
Note on Contributors.........................................................................207
6

Introduction
In his History of an Expanding World, Niels Steensgaard pointed to the
fact that the North Atlantic fisheries played a crucial part in European
expansion. 1 As we approach the five-hundredth anniversary of John
Cabot’s discovery of the great fishing banks off Newfoundland,
historians should be especially aware of the important contribution made
by late-medieval and early-modern fishermen to the development of
European economy and society. Contemporary quota problems and
social distress in fishery-dependent communities also serve to stress the
importance of the history of the industry.
Nevertheless, European historians, in some contrast to colleagues on
the other shore of the Atlantic, have been curiously disinterested in the
history of fishing. To redress this situation, a group of Nordic historians
met in Esbjerg in November 1994 to prepare the ground for a full-scale
history of the fisheries of the North Atlantic. The first step in this scheme
was generously supported by the Nordic Cultural Foundation, which
sponsored a symposium on North Atlantic Fisheries History,
c1100-1976, held on the Icelandic Westman Islands 26-29 July, 1995.
The purpose of the symposium was to provide an overview of the state of
research in North Atlantic fisheries history and to bring together a select
number of scholars active in this field. The symposium was organised at
short notice, and the organisers are grateful that those invited were not
only willing to give a paper, but also delivered final texts shortly
afterwards.
The papergivers were directed by the organisers “to analyse and
discuss the utilization of resources in the Northern Seas through five
hundred years in the interplay of native and foreign production,
technological innovation, settlement patterns, organisation of trade, and
rivalry between states.” Naturally, not all aspects of this vast arena were
covered by the papers, but the organisers hoped to start a process which
in the longer run will provide the sort of comparative studies which are
needed. This hope was more than amply fulfilled.
The programme was a mix of national overviews and thematic
studies. For the purpose of the workshop, the North Atlantic was defined
broadly as the ocean between the American and European continents
1 Verden på oppdagelsernes tid, 1350-1500, Aschehougs Verdenshistorie, eds. K. Helle
et al. (Oslo, 1984-85).
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north of the latitude of the Bay of Biscay, including the North Sea, the
Davis Strait and the Arctic Sea around Svalbard / Spitsbergen. The main
emphasis was put on cod fisheries, but whaling, sealing and herring and
plaice operations were also considered. The period under review was
c1100 to 1976 – i. e. the era of almost unrestricted utilisation of the
Northern Seas. Systematic comparison and discussion of a range of
relevant issues was encouraged, with questions such as fish prices,
ecology, biological knowledge, colonial rivalries, demography and
settlement patterns afforded particular attention.
Individual contributors have treated this broad subject very
differently. This should cause no surprise given the pioneering nature of
the meeting, and the absence of an international scholarly debate which
might have served to point out fields and problems for special
comparative attention. In as much as the overviews published in this
volume represent the first easily accessible introduction to national
research in fishing history, we have no doubt that the volume will serve
to identify fields which are in need of more research and call for
international collaboration.
The reader will find a broad chronological discussion of national
fisheries in the overviews of Norwegian, Danish, Icelandic, Faroese,
British, and Dutch fisheries, with guidelines as to statistics and literature.
The basic approach is that of economic history, while the authors also
identify distinct national research interests. Unfortunately, it was not
possible to cover every national fishery as contributions on Canadian,
American, German, Belgian, French and other interests in the North
Atlantic could not be arranged.
The fisheries developed very differently in the Northern Seas,
dependent on a wide array of factors, most of which are discussed in
these essays. One of the defining parameters was the character of the
coast. As Jaap Bruijn and Jóan Pauli Joensen both point out, the nature of
harbours is crucial to any understanding of the basic technological
development of boat-types. Open coasts, natural ports and manmade
harbours exert a key influence on the development of flat-bottomed boats
and keel-boats, not to mention large decked vessels. A comparative study
of fishing-boat design over the past centuries is much needed.
The technology used for catching also needs comparative study. The
introduction of the longline is a case in point. While it seemed to spread
relatively rapidly from Flemish and Dutch fishermen to English and
Danish fishermen in medieval times, Norwegian, Faroese and Icelandic
8

fishermen resisted the introduction of this gear as late as the nineteenth
century. Another case of technological diffusion that would repay more
study is presented by the British sailing trawlers which were sold in large
numbers to Swedish and Icelandic fishermen around 1900, when Britain
turned to steam-powered vessels. This outdated technology made it
possible to continue the tradition of handlining on new distant grounds
in the first half of the twentieth century.
For a comparative study, differences in distance to the fishing
grounds are also crucial. While the Icelanders naturally considered their
fjords as inshore grounds, these were distant water grounds to
continental and British fishermen. A large amount of capital was needed
to carry out these voyages, while Icelandic and Faroese activity on these
grounds developed as farmer-fishing. Even in the North Sea, the
distinction between capitalised and artisanal fisheries developed very
early. Certainly by the fifteenth century, Dutch fishermen had developed
a large-scale herring fishery with big vessels which needed substantial
quantities of capital.
The capital problem was even more acute in the development of
commercial networks. The Hanseatics controlled the artisanal fisheries
in the medieval Danish Sound fishery, and when the Dutch took control
of the European herring market in the sixteenth century, they developed a
quality control system which ensured supremacy until the end of the
eighteenth century. The development of the mass market during the
mid-nineteenth century was stimulated by a revolution in the
transportation system. The key factors in this process were iced cargoes,
ship carriers and, most of all, the railway system which provided inland
consumers with access to fresh fish for the first time. The price rise
which followed enabled fishermen and investors to revolutionize fishing
technology. In that process, the protectionist measures which had been
introduced in the Netherlands to safeguard the old industry were
abolished.
Periodisation is a major problem in any comparative history. While
the mid- or late-nineteenth century stands out in all the essays as a critical
phase for the modernisation of the industry, there is less clarity as regards
earlier periods. The Norwegian and Danish essays point to the 1620s as
times of crisis, when earlier large-scale fisheries declined leading to
stagnation throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. At the
same time, the Dutch fisheries expanded till around 1650, when British
fisheries seemed to gain ground. British growth lasted until the late
9

eighteenth century when the Newfoundland fishing grounds were lost to
resident fishermen across the North Atlantic. While economic
explanations go a long way to explain these changing fates, there is less
certainty as regards biological factors. While variations in sea
temperature seem to explain the fluctuating abundance of pilchard and
herring off southwestern England, and climatic change also is the crucial
determinant of the appearance and disappearance of cod in Greenland
waters, there is less certainty regarding the changing fortunes of national
fisheries. In the North Sea, Danish fisheries slumped while Dutch
fisheries boomed in the seventeenth century. Clearly, the evidence on
climatic history needs to be substantiated.
Interdisciplinary work between historians and scientists would go a
long way to illuminate these problems, just as the history of modern
fisheries cannot be written without reference to biological knowledge.
The establishment of national marine biological institutions in the last
quarter of the nineteenth century, and in particular the creation of ICES
in 1903, has greatly facilitated research into fishing history by making
good statistics accessible. However, the interpretation of these statistics
has only just begun and much more work is needed to overcome the
standard explanations which mar not only historical understanding but
also common-sense assumptions about fishery regulations.
Moreover, basic questions such as the economic impact of the
fisheries need much more work. While the immediate output of the
fishing industry is measurable, we know very little about the derived
economic importance of the fishing sector, such as how many jobs on
land are created by one fisherman at sea. In an age when the number of
fishermen is rapidly shrinking and thus reducing the importance of
fishermen as a political constituency, their importance for the national
economy is all too easily neglected.
Regional variations in overall trends are apparent from the studies
presented in this volumes. One striking case is the tenacity with which
the British Westcountrymen developed their fishery off the coast of
Newfoundland, when Continental and British fisheries in the North Sea
were contracting steadily in the latter half of the seventeenth century.
The factors underlying Britain’s successful exploitation of the
Newfoundland fishery are not fully understood and require further
research into the supply of capital and the significance of political
interest.
10

The impact of politics is evident from the studies presented in this
volume, but much more work needs to be done. The obvious example of
political intervention is the erection of economic zones in the past
half-century, but in the history of the North Atlantic fisheries politics
have always been on the agenda of states competing for the resources of
the sea. One particularly interesting case is the Faroese claim to fishing
rights in Greenland in the early twentieth century, which is highlighted in
two papers in this volume. The case concerns two tiny nations in the
North Atlantic bound together within the Danish realm, and the conflict
illustrates the possibilities of enforcing claims to a particular resource by
calling upon ‘historical rights’.
Fish consumption has no doubt shrunk dramatically since the Middle
Ages. The decline in Norwegian coastal settlements from the
seventeenth century reflects the contraction of European fish demand.
The study presented in this volume shows the advanced level that
research in this field has reached in Norway. The fact that
seventeenth-century people abandoned ‘catholic practises’ such as the
eating of fish during Lent is still very much with us although recent
advocates of healthy fish eating have tried to reverse the trend. In the
High North, fish is still a staple diet, and it is striking to learn that pure
necessity only in the last few years has again forced the Faroese to rely
heavily on marine sources of meat.
The development of the fish-processing industry is not fully covered
in these essays, but they do point to striking growth in this sector.
Beginning with the mass production of dried saltfish for the
Mediterranean market, the Icelanders, Faroese and Norwegians were
already investing in fish processing in the late nineteenth century. In the
1880s the British fish ‘n’ chip shop developed as a staple food and
cultural institution. But in the larger European market, fish consumption
would probably have almost vanished had it not been for the introduction
of deep-freezing technology. Fish processing was and is very much a
female labour industry. The editors regret that it did not prove possible to
recruit a comparative paper on the development of this industry.
Looking back on eight or nine centuries of fishing history, it is
striking that problems of capital supply are often the key to
understanding the industry. While fishermen have been notoriously poor
(although not always as poor as they have successfully presented
themselves to tax-collectors), problems of overcapitalisation today
afflict the industry. The Faroese, who were trapped in a paternalistic
11

truck-system only two generations ago, developed in the 1970s and
1980s a fishing fleet which managed to exhaust natural resources and in
so doing helped bankrupt the national economy. While the Faroese case
is tragic and extreme, it is a sobering reminder to all those interested in
the past as well as the future of the fishing industry.
12

Icelandic Fishing
History Research. A Survey
Jón Th.Thór
with Kjartan Árnason, Magnús H. Helgason and Óðinn Haraldsson
So far Icelandic scholars have paid little attention to the country’s fishing
history. No general history of Iceland’s fisheries exists. The only fields
which have received what may be termed proper attention are the history
of Iceland’s fishing limits and the ethnological side of the rowing-boat
fishery prior to 1900.
Icelandic fishing historians have identified three main periods in their
field: the rowing-boat era, lasting from the Middle Ages until c1900; the
smack-fishing period, c1815-1920; and the modern period which started
with the introduction of motor-boats and steam-trawlers early in the
twentieth century and has lasted until the present time.
The present paper is a survey of Icelandic fishing history research
since 1940. Much has been published on fisheries in Iceland during the
period under discussion in this paper. Many of these publications are,
however, of the general reference kind and there are also many memoirs
and biographies of skippers and fishing vessel operators. Few of these
works can be deemed scholarly as they are not based on thorough
research and relatively few contain bibliographies or references. In order
to avoid complications and too many “grey zones” this survey is
confined to books written by scholars and other historical works in which
the fisheries and fishing vessel operation are an important part of the
study. Included is a section on fishing limits as this is an important part of
Iceland’s fishing history. The publications listed are briefly discussed, so
as to give the reader some information about their subject.
The paper consists of six sections. The first is a short survey on the
importance of fisheries in Iceland, while the second covers works of a
more general nature, dealing with many topics and covering longer
periods of time. Section three deals with the history of Icelandic trawler
operation, while section four covers works on foreign fisheries off
Iceland and the fishery limit. The fifth section contains a brief survey of
the most important biographies and works on local history where the
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history of fishing plays an important role. Finally, in section six there is a
short discussion of some topics for future research.
I. The Importance of Fisheries in Iceland
Fisheries have always been most important in Iceland’s economy as well
as in the daily life of most Icelanders. Since the fourteenth century fish
and other marine products have been the country’s most important export
articles although the significance of the fisheries in the Icelanders’ life
has varied from time to time. Until the early twentieth century Icelandic
society was predominantly agricultural. In most areas sheep-farming was
the most important occupation with every farm aiming at being as
self-sufficient as possible. However, in the west and south-west, the
fisheries were the most important industry but were mostly conducted on
a seasonal basis, the principal fishing seasons being the ‘winter-season’,
from January or early February until 11 May, the ‘spring-season’, from
12 May until 24 June, and the ‘autumn season’, from 29 September until
23 December. 2
The handline was the most common fishing gear and most of the
fishing was done by farmers, peasants and farm-labourers, the seasonal
character of the industry resulting in a considerable migration of the
workforce. Farmers living in the main fishing areas, from the Western
fjords in the north to the Westman Islands in the south, did indeed go to
sea with their men, but those living in other areas of the country sent their
labourers and peasants to the fishing stations in January or September.
There they stayed until early May when they returned to work on the
farms during summer. On the return trip they were often accompanied by
labourers, men and women, from the south and west, who went up north
and east where they worked as seasonal labour during the haymaking
season in July and August.
2 L. Kristjánsson: Íslenzkir sjávarhættir II, 369.
14

Until around 1800 almost all fishing in Iceland was typically inshore
fishing, conducted from rowing boats operating close to the shore. By the
early nineteenth century decked, sailing vessels came into operation.
These were often owned by merchants and operated out of the main
trading ports. The sailing vessels went further out than the rowing boats
and although they undoubtedly contributed to the growth of towns along
the coast they can hardly be said to have changed the structure of society
as a whole. 3 Their annual period of operation was short, only some 5-6
months (late March-late August or early September) and they were
mostly manned by farm labourers. Some of these gradually became
full-time fishermen but the majority went on living in the countryside.
Motor-power was introduced in Icelandic fisheries soon after the turn
of the twentieth century. The first motor-boat came in 1902 and the first
steam-trawler in 1905. The number of both types grew rapidly during the
next decades and the new technique quickly transformed society.
Trawlers and motor-boats were operated out of the main fishing stations
and ports and went fishing almost all the year round. Consequently, a
new ‘class’ of full-time fishermen came into being and the fishing
stations and ports grew into fishing villages and towns. Before the
Second World War most of the catch was salted and exported to the
Mediterranean, especially Spain and Italy. Saltfish production was
labour intensive which resulted in an increasing flow of people from the
countryside to the town where a ‘modern’ working-class emerged.
Besides being the most important export commodity since the
fourteenth century, fish has until recently been the Icelanders’ most
important food article. In coastal areas fish was in former times eaten
five or six days a week and much fish was also transported inland. Thus it
is stated that during the period 1550-1800 the annual consumption of
dried fish (stockfish) at the Bishop’s see in Skálholt varied from 8 to 13
tons. 4
An accurate estimation of the role fishing played in Iceland’s
economy before 1900 is difficult to make as reliable statistics are not
3 During the period 1830-1890 ‘smack’ operation was most intensive in the Western
fjords, especially in Ísafjörður. There can be no doubt that ‘smack’ operation contributed
to the growth of that town but the effects were much less significant in other parts of the
country. (On the importance of ‘smack’ operation for Ísafjörður, see Thór, ‘From
Shark-Fishing to Salt-Fish Production’, 103-12).
4 Thór, Saga Grindavíkur, 230.
15

available except for the very last decades of the nineteenth century.
However, the point should be stressed that in 1920, 20.5 per cent of the
Icelandic population was employed in fisheries and fish processing. This
percentage rose during the next decades and was 23.6 per cent in 1960.
After that it fell somewhat because of increased mechanization. 5 At the
same time the importance of fish as an export article also rose. In
1921-1925 fish products constituted 84.9 per cent of the value of
Iceland’s exports, but 92.8 per cent in 1951-1955 and 91.2 per cent in
1961-1965. 6
II. General Works
First among the general publications is L. Kristjánsson’s five-volume
work, Íslenzkir sjávarhættir. 7
In libraries this work is usually
categorized as ethnology and it contains a wealth of information on the
history of fisheries during the rowing-boat period. Although not a history
of fishing, the author covers all the main aspects of Icelandic fisheries
from the earliest times until around 1900. Among his subjects are the
rowing boat, fishing stations, fishing grounds, the fishermen and their
life, fish processing, domestic fish trade, consumption and transportation
of fish inside Iceland, the different types of fish, fishing gear, whaling,
fowling and seal hunting, shark fishing, utilization of the marine flora,
driftwood, various aspects of and customs connected with the fisheries,
etc. The work is thoroughly documented and each volume contains an
extensive bibliography and reference list. Richly illustrated with
photographs, drawings and maps, each volume is provided with a
detailed summary in English. By the same author are two articles on the
rowing-boat fishery during the ‘Little Ice Age’. 8
Another, but much shorter, general work dealing mostly with the
rowing-boat period is J. Jónsson’s survey of the development of fisheries
off Iceland from about 1300 until 1900. 9 The book is divided into three
main sections of which the first covers the fisheries undertaken by
Icelanders while the second is concerned with foreign fishing activities
5 See Thór, British Trawlers and Iceland, 1919-1976, 255 (Appendix H,1).
6 Ibid., 256 (Appendix H,2).
7 Kristjánsson, Íslenzkir sjávarhættir I-V (1980-1986).
8 Kristjánsson, ‘Þá eru komnir þrír í hlut’, ‘Sjóslysaárin miklu’.
9 Jónsson, Útgerð og aflabrögð við Ísland 1300-1900.
16

in the area. The third includes conclusions, bibliography and
registers.The author has consulted various sources and his study of the
effects of natural forces such as weather and sea temperature on the
fisheries is both useful and interesting. Last but not least the book
contains a good bibliography. These items are also discussed by Jónsson
in an article published in 1994. 10
Also of a general nature is G. Guðmundsson’s history of smack
operation in Iceland during the nineteenth and early twentieth
centuries. 11 It was first published in 1944-46 and soon became popular.
It contains a wealth of information on the “Smack Age” and is based, to a
considerable degree on interviews with old “smack hands”. Its main
weakness is that it is badly documented, lacking quotations and giving
only a very brief and imperfect list of sources.
One more general survey is S. Jónsson’s book on Icelandic fisheries
in the twentieth century. 12 It describes the main facets of the fisheries;
the structure of the industry, its effects on habitation and Iceland’s
economy in general, fish export and, finally, the marine-biological
system in the seas around Iceland. Although not an historical work in the
strictest sense, the book contains much of interest to the fishing historian.
It is based on thorough research, excellently documented and contains a
most useful bibliography.
In this group of studies must also be ranked Trausti Einarsson’s
account of whaling off Iceland. 13 Based on an extensive research in
Icelandic and foreign archives, the book covers the history of whaling in
the Iceland region from about 1600 until 1939. It has a good bibliography
and reference list. Also Þ. Magnúsdóttir’s study of Icelandic women at
sea should be mentioned. 14 This brief analysis demonstrates that women
have long taken an active part in fishing and in some areas of Iceland it
was quite common for women to go to sea along with the men. This is an
interesting book on a topic not widely researched as yet.
10 Jónsson, ‘Fisheries off Iceland 1600-1900’.
11 Guðmundsson, Skútuöldin I-II.
12 Jónsson, Sjávarútvegur Íslendinga á tuttugustu öld.
13 Einarsson, Hvalveiðar við Ísland 1600-1939.
14 Þ. Magnúsdóttir, Sjókonur á Íslandi 1891-1981.
17

Little has sofar been written on the history of marine biological
research in Iceland but an excellent survey is to be found in J. Jónsson’s,
Hafrannsóknir við Ísland. 15
III. Trawling
Strange as it may seem, only two scholarly books have so far been
published on the history of Icelandic trawling business. The first is H.
Þorleifsson’s study of Icelandic trawler operation from its beginning in
1905 until 1917. 16 The book starts with a short survey of the first British
and German attempts at trawl fishing off Iceland and Danish efforts to
operate trawlers out of Icelandic ports around the turn of the twentieth
century. Then the author proceeds to his main subject and covers the
beginnings of Icelandic trawler operation and analyses its development
down to 1917 when a considerable part of the Icelandic trawler fleet was
sold abroad. There are interesting sections on Icelandic attitudes towards
trawling at the beginning of the twentieth century as well as on catches,
fishing grounds, trawler companies, legislation, territorial waters and the
life and work of the first trawlermen. The book contains a good
bibliography and an English summary.
The second book was published in 1991 and covers the period
1945-1970. 17 Immediately after the Second World War a programme
designed to rebuild the country’s economy was launched by the Icelandic
government. The renovation of the fishing fleet was a part of this
programme and, consequently, 45 new trawlers were built during the
next eight years. The operation of the new vessels was, however, not as
successful as expected, and soon after 1950 trawler operation began to
decline. By 1970 only some 20 trawlers were working out of Iceland, all
of them old and decaying. This book is a good survey of the subject,
containing many tables and diagrams, an extensive bibliography and a
detailed English summary.
The history of Icelandic trawling during the inter-war years has not
been as well covered as that of the period before the First World War and
the post war years. The subject is, indeed, discussed in several
biographies relating to the period but only one scholarly article discusses
15 J. Jónsson, Hafrannsóknir við Ísland I-II.
16 H. Þorleifsson, Saga íslenzkrar togaraútgerðar fram til 1917.
17 Þ. Óskarsson, Íslensk togaraútgerð 1945-1970.
18

the subject in depth. 18 However, this work only covers the period
1920-1931 and is confined to trawler operation out of Reykjavík.
IV. Foreign Fisheries off Iceland and Fishing Limits
More has been written on this subject than any other aspect of Icelandic
fishing history. The only work covering the period from the Middle Ages
until modern times is B. Þorsteinsson’s Tíu þorskastríð. 19 This is a
survey of the history of Iceland’s fishing limit from the times when
foreign fisheries began off Iceland until 1 December 1976 when the last
British trawlers left the Iceland grounds. The author discusses disputes
arising over fishing rights and simultaneously records some of the main
facts regarding the character of foreign fishing activities in Icelandic
waters.
Icelandic lawyers have written extensively on the issue of fishing
limits but these works can hardly be deemed fishing history. For
instance, G. Þórðarson discusses the Icelandic fishing limit prior to its
extension to four nautical miles in 1952, 20 while H. Jónsson is unique in
covering all the Anglo-Icelandic ‘Cod Wars’ and discussing them from
the juristic point of view. 21 A further publication on this theme is J. Th.
Thór’s short survey of the fishing limit during the three-mile period,
1901-1952, and the Icelanders’ attempts to get the limit changed. 22 Also
by the same author is an article on the extension to four miles in 1951-52
and the British reaction. 23
Foreign fisheries off Iceland in the period prior to 1800 are covered in
some detail by J. Jónsson and B. Þorsteinsson. 24 An examination of
French fisheries off Iceland during the age of sail is the concern of E.
Pálmadóttir’s history of the Breton fishermen in Icelandic waters from
the eighteenth century until 1938. Based on extensive research in French
archives, the book tells the story of the so-called “Iceland fisheries” and
18 B. Guðmarsson, ‘Togaraútgerð í Reykjavík 1920-1931’. Landshagir 173-97.
19 B. Þorsteinsson, Tíu þorskastríð 1415-1976.
20 G. Þórðarson, Landhelgi Íslands með tilliti til fiskveiða.
21 H. Jónsson, Friends in Conflict.
22 J. Th. Thór, Landhelgi Íslands 1901-1952.
23 J. Th. Thór, ‘The Extension of Iceland’s Fishing Limits in 1952 and the British
Reaction’, 25-43.
24 J. Jónsson, op. cit.; B. Þorsteinsson, op. cit.
19

has an emphasis on the life and work of the fishermen and their
families. 25
On British trawl fisheries off Iceland there are two books by J. Th.
Thór, the first covering the period from the beginning of steam trawling
in Icelandic waters until 1916, 26 and the second discussing the subject
from 1919 to 1976. 27 Both works cover the history of British trawling off
Iceland and the disputes arising over fishing rights.
In addition two articles have been written on the
Anglo-Iceland/Danish fisheries dispute of 1896-97, by G.Á.
Gunnlaugsson 28 and J. Th. Thór. 29
V. Local Histories and Biographies
In recent years local history has been flourishing in Iceland. Most local
historical subjects have been started and financed by communities or
local historical societies. The majority of published works must be
categorized as local history as they deal with the development of towns
and villages. Most Icelandic towns are, however, relatively young and,
consequently, most local history publications cover only the nineteenth
and twentieth centuries. As most Icelandic towns must be regarded as
coastal or fishing communities, fishing and fish processing is inevitably
a considerable part of their history and in most cases the cornerstone of
the local economy. Consequently, much has been written on fishing
history on a local basis, although the authors’ emphasis on the economic
history of their ‘subjects’ differs considerably.
Four local histories published during the last fifty years cover the
fishing history of the period prior to 1800 and all pay a good deal of
attention to the ethnology of the fisheries as well as to their effect on
habitation. The oldest of these works is S. Johnsen’s two volume work
on the history of the Westman Islands, 30 which has a long chapter on the
25 E. Pálmadóttir, Fransí, biskví.
26 J. Th. Thór, British Trawlers in Icelandic Waters. An Icelandic edition of this book
was published in 1982, entitled Breskir togarar og Íslandsmið 1889-1916.
27 J. Th. Thór, British Trawlers and Iceland, 1919-1976.
28 G. Á. Gunnlaugsson, ‘Fiskveiðideila Íslendinga og Breta 1896 og 1897’. Saga XVIII
(English summary).
29 J. Th. Thór, ‘Íslandsför æfingadeildar breska flotans sumarið 1896.’
30 S. Johnsen, Saga Vestmannaeyja I-II.
20

fishing history of the islands, based on thorough archival research. In
1960 came the history of Stokkseyri, a small fishing village on the south
coast, written by G. Jónsson. 31 Stokkseyri is one of the oldest fishing
stations on the south coast of Iceland and Professor Jónsson’s work has a
good, though rather short section on its fishing history. More recent are
the histories of the fishing community of Fróðárhreppur in western
Iceland, 32 and of Grindavík on the south coast. 33 In both those works
fishing history plays a significant part.
Among the many publications on Icelandic nineteenth- and
twentieth-century local history only four will be mentioned here. The
first is F.G. Olgeirsson’s study of Ólafsjörður, 34 which concerns itself
mostly with the history of fisheries and fish production and the part these
two factors played in the making of the town. Also from the 1980s, J. Th.
Thór’s history of Ísafjörður, 35 especially vols. I, III and IV, which cover
the nineteenth- and twentieth-century fisheries and fish production in the
town sometimes called the ‘salt-fish capital.’ More recent is B.
Guðmarsson’s study of Keflavík, which has good sections on the
fisheries undertaken from the southern half of the Faxa Bay in the late
eighteenth and the nineteenth century. 36
A new trend in local history can be discerned in J. Guðnason’s short
work on the Patreksfjörður area, published in 1993. 37 The author’s main
emphasis is on the structural changes emerging as an old-type society of
fishermen and farmers became a modern capitalistic fishing town. All of
these local histories are based on archival research and all have extensive
bibliographies.
Many biographies and autobiographies of skippers and fishing vessel
operators have been published in recent years. These publications
generally convey much information about the fisheries and fishing, but
most must be considered popular history as they are not based on
31 G. Jónsson, Stokkseyringa saga.
32 E. Guðmundsson et al., Sjávarbyggð undir Jökli.
33 J. Th. Thór, Saga Grindavíkur.
34 F. G. Olgeirsson, Hundrað ár í Horninu.
35 J. Th. Thór, Saga Ísafjarðar I-IV.
36 B. Guðmarsson, Saga Keflavíkur 1766-1890.
37 J. Guðnason, Umbylting við Patreksfjörð 1870-1970.
21

scholarly research and only few contain notes and bibliography. Here
only three biographies will be recorded. The first is the autobiography of
Á. Gíslason, 38 who was for many years a fisherman at Bolungarvík and
Ísafjörður and was the first one to operate a motor-boat in Iceland. His
memoirs give a vivid and authentic description of the activities of
rowing- and motor-boats in the Western fjords around the turn of the
twentieth century.
From the same area is Á. Jakobsson’s biography of E. Guðfinnsson, a
well-known fishing vessel operator and merchant at Bolungarvík. 39 And,
finally, by the same author, is the biography of skipper T. Ófeigsson. 40
Mr Ófeigsson began his carrier as a deckhand on one of the first
Icelandic trawlers, then went to Britain where he became skipper of
trawlers operated out of Hull by Hellyer Brothers. From there he returned
to Iceland where he started a trawler company which he ran for several
years. Based to a considerable degree on interviews with Mr Ófeigsson
the book contains a wealth of information on the history of Icelandic and
British twentieth-century trawler operation.
VI. Further Research
From the foregoing it should be obvious that little consistent research has
so far been undertaken in Icelandic fisheries history. The only work
based on thorough archival research and covering a wide field is L.
Kristjánsson’s five-volume Íslenzkir sjávarhættir. As mentioned above,
this is, however, no less a work of ethnology than history. Much work is
therefore still to be done and this will inevitably include extensive
archival research. Statistical sources for the period prior to 1800 are both
few and sporadic but as J. Jónsson has shown in his Útgerð og aflabrögð
við Ísland 1300-1900, careful analysis of Icelandic annals and
comparison with foreign catches off Iceland in the seventeenth and
eighteenth centuries can help to give some idea of the magnitude of
Icelandic fisheries in this period. Accurate statistics will, however, not be
established on the basis provided by such material. Another possibility is
a careful study of fish export from Iceland during the same period.
Material on this issue has indeed been thoroughly studied by Gísli
38 Á. Gíslason, Gullkistan.
39 Á. Jakobsson, Einars saga Guðfinnssonar.
40 Á. Jakobsson, Tryggva saga Ófeigssonar.
22

Gunnarsson but his aim was not to establish catch statistics. 41 A different
approach to the sources might bring other results.
From the nineteenth century there exists printed material covering the
1850s and the period from 1870 onwards. The use of these data is,
however, not easy and considerable ‘spade work’ is required to make it
coherent. Statistics covering twentieth-century fisheries are, on the other
hand, available, both in Icelandic sources and in ICES publications. 42
Much research is also needed in other fields concerning Iceland’s
fishing history. Cooperation with climatologists and oceanographers is
likely to bring forward interesting results concerning the effects of
climatic changes on the fish stocks and the fisheries in times past. A
careful study of habitation is also likely to demonstrate the effects of
fisheries on coastal habitation.
Much research is also needed in the technical, political and cultural
aspects of Icelandic fisheries during the nineteenth and twentieth
centuries. Some work is already under way but we have a long way to go
before a ‘History of Icelandic Fisheries’ is realized.
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1919)
Bárðarson, J., Áraskip. Fiskveiðar í Bolungavík fyrir 40 árum
(Reykjavík, 1940) (2nd ed. Reykjavík 1964)
Bogadóttir, S., Aðbúnaður togarasjómanna: breytingar með
nýsköpunartogurunum og vökulögum um tólf stunda hvíldartíma.
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Einarsson, T., Hvalveiðar við Ísland 1600-1939. (Reykjavík, 1987)
Friðriksson, T., Hákarlalegur og hákarlamenn. (Reykjavík, 1933)
Friðriksson, T., Í verum. Saga Theódórs Friðrikssonar. (Reykjavík,
1977)
Geirsson, S., Norðfjörður. Saga útgerðar og fiskvinnslu
41 G. Gunnarsson, Monopoly Trade and Economic Stagnation.
42 In Iceland statistics on fisheries were published in Landshagsskýrslur fyrir Ísland
(1899-1912), Fiskiskýrslur og hlunninda (1912-1941) and then in Ægir since 1942 and in
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23

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1986, 173-197 (Reykjavík, 1986)
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Guðmarsson, B., Byggðin undir Borginni. Saga Skagastrandar og
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Gunnarsson, G., Monopoly Trade and Economic Stagnation. Studies
in the Foreign Trade of Iceland 1602-1787. (Lund, 1983)
Gunnlaugsson, G. Á., ‘Fiskveiðideila Íslendinga og Breta 1896
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(Reykjavík, 1984)
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1994)
Jakobsson, Á., Sigling fyrir Núpa: útilegubátatíminn á Ísafirði 1915-
1925 (Reykjavík, 1965)
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1974)
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Law of the Sea (London 1982)
24

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1994, 67-102 (Esbjerg, 1994)
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1994)
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Scandinavian Economic History Review, 1983, 31, 132-150
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1984)
Jónsson, Þ., Aldahvörf í Eyjum. Ágrip af útgerðarsögu
Vestmannaeyja 1890-1930 (Reykjavík, 1958)
Kristjánsson, L., ‘Fiskveiðar Íslendinga 1874-1940.’ Almanak hins
íslenska Þjóðvinafélags 1944, 65-111 (Reykjavík, 1944)
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1971)
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(Reykjavík, 1971)
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Magnúsdóttir, Þ., Sjósókn sunnlenskra kvenna, frá verstöðvum í
Árnessýslu 1697 - 1980 (Vestmannaeyjar, 1984)
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(Ólafsfjörður, 1984)
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sveitarfélaga í nýsköpun togaraflotans eftir seinna stríð.’ Ný saga, 2,
13-25 (Reykjavík, 1988)
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Thór, J. Th., ‘Hverfabyggðir. Athugun á þéttbýlismyndun á
25

Snæfellsnesi, Suðurnesjum og í Vestmannaeyjum fyrir 1700.’
Árbók Suðurnesja 1994, 27-44 (Keflavík, 1994)
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British Reaction.’ Scandinavian Journal of History, 1992, 1,
25-43
Thór, J. Th., British Trawlers and Iceland, 1919-1976 (Esbjerg, 1995)
Thór, J. Th., British Trawlers in Icelandic Waters (Reykjavík, 1992)
[An Icelandic edition of this book was published in 1982,
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Thór, J. Th., Saga Ísafjarðar. vol. I-IV (Ísafjörður, 1984-1990)
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(Reykjavík, 1974)
Þorsteinsson, B., Tíu Þorskastríð 1415-1976 (Reykjavík, 1976)
Þórðarson, G., Landhelgi Íslands með tilliti til fiskveiða (Reykjavík,
1952)
Ægir. Rit Fiskifélags Íslands um fiskveiðar og farmennsku (Reykjavík,
1905-)
26

The Fisheries of the
Faroe Islands. An Overview
Jóan Pauli Joensen
Introduction
This overview traces the development of the fishery in the Faroe Islands
in the context of the general development of the Faroes. My own
research has so far concentrated on the fishery up until the Second World
War, and that will colour what I am going to present here, 43 but the
post-1945 period and the problems of a modern fishery have been dealt
with in recent years in several academic theses in various disciplines.
Whaling is also an important part of the Faroese maritime way of life,
and is treated separately in this volume. 44 The objective here is to present
a more complete and critical survey of literature and research concerning
both the older and modern fisheries in the Faroe Islands.
Fisheries in Early Times
Archeological evidence of the fisheries is very sparse, extending to a
collection of sinkers together with a few iron hooks, probably fishing
hooks. However, in a recent excavation a relatively large number of
objects relating to fisheries and seafaring in the thirteenth century was
found. 45 It is not until the later topographical literature about the Faroe
Islands appears that one finds descriptions of the fishery. 46
From the landnam period around 800 AD, the Faroes were generally
speaking no further from the centre of European commerce than other
countries, because at that time the ocean connected rather than separated
the Faroes from the world around it. But from the Middle Ages, the
43 This research is compiled in the thesis Fra bonde til fisker. Studier i overgangen fra
bondesamfund til fiskersamfund på Færøerne (Joensen 1987).
44 See Dorete Bloch’s paper.
45 Information from Símun V. Arge, Head of the Archeological Department, The
Museum of the Faroe Islands.
46 See J. C Svabos report from 1781-82 (Svabo 1959) and Sørensen’s memoirs from
1859. Reprinted in 1971 (Sørensen 1971).
27

pattern of European economic development gradually marginalized the
Faroes, along with the other Nordic areas in the North Atlantic Ocean. 47
It is significant that from around 1300 to 1600 the fishery was
commercially important in the Faroes. The trade with Bergen was from
the Middle Ages to the seventeenth century dominated by the Hanseatic
merchants, whose merchant vessels also came to the Faroes to trade and
to buy dried fish, but it was not until 1361 that they actually received a
license to do so. 48 Still, the Hanseatic merchants supplied the whole of
Northern Europe with dried fish. 49
A historical legend about a heavy storm in the second half of the
seventeenth century, in which 50 boats disappeared, relates: “In those
days the Faroe Islanders used small Norwegian boats called ‘tristar’.
But after this disaster, in which those 50 boats went down, a law was
passed which ordered the fishermen not to go too far out in such small
boats.” 50
The fact that very small boats were used in the second half of the
seventeenth century is perhaps indicative of a creative way of thinking. If
we may deduce from what we know about boat keeping later on, the
ownership of boats smaller than a ‘4-mannafar’, which is a boat for four
rowers, was not part of the boat keeping duty which will be described in
more detail later. The smallest boats were privately owned, and with
them one could fish as one liked.
Woollen hoses (socks) appear for the first time in the tithes for 1634.
After that they appear more regularly, 51 and when the headquarters of
the trade with the Faroes was moved to Copenhagen in 1619, socks
became the most important export commodity. Dried fish had therefore
had its day as an export product. The Faroese society had by and by
47 This problem is fully treated in Bjarne Stoklund, ‘From Centre to Periphery. Main
Lines of North Atlantic Cultural Development from Medieval to Modern Times’. See
also Stoklund 199l.
48 Mortensen 1955:8.
49 Lafto 1959:368, Fossen 1979:139 and Helle 1982:305.
50 The legend is printed in Jakob Jakobsen: Færøske Folkesagn og Æventyr, 44.
Guttormur í Múla (Jakobsen 1972:128). In Faroese the text is as following: “Tá níttu
Føringar smáar norskar bátar, ið kadlaðust trister (tríbekkir), til útróðrar. Men ettir
hesa ólukku, tá ið teir hálvthundrað bátarnir gingu burtur, var lóg gjørd, sum setti forboð
firi at fara til havs í so smáum bátun.”
51 Zachariassen 1961:79 ff.
28

ecome more peripheral in relation to Europe. Svabo emphasizes in 1781
that in the period when the Hanseatics were dominant “the trade which
the inhabitants (of the Faroes) themselves conducted with their own
vessels declined and was reduced to almost nothing”. 52 In the period
from 1529 to 1709 licenses to trade were handed over as a privilege to
non-Faroese citizens and companies, to end as a royal trade monopoly
from 1709 to 1856. In this period fish was of little importance as an
export product, but from the middle of the nineteenth century the
transition from a peasant society to a fishing society started.
Fisheries in the Traditional Society
Fisheries formed a part of the collective work of the village, which all
farms were involved in. The peasant farmers owned the boats and were
duty bound to maintain the big boats that were used for fishing in
winter. 53 According to an ancient system, whose origin is difficult to
discern, every farm in the village possessed its own particular boat. 54 In
summer everyone could fish freely. In the collective farming society,
where fisheries were limited, and almost only for domestic needs, this
system worked well. But even before the turn of the century conflict
arose between private interests and the collective principle. The situation
can be compared with that in agriculture before and after land enclosure
in Nordic countries. The conflict resulted in the ending in 1868 of the old
tied system of manning the boats. 55 The villagers were now free to
decide how the boats should be manned. In contrast to earlier times,
crews now came to be based mainly on family relationships. 56
Dried fish had been produced and exported from the Faroes in the late
Middle Ages. But later, dried fish had no commercial value compared
with woollen goods. It was first with the production of dried salt cod that
the Faroes got a really important export product. In the Middle Ages the
52 Svabo 1959:285.
53 The literature about the traditional Faroese boat is limited. See Johansen 1958 and
Gøthche 1985.
54 Bátsbandið - the right of occupiers of land to enlist crews for their boats, is treated by
Thorsteinsson 1981, Degn 1929:6ff, Joensen 1982:257 and on a more local level by J. C.
Poulsen 1947:166ff. In a recent article Andras Mortensen (1994:5) examines the
legitimacy of the system.
55 Mortensen 1994.
56 Joensen 1982:316.
29

Basques fished in the Atlantic and salted their catches on board. With the
discovery of the rich fishing banks of Labrador and Newfoundland, 57
and the fact that salt had become cheaper, other nations became seriously
interested in cod fishing. When it was unloaded, the split salted cod was
cleaned and then dried in the sun. From about 1750 the production of this
dried salt cod grew in importance along the coasts of the North Atlantic,
e.g. in Newfoundland, Norway and Shetland. It was a standard product,
which was made in more or less the same way everywhere. The Danish
merchant, Niels Ryberg, endeavoured to introduce deep-sea fishing and
the production of dried salt cod to the Faroes in 1772, but the attempt
failed. 58 There was no place in the basic structure of Faroese society for
this kind of capitalistic commercial experiment, which was flatly
rejected. It should be noted that this was just at the time when the
so-called “servant fishery”, introduced by English merchants, was at its
height in Newfoundland. 59 It would be 60 years before the production of
dried salt cod became common in the Faroes, largely because the
agrarian structure of society was still strong enough to hold it together on
its own premise.
Interest in a commercial fishing industry first arose in the first half of
the nineteenth century. There were several reasons for this. One is that
the continually increasing population required greater employment
opportunities. But changes in mentality can also be detected, which were
due in part to the close contact with the Shetlanders who fished around
the Faroes and in part to official interest in developing a Faroese fishing
industry. 60
57 See Coull 1972.
58 See Rasch 1964.
59 Sider 1986, Ommer 1989.
60 Joensen 1985:14pp. See also Manson 1978.
30

The royal trade monopoly stood in the way of development for a very
long time, but as soon as it was abolished in 1856 things started to move.
A number of big merchants and traders were soon established in
Tórshavn and in the larger villages in the Faroes, but what was equally
important was that in almost every little village there appeared grocery
shops, which were either independent or branches of the big trading
concerns. 61 Besides selling all normal merchandise they purchased
Faroese products, of which fresh fish was the most important.
In almost every village it was now possible to sell one’s catch for
money. This brought about an immediate change, not only in the Faroese
economy, but also in the social life of the Islands. The farmers needed
help from time to time, which in the main was rewarded in kind. The
relationship with the crown monopoly had been the same; goods were
exchanged for other goods, and the account, whether positive or
negative, was kept in the books of the monopoly trading station in
Tórshavn. 62 Now not only fishermen were needed, but also
wage-earners ashore. This change took place in two main stages: the
rowing boat fishery and the smack fishery.
Rowing Boat Fishery 63
The most important change in the Faroese fishery occurred in the market
sphere: namely that cod, of which there was a great deal, could be
processed to yield dried salt cod and sold on the world market. There was
no real technological change in the Faroese fishery. The same boats were
used just as they had always been used, and the same equipment, namely
the hand line. Due to the influence of foreign fishermen, this was
improved, and the old clumsy hand line went out of use. A real innovation
was the long line, which it is said was brought to the Faroes as a
result of a journey made by the governor of the Faroes, Chr. Pløyen, to
the Shetland Islands in 1839. 64 He travelled with three Faroese, whose
aim was to learn about the Shetland fisheries and the production of dried
61 Petersen 1955:151, Joensen 1982:256 pp and Joensen 1985:28 pp.
62 Degn 1929:11. Joensen 1995:84.
63 There is some local historical maritime litterature published in the Faroe Islands:
Joensen 1946, Rasmussen 1949, Hansen 1966 and Johansen 1970. Other local historical
works are also informative on local fishing and maritime subjects. See the bibliography
in Joensen 1980 and Joensen 1987.
64 Pløyen 1840.
31

salt cod. Other sources, however, say that as far back as 1780 some forms
of long line had been used in Tórshavn. 65 Presumably the Faroese also
learned about this type of fishing tackle through their frequent contacts
with the Shetlanders who fished in the waters around the Faroes in the
middle of the nineteenth century. The Faroese also signed on with the
Shetland smacks. 66 There have been connections between the Faroes and
the Shetlands back to the earliest settlement in the Islands. 67
In the traditional Faroese fishery the bait was not regarded as too
important, with a strip of the belly skin cut off the first fish to be caught.
However, as the fishery became more intensive more and better bait was
required. This was particularly the case in the long line fishery, where
there was a constant demand for bait for several hundred hooks. Herring
and whelks were widely used. Herring, which had been insignificant
before, was caught in nets for bait. 68 It is said that the Faroese learned to
fish for whelks from the Shetlanders. 69 Whelk and herring fishery
became an important subsidiary employment for many, including young
boys.
Fishing was important in all the villages in the Faroes, but so long as
there were only rowing boats most of the fish were landed in the villages
which were closest to the fishing grounds. In the first years of
commercial fishing with rowing boats, the most important fishing
villages were the most northerly in the Faroes. Oddly enough several of
these villages had rocky foreshores with breakers, but as the light and
manoeuvrable rowing boats were quickly and easily pulled ashore this
was not a great hindrance. Villages such as Eiði, Oyndarfjørður, Gjógv
and Viðareiði were for a long time the most important fishing villages in
the Faroes. The village of Eiði grew considerably during these years and
was one of the most populous in the Faroes. The basis for this population
growth was the rowing boat fishery. 70
65 Svabo 1959: 99.
66 Joensen 1985:42.
67 Hans Jacob Debes (1993) has treated the relations between the Faroe Islands and
Britain; he also discusses the English and Scottish fishery in the Faroes.
68 Joensen 1982, 291.
69 Joensen 1975:20.
70 Joensen 1982:283, Joensen 1985:44.
32

Those villages which were situated at the head of a fjord, with good
landing conditions, were further from the fishing grounds, and this
impaired their fishing. On the other hand these villages could take
advantage of the big decked boats with engines, the first of which came
to the Faroes about 1905. These motor boats, as they were called,
required stable and calm harbours, where they could lie securely at
anchor. Having an engine meant that long distances were less of a
problem than they were for the rowing boats, arm power being replaced
by the horse power of the engine, although these first engines were not
very powerful. The motor boats soon proved themselves to be safer and
more effective vessels. Many of the northern villages, which did not have
natural harbours, were, however, not able to make use of them. This
meant that other villages took the lead in the inshore fishing in the
Faroes. 71
The rowing and motor boat fishery increased steadily and reached its
height during the First World War, but then declined. This was due,
amongst other things, to vigorous competition from English and Scottish
trawlers which now frequented the waters around the Faroes in large
numbers. By this time the Faroese had for decades been carrying on deep
sea fishing from smacks.
The Smack Fishery
Smack fishing in the Faroes commenced in 1872, but until 1890 the
growth of the fishing fleet was very slow. 72 The number of vessels
varied between ten and twenty. But from the 1890s investment increased.
There were several reasons for this. One was that the English and
Scottish fisheries converted to steam trawlers, and their smacks could be
bought cheaply. Another reason was that the mode of investment
changed. In the first period of smack fishing, fishermen joined together
in cooperatives. As time went on, the merchants played a more and more
important role. From 1895 it was mainly merchants who invested in the
purchase of smacks. Thus the merchants assumed a much more central
position than they had done previously, and gained control of a much
larger part of the production capital than they had in the first period of
commercial capitalism in the Faroes. Boats were particularly numerous
71 Joensen 1982:283, Joensen 1985:44.
72 A good statistical description of the development in this period is found in Patursson
1962. In Nolsøe 1955 there is much information on ships and skippers.
33

in Tvøroyri, which in the 1920s became the most important fishing
harbour in the Faroes. Every year, not only did many fishermen come,
but also girls to process the dried salted cod. 73
The inshore fishing did not greatly affect daily life in the Faroes, in as
much as the fishermen came home every evening and could take part in
all the other work of the village. With the smack fishery everything was
quite different. The smacks left at the beginning of March, and apart
from a couple of weeks at home, did not return until the end of
September. 74 This meant that a couple of thousand men were away for
the whole summer. Most were between 14 and 40 years of age. In many
ways this affected not only the lives of these people, but also daily life at
home in the Faroes. These people assumed more and more, both
mentally and socially, the role of seamen. Since they were away half of
the year, they did not have the same opportunity to learn and take part in
the traditional work of the Faroes. Naturally they lost interest in farming
and the other work of the farmer. This lack of interest in farming can particularly
be seen in the Faroes after the First World War, when all
development in Faroese agriculture stagnated. 75 The people who did the
work at home were old men, women and children. It is interesting to
note, too, how the new occupational culture clearly influenced the birth
rate curve, so that soon almost 45% of all children in the Faroes were
born in July, that is they were conceived immediately after the return of
the men in the autumn. 76 The smack fishery meant that the women and
children at home not only suffered from the absence of husbands and
fathers, but the women had a heavier workload and increased responsibility.
What had previously been shared between man and wife, the
woman now had to deal with alone. 77
The smacks developed particular social systems with a culture of their
own. This Faroese maritime culture was a mixture of fisher and seaman
tradition. The work of sailing the vessel was organized along the lines of
the traditions of Danish or Nordic seamen, with the same watch system
73 The best general literature with statistical material is Patursson 1962.
74 Joensen 1975.
75 See Joensen 1985:20 and 134 and the literature referred to in this connection.
76 Joensen 1945.
77 Joensen 1987.
34

and ranks as in the Danish merchant fleet. 78 It had been usual for conditions
on board Nordic fishing vessels to be fairly egalitarian. This
could not be said of conditions on board the Faroese smacks. The crew
were paid according to the number of fish each member pulled out of the
water with his hand line. Once a week the whole catch was counted and
noted down for the account. This account could show very considerable
inequalities, for example that some had caught twice as many fish as
others, and thus earned twice as much. 79 This put a strain on conditions
on board and gave rise to a lot of superstition about the luck or otherwise
of the fishermen. 80
The smack fishery also brought an end to traditional regional
relationships in the Faroes, in that crews were usually composed of men
from many different villages, although most usually came from the
skipper’s own village. Personal relationships came to extend over longer
distances, which was also the case with regard to marriage, where girls
from different villages went to work in the big villages, particularly
Tvøroyri on Suðuroy. 81
There was also another kind of fishery, something between the
rowing boat fishery and the smack fishery, which the Faroese called, “til
lands”, literally this means “ashore”. 82 The fishermen sailed to Iceland
and took rowing boats with them to use in the inshore fishery. The crews
were stationed on land, where they either rented accommodation or lived
in huts which they put up themselves. Between the wars this sort of
fishery was also carried on in Greenland. 83 Here too, the catches were
split and salted. It was actually the same type of fishery which the
English at one time practised in Newfoundland.
The Production of Dried Salt Cod 84
78 Joensen 1975:149.
79 Joensen 1975:74.
80 Joensen 1975:116, Joensen 1981.
81 See Joensen 1982, Joensen 1985:80.
82 Joensen 1985:58, Johannesen 1980.
83 The University of Greenland and the University of the Faroe Islands, in cooperation
with the National Archive of the Faroe Islands, have started a joint project on this subject.
84 For a full treatment and description see Joensen 1985.
35

Nowadays the Danish term “klipfisk” is erroneously used for cod that is
only split and salted. To be termed “klipfisk” the split, salted cod must be
further conserved by sun and wind drying, so that the water content is
reduced to a minimum. This dried salted cod was produced both from the
catches which the rowing and motor boats landed fresh in the Faroes and
from the already split and salted cod which the smacks returned from the
fishing grounds around Iceland. The fish that was caught in the inshore
fishery was split, cleaned and salted in the merchant`s warehouse and
was cleaned and dried together with the other fish. The merchant
probably employed a couple of men to split and salt the cod, but he might
well take part in this himself. This fish was kept salted in the warehouse
until the spring, and then all the fish was dried at the same time.
The production of dried salt cod really started after the abolition of
the trade monopoly in 1856. By 1859 it was being produced almost all
over the Faroes, but the production units were of very different types and
sizes. They ranged from a woman on her own who took a quantity of cod
in order to earn a little money by drying it at home, to big workplaces
with factory whistles and works foremen. Actually we see everything
from the small domestic producer to more industrialized work places in
Tórshavn and Tvøroyri. Tvøroyri was originally established as the first
of the royal trade monopoly`s three branches. The village experienced
explosive growth as a consequence of the development of smack
fisheries from the turn of the century. Here too, we find two of the
biggest merchants in the Faroes, owning many smacks. In order to keep
production going it was not only necessary to get crews for the boats
from the other islands, but also girls, many of whom were drawn to this
employment opportunity. They lived in special houses that were rented,
or even specially built, to house the migrant female workforce. 85 It is
important to note that the production of dried salt cod created, for the
first time in the Faroes, a demand for female labour outside the domestic
sphere. Women had now the chance to earn money themselves. Most of
the girls were migrants working with the dried salt cod for a few years of
their lives. The majority stopped when they got married, but the resident
women might work with the fish all their lives. This was perhaps necessary
for economic reasons, because they had been left alone with
children, or because the husband`s income from the fishing was insuffi-
85
Joensen 1982:425, Joensen 1985:118. Lena Nolsøe has treated this subject in an MA
thesis in history (Nolsøe 1986).
36

cient. These large plants naturally developed their own cultural
environments, too, which were beyond the controlling eye of village
society.
The production of dried salt cod started early in spring. It began with
washing and brushing the salt and other impurities out of the salted fish
before the drying process started. In the beginning this was done
outdoors on the shore, in natural pools or a stream. Later there were tubs
to wash the fish in, but it was only in the 1920s that washing sheds with
running water were erected. It was regarded as a tremendous
improvement to be able to work indoors, even though the work was still
cold and wet. The job of getting the fish dried was more pleasant. This
was done on broad stone-paved areas, which in Faroese are called “fiskastykkir”,
fish areas. Here the fish were carefully laid out to dry and
gathered in again into heaps in the evening. As a matter of fact the drying
was a nerve-racking business; too much sun and the fish would be
overheated and spoiled, while permitting the rain to fall on them would
also cause spoliation. In the Faroese climate this could put a strain on
people working with the fish, but most of all on the merchant, because he
was the one with the economic responsibility for production. Dried salt
cod was produced all summer through. From time to time sailing boats
and later steamboats came and transported it to Spain, which for a long
time was the main importer of Faroese dried salt cod.
Dried Salt Cod and Faroese Society
The population of the Faroes has risen continuously since the end of the
eighteenth century, an important factor in the development of the
commercial fishery. This fishery provided a means of existence for far
more people than the traditional economy could support. From early
times the Faroes had been divided into 90 villages, which were based on
the amount of land available and had a structure based on land ownership.
In the free trade period other forms of organization came into being.
The big merchants in Tórshavn and in a couple of the main villages had
branches in other villages. The Faroes were thus bound together in a
commercial network, which in time developed into regular ferry
connections between the villages. I have already discussed the migrant
female workers in Tvøroyri and Vágur, and the broad composition of the
crews on the smacks. To cut a long story short, communications with the
outside world were greatly improved, and in the Faroes there was local
37

transport by sea, if not daily then with connections a couple of times a
month to most places.
The economic pattern which characterized the villages in the Faroes
in the first half of the twentieth century was the self-sufficient household
combined with money earned by fishing or working with the dried salt
cod. The village was still a living framework around daily life, and
compared with today, people seldom went beyond the village boundary.
Those who moved were the smack fishermen and the women who went
to work with the dried salt cod. They met in the big villages, and that was
why a girl from the east could marry a man from the west. Most girls
settled down with their husband in his home village, unless they decided
to settle in one of the big villages and there live off their earnings. This
was the reason for a village like Tvøroyri growing so quickly in the days
of the smack. On the other hand these people did not have the subsistence
economy to fall back on in bad times, and at times their living standard
was considerably lower than that in the villages, where money could be
combined with a subsistence economy. A village such as Tvøroyri is in
this respect comparable with the villages which Gerald Sider describes in
Newfoundland, where the families were completely and utterly
dependent on the good will of the shopkeeper to give them credit in bad
times. 86 For in the Faroes too, a “truck-system” developed, although it
did not have such profound consequences as in Newfoundland. 87 The
first free trade period in the Faroes developed as normal commercial
capitalism. The productive effort of the merchants themselves was
limited. The fishermen owned the boats, while the merchants purchased
the fish, but, as stated earlier, in time the merchants began to invest in
boats themselves. The development came about partly through financing
provided by the merchants themselves and partly by a variant of the
“truck system”, which often arose in weakly developed capitalist
societies. The system worked simply, the fishermen and workers getting
their pay in kind, while the employer was very cautious about paying out
wages. In this way he increased his own liquidity.
In the Faroes the system started with the merchants giving interest to
those fishermen who allowed their assets to remain on the merchant’s
books. This interest was at one time so high that it would pay to take
86 Sider 1986.
87 The truck system in the Faroe Islands is treated in Joensen 1982, 85 og 87. Joensen
1995 treats the truck system in English from a comparative perspective.
38

money out of the savings bank and deposit it with a merchant. This
system helped to make it possible for the merchants to acquire the
necessary financial backing for the continued development of their
business. Under this system fishermen and workers were placed in a
position of great dependence on the merchant, a dependence that had a
far-reaching effect on the private life of the fisherman or worker.
The fact that relations between employers/shipowners and workers/fishermen
became more and more important in society led to the
rise of new forms of organization. The first to become organized were
the employers in 1909 and the fishermen in 1911; later other groups
became organized. There was a tendency for a middle class culture to
develop in certain circles and there were the rudiments of worker and
fisher districts in the village of Tvøroyri, but on the whole the traditional
village mentality remained as a unifying structure behind all the
innovations. This, however, did not prevent labour conflicts. Amongst
the last to be organized were the fish exporters, who first joined together
in 1936 as the repercussions from the 1929 Wall Street crash were felt. 88
Fishing during the Second World War
The sun-dried salted cod was the most important export product of the
Faroe Islands from the mid-nineteenth century to the Second World War.
The war changed this situation in many ways. Connections with the dried
salt cod markets in the Mediterranean were cut off, but Britain needed
great amounts of fresh fish for the fish auctions in towns like Aberdeen
and Grimsby, which the Faroese fishers now began to supply. During the
war, the production of salt fish and dried salt fish ceased completely, and
the Faroese now began to ice up their catch, which meant that the trips
became relatively short. 89 And instead of fishing themselves, many
Faroese ships went to Iceland, where they bought fresh fish, which they
iced over and transported to Britain, where it was sold on the free market.
The total number of Faroese ships did not increase during the war—it
actually grew smaller, because many ships were bombed or torpedoed by
the Germans. But the lack of fish in Britain brought about high prices and
the opportunity to make good money. This situation continued in the
88 Arge 1988.
89 The Vicebishop of the Faroe Islands published in 1947 a book on the history of the
Faroese seaman during the war. It is not a systematic treatment, but he remembers all
those seamen who lost their lives (Joensen 1947). See also Arge 1985.
39

immediate post-war years, when the price of fresh fish was particularly
favourable. 90
The Faroese Fishery after the Second World War 91
The economic boom during the Second World War brought about a new
feeling of economic and material independence. Many people had made
a lot of money during the war—Faroese fish exporters owned around 60
million pounds sterling in various accounts in the British Isles.
The shortage of ships during the war and the continuously favourable
prices of fresh fish on the British market in the immediate post-war years
contributed to an extraordinary desire for investment. Much of the
money which had been earned during the war, along with further
financing by Sjóvinnubankin among others, was invested in old English
steam trawlers. 92 The advantage of this was that it gave access to
practically the whole of the Atlantic Ocean for fishing. But unfortunately
the trawlers were unprofitable due to high coal prices, and, furthermore,
too many steam trawlers had been bought in short-sighted initiatives with
the result that Sjóvinnubankin failed in 1951. In contrast, the new
diesel-powered trawlers appeared to be able to make ends meet. 93
In many ways the 1950s were, if not directly a period of economic
recession, then at least a period of severe economic stagnation, following
the bankruptcy of Sjóvinnubankin. In those years, many Faroe Islanders
shipped on board Icelandic and Norwegian fishing vessels. Many were
also employed splitting fish for fixed wages on board German trawlers.
The Germans, who owned many trawlers in the 1950s, had no tradition
of salt fish production and therefore hired Faroese for this job.
The 1950s were also characterized by an exodus of people who
sought work elsewhere. However, the production of salt fish and dried
salt fish was resumed in the Faroes after the Second World War. It was
now mechanized, and so-called ‘turkihús’—drying-houses—were built
to dry salted cod indoors in special drying channels, which did not
demand as much accurate effort as sun-drying. This also meant that the
90 The development of the Faroese fishery during the war is treated by Eirikur Tausen
(1990). See also Mikkelsen 1994:60.
91 A general statistical and economic description of the period after 1939 is found in
Patursson 1976-81.
92 This development is treated by Mikkelsen 1994.
93 Mikkelsen 1994.
40

seasonal need for female employees, the so-called fish girls, diminished.
The drying of fish indoors became chiefly men’s work 94 . After the war
sun-drying was only used sporadically.
Development from the 1960s 95
Since the beginning of the 1960s the infrastructure of the Faroes has been
developed and modernized continuously, so that today all the villages are
connected somehow to the main areas. The sense of national identity,
and the presence of economic interests which went further than the stone
fences of the village with its traditional form of land tenure, should
perhaps have given rise to a perception of the Faroe Islands as a single
economic unit in which the whole should function under some kind of
unifying management. But the local feelings of identity and the specific
interests of the villages were still given top priority.
After the economy had been given a boost around 1960 the
development and modernization of the means of production both on the
sea and on the land started to speed up. A large number of new jobs were
created in the continuously expanding fishing industry. Deep-frozen fish
fillets became the leading product, gradually outstripping the traditional
salt fish and dried salt fish production and creating new and steadier jobs.
The first attempts at producing deep-frozen fish fillets started in the
mid-1950s, and frozen fish fillets were first exported in 1955. In the
beginning mechanization was negligible. For the most part the fish was
cleaned, cut and packed by hand, but a few machines were tried out.
More and more fish filleting factories were built, and the industry
became increasingly mechanized with machines in almost all stages of
the manufacturing process. These machines required large investments.
From a few factories, which were usually established in existing
buildings, the total number of filleting factories grew to 22 in the course
of a couple of decades. Most of these factories consisted of newly
constructed buildings with modern and effective machines, which had a
very large production capacity. It has been estimated that the total
94 Joensen 1982:394.
95 In recent years there has appeared a lot of MA theses, seminar reports and other
publications on Faroese fishery and problems connected to Faroese fishery from very
different perspectives: Guttesen 1980A and 1980 B, Haldrup and Hoydal 1994, Hansen
1990, Hoydal 1984, Joensen 1986, Kristiansen 1980, Levinsen 1992, Mørkøre 1985 and
1991, Olsen 1988 and 1989, Petersen 1986, Toftum 1990 and 1992 and West 1982.
41

production capacity of all the fish factories in the Faroe Islands was fully
sufficient for an annual supply of raw material of above 400,000 tons.
Total catches around the Faroes have never reached more than 120,000
tons.
The basis of the resources for the fish factories in the 1970s and 1980s
was mostly home fishing. The general shift of the fishing zones to 200
miles—this happened in the Faroes on 1 January 1977—brought with it a
reduction of the unlimited fishing of the Faroese in the North Atlantic,
and more and more fishing vessels, including large trawlers, had to fish
in the local Faroese waters, which in the beginning meant that the supply
of raw fish for the fish factories was good. In other words, at the same
time as the means of production expanded, the basis of the fishing
resources grew smaller due to the expansion of other countries’ fishing
zones and the growing quota regulations. The result was that the Faroese
started to deplete their own resources.
In itself, the concept of village development was sound and could
have been realized, if it had not been so tightly connected with a
disastrous technological fixation and extreme capitalization of the whole
production process. The many different subsidies have also given a false
sense of security, and they were also a direct incitement for further
investment.
In addition to a number of companies with fewer owners, new forms
of ownership came into existence. These involved trade unions, local and
central authorities, and private interests. There was nothing wrong in this
of course; on the contrary, it strengthened the internal relationships of the
village. Somehow the production apparatus became an integrated part of
local emotions, something with which everybody in the village could
identify. It became the flesh and the pulse of the village. People refused
therefore to give up, and they were determined to start all over again if
the fish factory ran into economic difficulties.
The interests of Faroese society were intertwined in a complicated
network, in which it was difficult for critical voices to get attention, and
there was also the fact that the Faroe Islands were not the well-defined
economic zone which some people may have imagined. The Faroes were
an attractive market for Danish, Norwegian and other countries' financial
interests. Danish building societies and other financial institutions did
not see any danger in pumping a lot of money into businesses in the
Faroes, including the fish factories. Neither did the shipyards in Norway
and elsewhere have any problems in getting loans for the building of
42

ships for the Faroese fishing fleet. It was easy to obtain financing—also
for enterprising persons with empty pockets—in a network which the
Faroese authorities did not control. Even so, the elected Faroese
authorities were careless enough to put the tax payers’ money at risk as a
guarantee for further unnecessary capitalization of the society.
Of course, the tragedy of the affair is not that jobs were created in the
villages, but that those jobs were overcapitalised and therefore
uneconomic in the long run—lacking the necessary consolidation. One
could imagine a much slower development, in which the investment in
expensive machines was more modest and well-considered, and which
aimed at a more flexible manual production, but that would probably not
have the same glamour of ‘real’ development.
It is the local identity with its roots in the medieval village system
which has characterized the geographical development of Faroese
industry. It seems as if 150 years of free trade and economic
development has not been sufficient to create a modern economic
mentality with a long-term view. As far as I can see, it was never
understood that the choice was between decentralized industry based on
flexible manual production, which did not demand heavy investment, or
centralization of industry into fewer units with a thoroughly mechanized
production. The decision-makers seem to have fallen between two
stools.
In 1994 there was a conference in the Nordic House in Tórshavn on
North Atlantic fishing societies. In the two-volume proceedings from
this conference problems that are highly pertinent to the North Atlantic
as a whole, as well as to the Faroe Islands, are discussed. 96
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47

Whaling in the Faroe Islands,
1584-1994: An Overview
Dorete Bloch
Introduction
The Faroe Islands are centrally placed in the Northeast Atlantic Ocean at
62N 7W and are separated by some 300-600 km of water from their
neighbours, Shetland, Iceland and Norway. The currents around the
archipelago are anticyclonic with variable fronts between the warm
North Atlantic Current and the cold East-Icelandic Current. This isolated
position in rich up-welling, mixing water masses has produced a human
mode of life that depends on marine resources, and today some 80% of
the national economy is in one way or another dependent on the sea.
Geography and climate result in poor agricultural production and have
further encouraged the development of cheap fishing methods to provide
food. Such traditional catching methods have survived with little change
through centuries. 97
One of these traditions is the whaling which has been conducted since
the Norse settlement more than one thousand years ago. 98 Faroese
whaling in its old traditional form is an opportunistic drive fishery in
which two whale species have been taken exclusively for food, namely
the Long-Finned Pilot Whale (Globicephala melas) and the Northern
Bottlenose Whale (Hyperoodon ampullatus). For each species, the
annual hunting pressure on the populations has been calculated to be on
average 0.1% (range: 0.0-0.6%) and this may have no influence on
population size, estimated at 778,000 (cv=0.285) for pilot whales and
around 40,000 for bottlenose whales. 99
97 J. P. Joensen, 1987.
98 S. Dahl, 1971.
99 D. Bloch, 1994. D. Bloch, G. Desportes, M. Zachariassen & I. Christensen, 1996. D.
Bloch & L. Lastein, 1995. S.T. Buckland, D. Bloch, K.L. Cattanach, T. Gunnlaugsson,
K. Hoydal, S. Lens & J. Sigurjónsson, 1993. NAMMCO, 1993.
49

During the late nineteenth century, the Faroe Islands entered the
baleen and sperm whaling industry in its last phase. 100 This business was
started up to export barrels of whale oil, while the meat was mostly eaten
locally.
The isolated geographical situation of the Faroe Islands has probably
limited international knowledge of Faroese whaling. 101 This paper
provides an overview of the drive fishery on smaller toothed delphinid
whales, and offshore whaling, primarily on baleen whales, conducted by
the Faroese.
The Faroese Drive Fishery on Pilot and Bottlenose Whales, 1584-1994
In the traditional drive fishery for pilot and bottlenose whales, entire
schools are sighted in the vicinity of the islands from land or from boat
and then driven ashore by small fishing boats under the guidance of
foremen and dispatched on the beach by a group of men waiting there.
Therefore, pilot and bottlenose whaling has always been a
well-organized social event. The hunt is still today communal and
non-commercial in character, meat and blubber are shared free amongst
the local inhabitants, and there is no factory processing nor any special
whaling boats or whalers. A detailed description of the sequence of
events comprising the pilot whaling, named grind in Faroese, which also
means a school of pilot whales, can be found in Bloch et al. (1990). 102
‘Grind’ is used here for a beached school of pilot whales according to the
practice used by the ICES Study Group on Long-Finned Pilot Whales. 103
In many ways, the bottlenose drive fishery resembles the pilot whale
drive fishery, although bottlenose pods are sighted much closer to shore
than pilot whale pods, and on many occasions strand without human
interference. The bottlenose whales are also taken non-commercially for
local human consumption without factory processing. Unlike pilot
whales, the blubber from bottlenose whales has never been consumed
because of its laxative effect, but it was previously used for oil
production and is still in medical use. 104
100 D. Bloch, 1993. Degerbøl, 1935-42.
101 P. Holm, 1995.
102 D. Bloch, G. Desportes, K. Hoydal & P. Jean, 1990.
103 D. Butterworth (ed.), 1993.
104 H.E. Høst, 1875. J. Rosing, 1965.
50

Pilot and bottlenose whaling has always been a strictly controlled
activity and the laws and regulations still in force today have their roots
in old Norse regulations, such as the Gulating Law and the Norwegian
Law of Christian V of Denmark and Norway. These rules governed
Faroese whaling until the first Faroese written regulations came into
force in 1832. 105 The Pilot Whaling Regulation is renewed according to
ongoing changes in the community and it describes in detail the
regulations and fees governing the sequence of events in pilot whaling.
The latest updating of the Pilot Whaling Regulation was made by
Executive Order no. 55 of 16 May 1995.
According to the old Norse system, the products of whaling and
fowling activities belonged to the owners of land, though compensation
was given to participants in the hunt as was the case when pilot whaling
was conducted in Shetland. 106 At the christening of the islands about the
year 1000, the Faroese people had to pay taxes to the owners of the land
where whales were beached, to the church and to the king. 107 Because
the produce of whaling was divided between powerful interests such as
the church, the king and the landowners, the Faroese sýslumenn, i.e. local
sheriffs, had to write detailed reports from every whale hunt and send
them to the government, generating pilot whaling, and also bottlenose
whaling, statistics. At the Reformation in 1584, the Faroese local
administration took over Jarðabøkurnar, the journals of the land and
landowners, and these also include whaling statistics. The church took
tithes, i.e. a tenth of the income, of whaling until this was abolished by a
commutation in 1908. Before 1832, landowners received half of the yield
of pilot and bottlenose whaling (meat, blubber and oil), but when Faroese
pilot whaling was regulated in 1832, the landowners’ part was
diminished to a quarter and it was totally cancelled in 1935 for pilot
whales, and in 1950 for bottlenose whales. 108
105 E.A. Bjørk, 1956-1963. H. J. Debes, 1990. K. Sanderson, 1992. Seyðabrævið.
106 Seyðabrævið. D. Bloch, 1994.
107 H. J. Debes, 1990:100.
108 E.A. Bjørk 1956-1963, III: 252, 277.
51

The pilot and bottlenose whaling statistics show a rhythmic,
oscillating occurrence of grinds in Faroese waters, with the length of one
period lasting about 100-110 years. Different studies have demonstrated
that the abundance of marine species taken by the Faroe Islanders
(seabird species, pilot and bottlenose whales, cod and herring) has
changed over the centuries according to the same oscillatory rhythm as
the climate and seems to depend on the variability of the current
system. 109
The Quantity of Whales Landed
For the period 1584-1641 the whaling statistics are incomplete, and a gap
exists for the period 1641-1708. Therefore, for the period 1584-1708
there exists information for only 43 grinds composed of 5,318 whales. In
all, for the period 1709-1995 the hunting statistics give information
about 1,720 long-finned pilot whale schools, grinds, composed of
242,217 pilot whales (Fig. I; Table I). This works out at an average of
844 whales annually for the nearly three hundred year period 1709-1995.
They have appeared as 0-23 grinds annually, 6.9 on average and ranging
in annual number from zero to 4,475 whales (in 1941). In three different
years (1844, 1939, and 1941), the number of pilot whales landed
exceeded 3,000 whales; in 25 years, more than 2,000 whales were
harvested, while one third of the years have resulted in more than 1,000
whales landed. On the other hand, there have been 44 years in which it
has not been possible to land any grind. The last “grind-free” year was
1927.
In all, a total of 816 bottlenose whales were recorded during the
period 1584-1995. Of these, 653 were landed, 71 were reported as found
dead, and 92 shot offshore. Only 21 were reported from the period
1584-1641, resulting in a total of 795 from 1709-1995, of which 632
were landed (Fig. II; Table II). It is worth noting that the dead whales
were found in the peak period of Norwegian offshore hunting in the
middle and later part of the nineteenth century. This period was also the
time offshore whaling increased off the Faroes. 110 Some of the dead
bottlenose whales found may have been fatally wounded in the offshore
commercial whaling. 111
109 D. Bloch et al., 1996; K. Hoydal & L. Lastein, 1993. A. Reinert, 1976.
110 Bloch et al., 1996.
111 A. Ohlin, 1895.
52

Table 1
Number er of pilot whales caught in the Faroe Islands, 1584 1584-1995
Period
1584-1995
1584-1708
1709-1995
Source: D. Bloch 1994a.
Grinds Pilot Whales
1,763 247,535
43 5,318
1,720 242,217
Fig. II
The annual catch of bottlenose whales in the Faroe Islands, 1584 1584-1995
53

Table II
Number of bottlenose whales caught in the Faroe Islands, 1584 1584-1995
Period Bottlenose
Whales,
total
Bottlenose
Whales,
shot
(1894-1935)
Bottlenose
Whales,
found dead
1584-1995 816 92 71
1584-1708 21 0 0
1709-1995
Source: Bloch et al. 1996
795 92 71
Fig. I
The annual numbers of pilot whales taken by Faroe Islanders,
1584-1995
54

Sometimes, the pods of long-finned pilot whales are mixed with other
species of smaller delphinid whales and sometimes these species also
occur as single-species schools. The species concerned are Bottlenose
Dolphins (Tursiops truncatus), White-Sided Dolphins (Lagenorhynchus
acutus), irregularly also White-Beaked Dolphins (Lagenorhynchus
albirostris), and occasionally Killer Whales (Orcinus orca) too. These
schools are also taken in a drive fishery for local consumption, though
they are not as important for the household economy as the pilot and
bottlenose whales. These species were not included in the pilot whaling
regulations before the Executive Order no. 19 of March 1 1996, and
therefore no tax has been paid. Therefore, only 6,464 whales of these
species have been recorded during the period 1709-1995. It is estimated
that more have been taken but not been reported in the sources even
though whaling law ordered the sýslumenn to report also these species
(Table III).
Table III. Total number of small Delphinid and Baleen whales caught in
the Faroe Islands, 1584-1995.
Period Baleen whales Oil (tons) Small
Delphinids
1709-1995 - - 6,464
1894-1984 12,750 55,752 -
Source: Whaling statistics compiled by the Museum of Natural History,
Tórshavn.
Faroese Offshore Baleen and Sperm Whaling, 1894-1984
Offshore whaling was developed by the Basques on the North Atlantic
Right Whale (Balaena mysticetus) in the Bay of Biscay during the
middle of the eleventh century. After depletion of the right whales in the
Bay of Biscay, the Basques moved to the Northwest Atlantic and built
land bases in the summer time in Baffin Island, Nova Scotia, and
Newfoundland. 112
112 P. U. Jepsen, 1994.
55

The commercial Northeast Atlantic exploitation of the baleen whale
species started in the sixteenth century with the catching of Bowhead
(Eubalaena glacialis). Later, in the seventeenth century, Shetland,
Scottish, Orkney, English, Dutch, and later also Danish-Norwegian
whalers learnt from the Basques and began to catch the whales and
Walrus (Odobenus rosmarus) first at Svalbard, later further to the west in
the North Atlantic. 113
In 1863 the Norwegian Svend Foyn built the first steam whaler (Spes
et Fides), and in 1870 he invented the bomb harpoon, which made it
possible to hunt also the faster swimming rorquals, species such as Blue
Whale (Balaenoptera musculus), Fin Whale (B. physalus), Sei Whale (B.
borealis), Humpback (Megaptera novaeangliae), and at last also the
small Minke Whale (B. acutorostrata). Svend Foyn also invented the
inflation lance at that time to fill the killed whales with compressed air
preventing them from sinking.
These three inventions revolutionised the whaling industry in such a
way that the populations were soon depleted off northern Norway, and
the Norwegian Parliament banned whaling off the three northernmost
fylker of Norway by an Act coming into force in 1904. Accordingly,
Norwegian whalers from Tønsberg led by Svend Foyn moved first to
Iceland in 1883, to Newfoundland in 1889, and in 1892 to Gryteviken in
South Georgia. The Tønsberg whalers worked only on a small scale in
the Faroes. This area was occupied by whalers from Sandefjord who
went first to Iceland in 1883, to the Antarctic in 1892, then to the Faroes
in 1893, and finally to Shetland in 1894. 114 Faroese whaling was based
mostly on fin whales, since the blue whale was becoming scarce at that
time.
Hans Albert Grøn from Sandefjord, Norway, started up in the Faroes
in 1893 and built the first whaling station at Gjánoyri, north of Streymnes
at Streymoy. Grøn had his first catching season in 1894 with the whaling
boat Urd and got 46 whales and 940 barrels of oil. 115 The first year was
taxfree, but from 1895, a tax of 25 DKK per whale had to be paid to the
Faroes, and from 1897 this was doubled to 50 DKK per whale. The first
catching years in the Faroes were so successful that other companies
113 P.U. Jepsen, 1994. R. Smith, 1993.
114 S. Risting, 1922. J.N. Tønnesen, 1967. J.N. Tønnesen & A.O. Johnsen, 1982.
115 S. Risting, 1922.
56

were soon established. In 1897 a second company, Norddeble from
Kristiania, was founded by Andorsen and Normann and the master was
Peder Michelsen from Sandefjord.
The most important company was Suderø, based at the island of
Suðuroy and started in 1905 by a lawyer from Sandefjord, Peder Olsen
Bogen, in company with the merchant family Mortensen of Tvøroyri at
Suðuroy. This company was working until 1953 and from the inter-war
period was completely Faroese owned. In all, six Norwegian founded
companies operated in the Faroes, while in 1905 the company Salvesen
from Leith, Scotland, was established at við Áir, close to Hósvík,
Streymoy. 116 The remaining buildings of the company’s factory, at við
Áir, are the only ones still standing, the plant being worked until 1984
and purchased by the Faroese Government. 117
In 1905 the oldest factory Urd was rebuilt for guano and fertiliser
production, while the other companies shipped meat and bone to
Stavanger. Attempts were also made to produce a whalemeat export in
tins, named Sassa Filet. This survived only for a short time, because the
tins contained rotten whalemeat in the second year.
In the period 1894-1984 large baleen whaling has been conducted from
seven land bases and from 17 whalers at its peak, only disrupted by
World Wars I and II and for shorter periods in between. Tables III and IV
give the number of the different species caught. Generally, Faroese
offshore whaling was characterised by an irregular catch caused by the
unstable weather conditions. As an aside, it can be mentioned that the
Norwegian whalers were very welcome in the Faroes, unlike the
situation in Shetland. 118
The Faroes are placed on the migration route of the baleen whales.
The logbooks from the old whalers show that when in spring time they
met a blue or fin whale out on the banks southwest of the Faroes (Faroe
Bank, Bill Baily Bank, Lousy Bank), it was easier to follow the whale
than use the compass for reaching the Faroes for the whales would reach
116 Risting, 1922; Tønnesen, 1967; Tønnesen and Johnsen, 1982.
117 J.S. Joensen. 1980.
118 Risting, 1922; Smith, 1995.
57

“the sound between Koltur and Vágoy”. 119 Still today, blue as well as fin
whales are regularly seen in the Hestfjørður and Vestmannasund. 120
Moreover, the old whalers say that in spring time, late April to the
beginning of June, the whales were hungry and moved quickly north.
This was visible in the number of barrels of oil coming out of Spring as
against Autumn shot whales. A Spring blue whale produced less oil than
an Autumn shot fin whale. 121
Table IV. Number of different whale species caught in the Faroe Islands,
1709-1995
Pilot whale 242,112
Bottlenose whale 757
Blue whale 273
Fin whale 7,481
Sei whale 2,139
Minke whale 99
Humpback 208
Sperm whale 701
Bowhead 7
Bottlenose dolphin 927
Porpoise 18
White-sided and white-beaked dolphins 5,148
Killer whale 189
As an aside, it may be mentioned, that the importance of whaling
globally is shown by the fact that as late as World War II, the shipyard of
Harland & Wolf at Belfast, Ireland, delivered a Whalecorvet, a boat
which was easy to change in function between a whaling boat and a
warship. 122
Conclusions
119 Risting, 1922; Tønnesen, 1967.
120 Bloch, 1993.
121 Risting, 1922; Tønnesen, 1967.
122 Tønnesen and Johnsen, 1982.
58

The Faroe Islands are placed far away from grain export centres and the
Islanders have for centuries had to rely on being supplied mainly from
Denmark, but by irregularly arriving ships and often insufficiently. Other
countries have taken pilot whales, but the isolated location and scarce
supply of the Faroes are most probably the reason for the continuation of
pilot whaling. 123 It has been demonstrated in this study that the Faroese
always have been able to survive by catching and eating the available
marine resources in a sustainable way. Moreover, the high nutritious
content in the pilot whale meat is known to satisfy the consumer for a
long time in contrast to the less nutritious baleen whale meat. 124
Nowadays, the pilot whale and pilot whaling has also become a sort
of national symbol at a time when non-governmental-groups (NGOs)
have campaigned against it. 125 The fact is that in the low income years of
the mid 1990s an eighth of the Islands’ meat consumption originated
from the long-finned pilot whale caught in the old traditional way and
shared free. So whaling the Faroese way is back as a central part of
everyday life of the Faroe Islands.
Acknowledgement
I am grateful to Justines Olsen, senior veterinarian, the Faroe Islands, and
Axel Kjær Sørensen and Vagn Wåhlin, Center of North Atlantic Studies,
Aarhus University, for commenting on this paper.
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whales in the Faroe Islands, 1832-1994’. Blix, A.S., Walløe, L. &
Ulltang, U. (eds.). Whales, Seals, Fish and Man (1995) 499-508
Buckland, S. T., Bloch, D., Cattanach, K.L., Gunnlaugsson, T., Hoydal,
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NASS-1987 and NASS-89 data’. Report of the International Whaling
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Butterworth, D. (ed.), ‘Study Group on Long-Finned Pilot Whales.
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Ref.:A. 1-31.
Dahl, S. The Norse settlement of the Faroe Islands. Medieval
Archaeology 14 (1971) 60-73
Debes, H.J., Føroya søga 1. Norðurlond og Føroyar (Tórshavn, 1990)
Degerbøl, M., ‘Mammalia’. Jensen, Ad.S., Lundbeck, W.,
Mortensen, Th. & Spärck, R. (eds.), The Zoology of the Faroes III(II)
(1935-1942) LXV: 1-133
Holm, P., ‘European and Native Ways: Fishing, Whaling and
Sealing in the Danish North Atlantic Empire, c. 1750-1807’.
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Joensen. J. P., Fólk og mentan (Føroya Skúlabókagrunnur. Tórshavn,
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Joensen, J. P. ‘The Pilot Whale in the Old and Modern Society’.
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Tønnesen, J. N., Færøyene. Den moderne hvalfangsts historie, II
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61

The Faroese Greenland Fishery
Faroese Fishery Policy towards Denmark
and Greenland in the Inter-War Period
Vagn Wåhlin
with Henning Mosegaard Kristensen
In 1924 the Faroese fishing industry was in deep crisis. Its fishing vessels
were outdated, prices were falling, and British steam trawlers were a real
threat to the Faroese hand and long line fishery conducted from small
boats near the coast and on the nearby banks. Even the rich fishery off
Iceland became insecure in a long term perspective once Iceland gained
sovereignty in 1918. Nearly half of the adult male workforce was in
some way or another dependent on the fishery, while a large part of the
female working population was also employed in the fishing industry.
From the 1920s the cod was found in increasing abundance in the
waters off Southwest Greenland following a small rise in the ocean
temperature. The Faroese, being subjects of the Danish Crown like the
Greenlanders, wanted equal rights with the Greenlanders to fish in
Greenland waters. The Department of Greenland Affairs in the Danish
Ministry opposed the Faroese claims and supported the age-old policy of
protecting the Greenlanders and their resources against modern
exploitation. In the Danish political system, and to the public at large,
there was a clear understanding of the Faroese claims as well as of the
Greenlandic protectionist argument. Step by step the Danish authorities
—against rising Greenlandic opposition—gave in to the Faroese claims.
In 1939 Faroese fishing off Greenland was permitted by law. Inside the
territorial waters handline and long line fishing by the Faroese was
allowed (but not trawling). Smaller vessels could operate from several
well placed and sufficiently equipped harbours, and the fish could be
rinsed and salted there. However, the outbreak of the Second World War
stalled any Faroese fishing activity off Greenland for five years.
63

The Greenland Fishery before 1914
Since the Viking Age the inhabitants of the 17 populated Faroese Islands
have lived in a mixed self-sufficient economy of cattle and sheep
farming on the one hand and coastal fishery with some whaling and
fowling on the other. From the 1880s, with a turning point around 1900,
the fishery became the dominant economic sector, and at the same time
finally brought the Islands within the orbit of the fluctuating, modern
world market.
Up to the 1960s Faroese fishery technology was constantly behind the
more advanced British trawlers and gear. In the late nineteenth century,
when the UK fishermen invested in modern steam trawlers, the Faroese
bought the old sloop and smack sailing vessels from the Shetlanders and
the Scots, and after the Second World War the Faroese bought outdated
steam trawlers there instead of investing in modern diesel-engine
trawlers. 126
While British steam trawlers overfished the nearby rich grounds of
Færø Bank, Bill Bailey Bank and Lousy Bank from 1880 to 1939 and
physically drew the small Faroese vessels away, the smacks of the
Islands tried their luck off Iceland with hand line and long line. A few
fishing vessels sailed further, to Newfoundland and elsewhere, but much
of the Faroese deep-sea fishery up to the First World War was
concentrated in the coastal waters of Iceland. The increasing
international fishery, with steam and motor trawlers off Iceland after
1920, was a real menace to the traditional Faroese—as well as to the
Icelandic—fishery in these waters.
In the 1918 independence treaty between Denmark and Iceland,
Denmark had secured Faroese fishing rights in Icelandic waters for a
time, and a counter clause opened up Greenlandic waters a little for
Icelandic fishing. 127
126 For the Faroese transition from an agricultural to a fishing society see J. P. Joensen’s
article here and his book, Folk og fisk, 1985. The Danish abolition of foreign and Danish
(including Faroese, Icelandic and Norwegian) intrusion and catching in Greenlandic
waters and coastal areas dates back to a royal charter of 1776 which was the basis for the
protectionistic policy of the departments and ministeries in Copenhagen until a new
statute was passed in 1925.
The authors express their sincere thanks to Sidsel Wåhlin for help with the
manuscript.
127 Document from the Ministry of the Interior, 11 February 1926, printed in
‘Grønlandsmál’, 3, Lagtingstidende, 1938.
64

From 1920 to 1922, as Table I shows, the percentage of the catch
taken by smaller boats in Faroese waters fell from 39% to 7% of the total
Faroese catch. In 1922 the Faroese catch off Iceland reached its peak,
accounting for 93% of the total Faroese fishery measured in tons.
Table I
Year Fishery Faroe Iceland Greenland Bear I/N.Nrw.
in tons waters % waters % waters % waters %
1920 27322 39 61 - -
1921 34648 16 84 - -
1922 43526 7 93 - -
1923 39298 11 89 - -
1924 35255 12 88 - -
1925 35537 19 81 - -
1926 46346 12 83 5 -
1927 47277 14 80 6 -
1928 55027 8 90 2 -
1929 66300 3 82 15 -
1930 80052 3 66 31 -
1931 76159 2 71 27 -
1932 68087 7 71 22 -
1933 66517 3 70 27 -
1934 56069 3 50 45 2
1935 48838 3 59 36 2
1936 43468 3 32 37 28
1937 51493 6 39 47 8
1938 58340 5 39 43 13
Sources: Fiskivinnuskrivstovan, Tórshavn. Cf. K. Nolsøe, “Færøsk fiskeri “, 1973, pp.
199-208.
The essential export product was salted, or dried and salted, fish. The
value in Danish kroner per kilo was in 1920: 0.80, in 1925: 0.53, in 1930:
0.25 and in 1938: 0.30, with its lowest point in 1932 of 0.19, or a quarter
of the 1920 price. A similar dramatic fall in the national value of the
fishery is demonstrated if we look at the yearly income in Danish kroner
(DKK) per fisherman: in 1920 2,924, in 1925 2,189, in 1930 2,167
and in 1938 1,746. Income was at its lowest in 1932 with only 1,455
DKK earned by each employed fisherman. Taking high unemployment
into consideration and the fact that the crisis also meant lower income for
the female workforce in the fishing industry, the depth of the crisis was
65

even more marked for the ordinary Faroese family than depicted in the
figures. 128
After the turn of the century the sea temperature in West Greenlandic
waters had risen, causing a decrease in the seal population. Consequently
the traditional seal-hunting economy of the Greenlanders declined, and
at the same time the quantity and quality of the cod rose dramatically.
The Greenlandic stock of cod seems to have migrated from Icelandic
waters. In 1917 the cod appeared in quantity at Frederikshåb (Paamiut),
in 1922 at Sukkertoppen (Maniitsoq) and in 1928 at Disko Island
(Qeqertarsuaq). The cod did not come farther north, as the map (p. 62)
shows. A transition from the traditional Greenlandic hunting-economy to
a modern export-based fishery soon became a necessity. The rise in
Greenlandic fishing in home waters is shown in Figure I.
In 1908 Tjalfe, a Danish research ship, reported the possibilities of
fishing (in particular for halibut) in the Julianehåb district (Qaqorttoq). In
1910 a salting site was started (salting was done outdoors) with a Faroese
to train the Greenlandic workers. 129
In response to this the respected fishing captain, Jens Pauli
Andreasen, in the Knørrur applied for a permanent land station on Ravns
Storø (Takisup Qeqertarsua) to sustain a systematic utilization of open
sea and coastal fishing grounds. On 15 March 1910, his application was
turned down. 130
In 1914 the Faroese county council (Lagtinget) applied to the Danish
government for access to the Greenlandic waters for Faroese fishing
vessels, but the application was turned down on 5 January 1915. Only the
intake of fresh water for the Faroese vessels was allowed—but this was
no real concession since every ship in need of fresh water supply already
had that right under the 1776 charter. 131 On the Faroe Islands it was thus
common knowledge in the early 1920s that West Greenlandic waters
held increasing fishing possibilities for the Faroese fishing fleet.
As Figure I demonstrates, the Greenlandic cod fishery became of
growing importance to the local economy as sealing diminished. From
the 1920s to around 1950 about 100 salting sites for fish were established
128 Patursson, Fiskiveiði, II 343-349; see also statistics in Fiskeriberetninger 1911-1939.
129 Trap XIV, ‘Grønland’, 168 and 184. Patursson, Fiskiveiði, 258-260. Hansen and
Hermann, Fisken ved Grønland, 1953.
130 Andreasen, ‘Í Grønlandi víð “Knørri”’ 1927, 531. Rigsarkivet, Grønlands Styrelses
arkiv, grp. 51, journal 512/1926, copies of the 1910 papers as 17-i-1910 and 17-a-1910.
Cf. Spanner, Færøfiskeriet, chapter 3, endnote 1.
131 See footnote 5 and ‘Betænkning om Grønlandsfiskeriet’, Lagtingstidende 1924, 134.
66

at most of the more populated villages and towns along the West
Greenlandic coast south of Disko Island.
After the First World War, an ultra-nationalistic Norwegian
movement fronted by the journal Tidens Tegn questioned the legitimacy
of the Danish possession of the Faroe Islands, Greenland and Iceland.
The argument was historical and based on the fact of a Norwegian
Atlantic empire of the High Middle Ages. In 1380 Norway and its North
Atlantic Dependencies came into a 400-year long union with Denmark.
At the peace treaty of Kiel in 1814, the North Atlantic Dependencies
stayed in the Danish Realm while Norway, without its former Atlantic
possessions, was seceded to Sweden in a union lasting until 1905.
Norway’s traditional hunting interests in East Greenland together with
this nationalistic wave, became a substantial political embarrassment to
the Norwegian government and forced it to exert increasing pressure on
the Danish government to obtain Danish recognition of Norwegian
claims in East Greenland.
In 1919 the ambassadors of the two countries had agreed that Norway
would recognize Danish sovereignty over all of Greenland. By a state
charter of 10 May 1921 the Danish Government declared its total
sovereignty over all of Greenland and its territorial waters. As a
consequence the government recapitulated the old ban on any nation’s
vessels sailing in Greenlandic territorial seas. 132
In 1923/24 this conflict formed a delicate part of the public debate
raging in Norway, Denmark and the Faroe Islands. With perfect timing,
as always, the Faroese leader of the Autonomist Party
(Sjálvstýris-flokkurin), Jóannes Patursson, expressed the opinion in the
Norwegian press that the Islands might seek another state affiliation than
with Denmark. To him it was a practical question of necessary
cooperation dictated by the facts of where the Islands could obtain the
utmost degree of self government in as loose a union as possible. In
Denmark, as in the Faroes, public reaction to this statement was furious
and embittered. For once even Patursson’s most ardent followers had
difficulties in staying together and defending him in public, for instance
in the Lagting. 133
132 In 1916 at the Danish sale of the Virgin Islands to the United States a secret protocol
was signed obliging the Americans to recognize Danish sovereignty over all of
Greenland and to force the major powers and international community to accept this.
Wåhlin et al., Færøsk og dansk politik, 1994, 58-59.
133 Wåhlin et al., Færøsk og dansk politik, 84 and 225-26, endnote 34. About the
67

The result of Norwegian pressure was a treaty which respected some
Norwegian hunting interests in East Greenland. As citizens of the Danish
Realm it appeared strange to many Faroese that they could not get access
to West Greenlandic resources. The whole situation required new statute
laws concerning hunting and fishing off Greenland. Petitions from
Suðeroy and elsewhere against the Danish-Norwegian Greenland Treaty
forced the Faroese Members of Parliament in Copenhagen to threaten to
leave their Venstre-party (the ruling liberal party) if the Faroese claims
were not recognized. The home secretary, O. Kragh, then introduced to
Parliament a bill which allowed Faroese fishing out of Godthåb (Nuuk)
and Tre Brødre Havn (Sermilik). 134
On 5 July, 1924, the Greenland Treaty was officially ratified. In
article six of the Danish-Icelandic Treaty of 1918 mutual and free fishing
rights were guaranteed for Danish (including Faroese) and Icelandic
fishermen in their territorial waters respectively. But Greenlandic waters
were in general still closed to all Danish, Faroese and Icelandic
fishermen.
Since the late 1890s the Faroese had protested about British and
Scottish trawlers fishing too near the Faroese shores. In 1898 the Lagting
even stipulated 12,500 DKK to lease a patrol ship until the Royal Danish
Navy could take over a more strict control. 135 In 1901/03 British-Danish
negotiations resulted in a treaty over the territorial waters better than the
former but still founded on a three nautical miles sea limit.
The declining Faroese fishery in local waters in the early 1920s was
followed by renewed political demands to Denmark. These were
primarily an expansion of Faroese territorial waters, secondly a more
extensive and vigorously exercised patrolling of the territorial waters and
rich fishing banks—especially directed against UK trawlers. 136 The
Danish government did try, in vain, to get the British government to
accept an extension of Faroese territorial waters. An effective extension
of patrolling by the Royal Danish Navy was taken into consideration but
Faroese political party system see Mørkøre, ‘Class Interests and Nationalism’, 1991.
134 Steining, ‘Færøerne’ 160-162.
135 For the protests over UK trawlers, Føringatíðindi, 4/8, 1/9,15/12 1898 with reports
from the meetings of the Lagting. In its meeting 3 December, 1898, the approbation of
12,500 DKK was passed and the extension of the territorial sea presented to the
government as an urgent claim.
136 Deliberations on the proposition about ‘Færøske Territorialfarvande’ (Faroese
territorial waters), committee report and decision, Lagtingstidende 1924/25, 9-10
September 1924, pp. 138-139.
68

was turned down on financial arguments, and because the maritime
experts found it impracticable. 137
Not one but several factors thus lie behind the Faroese cry in the
autumn of 1924 for fishing rights off Greenland.
The Greenland Fishery in Faroese Politics in 1924
In the twentieth century Faroese politics has invariably been influenced
by the national line of division: close connections with Denmark or
extended autonomy—cultural, economic and political. This national
perspective also influenced the question of the fishery off Greenland. Yet
in this particular case the Faroese for once were united: We want to sail
to Greenland. But they disagreed on ways and means.
To establish a solid foundation for discussing Faroese politics in this
respect it has been necessary in this study to ignore the eternal rumbling
of the national thunder and to leave out the political power game between
individuals and factions. Those tendencies influence and obscure not
only the debate but also the source material.
From ships in international waters off the Greenlandic west coast in
1923 and 1924 the Færøernes Skipper- og Navigatørforening (The
Faroese Skipper and Navigator Association) learned about a
prosperous fishery at Greenland. 138 The question of Faroese fishery off
Greenland was not on the agenda of the Lagting at St. Olav’s Day, the
traditional opening day, 29 July 1924. On 10 August the Skipper- og
Navigatørforeningen presented the Fishery Committee of the Lagting
with a proposition on the matter especially claiming a permanent land
station on the west coast. 139 The Committee extended the proposal in its
report. Most noteworthy was the demand for five permanent land
stations along the coast. The local press intervened in the case and it was
soon completely politicized. On 3 September the Fishery Committee
presented its proposals on both the territorial waters and the fishery off
137 Spanner, Færøfiskeriet, 10-11.
138 A Norwegian research vessel passed on reliable information on the rising stocks of
fish. The Norwegian fishing vessel Faustina in a short time fished a full hold on Fylla’s
Bank at Godthåb; cf. Dimmalætting 27 August 27 1924 and Blað Føroya
Fiskimannafelag 15 and 22 August 1924. Grønlands Styrelses arkiv, documents on the
matter, quoted in Spanner, ‘Færøfiskeriet’, 103, endnote 63.
139 The proposition is not printed as a supplement to the case in Lagtingstidende. Spanner
found it as an annex to Grønlands Styrelses arkiv 51-1926, Journal 609-1/1924, and
quotes it in ‘Færøfiskeriet’, chapter 3, endnote 7.
69

Greenland. The Lagting decided on 10-11 September 1924 on an official
address to the Danish government on both topics.
The main points about the Greenland fishery in the address 140 were as
follows:
a) A recapitulation of the first address of 1914 meaning that this was
not a new claim but an old one. 141
b) The multitude of fish off Greenland was not exploited by the
Greenlanders themselves and ought to be utilized, a contention which the
Faroese had advanced for a generation, but in vain. 142
c) The fleet of fishing vessels numbered about 200, while there were
about 3,000 fishermen. 143
d) The relatively small size of the sailing vessels and the long
distances—up to 1,700 nautical miles—made it imperative that
permanent land stations should be set up for provisions etc.
e) On board the small ships one could not rinse, salt and store the fish
effectively. It had to be done at land stations with the help of a
Greenlandic work force.
f) The Greenlanders would then to their own benefit be educated in the
fishing industry.
g) The five permanent land stations would be situated at Julianehåb
(Qaqortoq), Frederikshåb (Paamiut), Fiskenæs (Qeqertarsuatsiaat),
Godthåb (Nuuk) and Sukkertoppen (Maniitsoq).
h) As Danish citizens the Faroese ought to have the right to utilize
substantial resources inside areas of the realm under the authority of the
state.
i) The maritime charts of the vast and complicated West Greenlandic
territorial seas were inaccurate and outdated, if at all available. The
Lagting called for the government to print new charts immediately from
the originals in the Søkortarkivet (Hydrographic Department) in
Copenhagen.
140 Text in Lagtingstidende, 1924, 132-34.
141 The protests over the British trawlers and the claim of a guaranteed territorial sea date
back to the 1890s but so did the considerations about fishing off Greenland, see footnote
10.
142 The first application from the Lagting to the Danish government concerning research
about the Greenland fishery dates back to 1897, Føringatíðindi, 16/9 1897, Patursson,
Fiskiveiði, p 258. But more serious steps were first taken in 1910 and 1914.
143 A check in the official Skibsregisteret results in only 154 (or 151 or 156) deep-sea
vessels and it is more likely that the number of men aboard was 2,500 rather than 3,000,
cf. Patursson, Fiskiveiði, 348, 552 and Spanner, ‘Færøfiskeriet’, 24.
70

A comparison between the proposal of the Autonomous Party to the
Fishery Committee of the Lagting about extended territorial waters (and
better coast guard inspection) and the parallel committee report about the
fishery off Greenland demonstrates that the Autonomists and their
opponents, the Unionists (Sambandsflokkurin, close union with
Denmark), must have given each other substantial concessions during
the deliberations since a solid majority of both the major parties could
vote for this far reaching address to the government in Copenhagen.
Only the leader of the Autonomists, Jóannes Patursson, expressed a
substantially different opinion during the debate in the Lagting and in
public. He “did not recognize Denmark’s rights to Greenland” since such
rights alone followed the old Norse landnam “which our forefathers took
in possession”. Two Faroese members of the Danish parliament, A.
Samuelsen and O. Effersøe, both Unionists, were accused of deserting
both the Historical-Norse and the Faroese interests in the East Greenland
case, i.e. the Greenland Treaty of 5 July 1924 with its proposal for a new
general law of resource-management, already agreed in principle,
especially about hunting and fishing. In his opinion the Faroese should
have the same right to hunting and fishing in the Greenlandic waters as in
their own territorial sea. No Faroese should apply to the Danish
government for anything that was already his inherited and undisputable
right. Patursson expanded and clarified his points of view in articles in
the nationalistic Norwegian Tidens Tegn. There he declared that by the
decisions of the Lagting the Faroese had claimed free access to
Greenland and thus the Norwegians and the Faroese had mutual interests
in the Greenland problem. 144 These opinions were not produced for the
occasion. Already in the debates of 1918 concerning the new Icelandic
constitution Patursson as Member of Parliament in the Landstinget in
Copenhagen expressed the historical arguments and rejected, in vain,
any specific protection of Faroese fishing rights in Icelandic waters. So
sure was he of the Icelandic goodwill towards their small brother nation
in the future that no guarantee was needed. Interestingly enough, after
the Second World War, the Icelanders actually behaved that way. 145 In
144 With references to Tidens Tegn and the Debate in the Lagting and with direct
quotations from Patursson’s statements, Dimmalætting has covered and summarized the
case, 20 and 28 December 1924. Quotations in Danish, “Jeg anerkender ikke Danmarks
Ret til Grønland”, (landnammet...) “som vore Forfædre tog i Besiddelse”.
145 Steining, Danmark og Island, VI, 403, 409. Already in 1944 with the upheaval of the
71

1930/31 Patursson repeated the main historical and national arguments
in a book about Faroese autonomy, where he in a short passage dealing
with the fishery off Greenland wrote, “the Faroese now craved to sail to
Greenland.” 146 The rights of Greenlanders to the resources were not
taken into consideration by Patursson.
Two main points in the interwar debate were put by Patursson in the
open: firstly the historical position whereby the Faroese by inheritance
from their Old-Norse ancestors had a right to utilize the Greenlandic
resources; secondly the coordination of Norwegian and Faroese claims in
the matter directed against the Danish authority, the Danish points of
view and the protectionist policy on Greenland.
In the event, neither of the majorities of the two Faroese parties, the
Autonomists and the Unionists, took the link to Norway seriously; on the
contrary, it was generally looked upon as a sort of high treason 147 or
fanaticism. Also, the historical argument was at the time rejected as
invalid by the Danish public and government. The political majority
played the card of being ‘Danish citizens’, with equal rights everywhere
to everybody born in the Danish realm. As demonstrated later it was the
question of social need, the difficulties faced by the ordinary Faroese
family dependent on the fishery, that mattered in Denmark. Neither the
historical nor the citizenship arguments were taken seriously in
Copenhagen—and the Norwegians were dealt with at the International
Court in the Hague in 1933. But in a wider perspective Patursson was
Danish-Icelandic Treaty of 1918, the Icelanders followed the intension of article 6 and
guaranteed the Faroese fishing rights off Iceland.
146 Patursson, Færøsk Selvstyre, the cod was reported in Greenlandic waters and “Nu
vilde færingerne til Grønland”, p. 59. The whole intense writing demonstrates, that the
meaning is “urged for”, or “craved”, or “claimed”, while the more direct translation
“wanted to go to Greenland” is to weak. See also Wåhlin et al., Færøsk og dansk politik,
185, 249, endnotes 19-21, 23.
147 During the First World War J. Patursson had been the leader of a group of nationalists
which, in vain, had tried to get into direct negotiations—behind the back of the
authorities—with the British government concerning provisions to the islands. In
1918-20 J. Patursson’s behaviour in the matter was examined by a special committee of
the parliament especially concerning high treason. As a member of parliament himself it
was a serious matter if he was convicted. In the end the majority of the commitee let him
off the hook since the case became more and more a political matter than one of the law,
cf. Wåhlin et al., Mellem færøsk og dansk politik, passim. A look at French national
reactions during and after the Great War towards anybody daring to make direct contact
with the enemy, or the Italian reaction after the political take-over by the Fascists etc.,
shows that Patursson from the First World War and onwards played a tough game with
Danish patience.
72

ight. The historical argument became more valid over time with the
growth of Faroese self-esteem.
The larger Faroese merchant and shipping companies doubted the
long-term possibilities and asked for more precise maritime research
statements before they would risk any large-scale investments in a
Greenlandic adventure. 148 The fishermen’s organization warned their
members of the danger of being used against their own interests and to
the benefit of the Norwegians if they looked for a berth on Norwegian
fishing vessels. 149
It was not the place of Faroese fishermen to earn
money for Norwegian capitalists. In Copenhagen leading Conservative
newspapers, Berlingske Tidende and Nationaltidende, commented
positively on the Faroese address, but at the same time expressed the
belief that the Greenlandic resources in general ought to be protected and
reserved for the benefit of the Greenlanders. 150
The two newly erected Greenlandic country councils were asked in
1925 about the Faroese propositions in connection with the legal
preparations for the law of resource-management in Greenland. The
opinion up north was not in favour of the Faroese but this is not central to
the present study.
With the Fishery Committee’s report and many other statements as
annexes, the Lagting finally made a short formal address to the
government in Copenhagen as follows:
The Lagting applies to the government concerning Faroese cutters that a permit may
be issued allowing them:
- to carry out fishing in Greenland,
- to establish land-stations on the said places mentioned in the annexed
committee report,
- to get access to the existing chart material over Greenlandic waters, and
- to get access—after negotiations with the (Royal Greenlandic) Trade—for the
Faroese to manufacture the catch on land and eventually to employ a Greenlandic
workforce (to this end). 151
148
The Suðeroy newsletter Føroya Tíðindi with close connections to the leading
shipping companies in an article ‘Grønlandsfiskeriet’, 30 December 1924, expressed
such opinions.
149
‘Hvat kemur úr Grønlandsspurginum’, Blað Føroya Fiskimannafelag, 9 January
1925.
150
Quotations from the public debate in Copenhagen, Spanner ‘Færøfiskeriet’, 28.
151
Lagtingstidende 1924, 134: “Lagtinget andrager hos Regeringen om, at der maa blive
udvirket Tilladelse for færøske Kuttere til - at drive Fiskeri i Grønland, - at etablere
Stationer i Land paa de i foranstaaende Betænkning nævnte Steder, - at man faar Adgang
til det Kortmateriale, som findes over grønlandske Farvande og, - at der efter
73

All the major elements in the Faroese political conflict about
Greenlandic fishery before 1938/39 were already on the table in the late
1924 presented by the press, in the committee report of the Lagting and
by J. Patursson.
Greenlandic Resource-Management
The Law Concerning Fishery, Catching and Hunting of 1925
The old Royal Charter of 1776 and its later clarifications and
amendments upheld a general prohibition on sailing in Greenland’s
territorial sea and in principle closed the waters to anybody but the
Greenlanders. Taking into consideration the huge areas to supervise and
the difficult sailing conditions these regulations were more often
statements of intent than daily practice even if they were internationally
recognized.
The 1924 compromise on East Greenland with the Norwegians made
it imperative that new regulations for resource management in Greenland
be issued. From 1924 different departments and ministries of state
worked hard on this matter and on 29 October 1924 the home secretary in
parliament announced the content of a bill on the matter soon to be
proposed. 152 The Faroese address of 1924 was directed to the
committees of the central administration dealing with this matter, but
little attention was paid to its suggestions. 153
In Article 1 of the first draft from the Admiralty (Marineministeriet)
some considerations about a Faroese fishery off Greenland were actually
taken but that was soon turned down by the Greenlandic Department.
Following the old protectionistic line the department would only
consider an opening for scientific and cultural research on dispensation
but rejected any real commercial exploitation. 154
Forhandling med Handelsstyrelsen skabes Adgang for Færinger til at tilvirke Fangsten i
Land og eventuelt udnytte grønlandsk Arbejdskraft.”
152 Folketingstidende 1924/25, 29 October 1924, column 923 f, Home Secretary, Hauge,
under the debate on the budget for 1925 announced the Greenland Resource Management
law along with a completion of the law about two representative and democratically
elected Greenland country councils, see also Rigsdagsårbogen 1924/25, 152f.
153 In the Faroese view of the matter it has been said, that their proposals were not dealt
with at all in Denmark. That is not true—the arguments simply did not convince the civil
service in the central administration., cf. Rigsdagsårbogen 1924/25, 152f.
154 The official answer of 22 January 1925 from the Home Office (Indenrigsministeriet)
to Lagtinget is not printed in the Lagtingstidende (but was soon known and referred to by
the Faroese press). Spanner, ‘Færøfiskeriet’, 33 and endnote 35, has found and quoted a
copy in Rigsarkivet, Grønlands Styrelses arkiv, 51/1926, journal 609/1924. The letter
74

The proposals were deliberated in Parliament in 1925. The
spokesman of the Conservatives, Halfdan Hendriksen, reminded the
politicians about the Faroese wishes in the matter. The minister, Hauge,
argued that this had been taken into consideration under the preliminary
committee work.
In the spring of 1925 the Faroese case and the resource management
issue were brought before the Greenlandic Councils in a very restricted
form by the Greenlandic Department. The Danish council leaders
(landfogederne, the ‘sheriffs’) eased the way but Greenlandic opinions
were hostile to the Faroese requests. The Southern Council accepted
Ravns Storø as a more permanent land base and agreed that Greenlanders
working on fishing vessels were to be trained as fishermen. The Northern
Council was more restrictive and stated in its response that not just the
fiords and the waters inside the outer skerries and the three nautical miles
of territorial sea should stay restricted for outsiders but that the banks in
international waters were also of primary interest to the Greenlanders. 155
The law followed many of these intentions. Article 2 stated that:
The right to catching, fishery and hunting in Greenlandic waters is exclusively
preserved for native Greenlanders and others in Greenland inhabited Danish subjects
and for those, to whom the Home Secretary will issue special permits according to
the hitherto existing regulations (Article 11 specifies the East Greenlandic exceptions
for 20 years to the Norwegians, Icelanders and Danes). 156
Former prime minister Zahle, in the deliberations in the Folketing,
expressed the hope that some Danish and Faroese fishermen could be
stationed at Greenland to train the Greenlanders in more efficient fishing
techniques. In the Landsting the Faroese propositions were mentioned
gave no real concession except extended rights to take in fresh water, and mentioned that
the coming Greenlandic country councils ought to be consulted in the matter.
155 The Greenlandic responses were characterized by such formulations as: the resources
must be preserved for “the country’s own children” (Landets egne Børn),—or: fishery
inside the outer skerries and in the sea-territory “belongs to the Greenlandic population
alone” (tilkommer den grønlandske Befolkning), cf. Beretninger og Kundgørelser om
Grønland, 1926, 436f (Sydgrønlands Landsraads behandling, 1925, pkt. 8) and 457f,
(Nordgrønlands Landsraads møde, 1925, pkt. 3).
156 “§ 2. Ret til at drive Fangst, Fiskeri og Jagt i Grønlandske Farvande er udelukkende
forbeholdt indfødte Grønlændere og andre i Grønland bosatte danske Undersaatter samt
dem, som Indenrigsministeren meddeler særlig Tilladelse dertil efter de hidtil gældende
Regler”. The law is printed in full and with comments from the committee reports in
Rigsdagsaarbog, 1925, 153-160.
75

and the Home Secretary promised Parliament that according to the
Greenlandic concessions in the matter he would use his power to
adjudicate on Article 2,1 of the law to promote some Faroese fishing off
Greenland. 157
The law was passed and confirmed in the same year. The Norwegians
got the regulations for their limited hunting concessions in East
Greenland. In general the old protectionistic line was upheld but
clarified. Dispensations could only be obtained for each ship individually
for one year at a time and by direct permission from the ministry. The
penalties for breaking the law were in principle confiscation of the catch
and gear and in severe cases even confiscation of the ship followed by
heavy fines of up to 10,000-20,000 DKK.
Yet there was a small gap following the Greenlandic concessions.
Danish (and Faroese as Danish citizens) and a few Icelandic fishing
vessels were permitted a land station for provisions etc. at Ravns Storø
(Takisup Qeqertarsua) and a few Greenlanders could work in the fishing
industry, but only at the same wages as Faroese fishermen there. This
first concession only dealt with Danish, Faroese and Icelandic vessels
fishing in the Davis Strait in international waters but in need of a land
station. Ravns Storø is situated some 70 nautical miles from the
promising Fylla’s Bank out of Godthåb, so the practical use of the land
base was not that effective.
On the Faroe Islands Tingakrossur followed the Autonomous line by
declaring that the Greenlandic councils were nothing but a mouthpiece
for the Danish civil service. The unionist newspaper, Dimmalætting,
countered the Tingakrossur and its suggestion regarding a closer
Faroese-Norwegian cooperation on the Greenland fishery.
In the fishing season of 1925 several Faroese took the long journey to
West Greenland. In spite of poor weather conditions they got good
catches. The schooner Agnes with a crew of 28 loaded a full hold of
35,000 cod.
The Greenland fishery was discussed again in the Lagting in August
1925. According to the Fishery Commitee:
157 Rigsdagaarbog, 1925, 159, summary of the deliberations in Parliament about the
Faroese wishes in the matter.
76

– it was a considerable obstacle to a prosperous fishery at Greenland that the fishing
vessels had to fish solely in international waters since the banks and so the fish were
often situated inside the territorial limit; likewise the hard weather was a serious
hindrance to any fishing as it was frustrating that the small sailing vessels were
allowed neither to seek shelter in the easier water inside the skerries nor to fish there;
– the protectionist line was acceptable concerning modern steam-trawlers; they
should be excluded from any fishery in the skerries and in the sea-territory;
– bait was also a problem, especially angmagssak (lodde, capelin) which appeared in
some abundance in the skerries and ought to be available to the fishermen; finally
– it was essential that the Faroese should be allowed to fish with handlines near the
coast from smaller boats situated at the landbases. This was similar to the way many
Faroese fishermen in the season had their smaller boats transported to and from the
shores of Iceland aboard larger vessels. 158
Extension of the Greenland Fishery by Law, 1927
Naturally the Faroese were not satisfied with the very limited
concessions in the letter from the Home Office of February 1926. The
public debate on the islands and the political considerations were
summed up by the Lagting in their report on the matter during the
autumn of 1926. The Faroese had not obtained the right to fish in the
Greenlandic territorial sea. They had only been given access to one
permanent land station, and not a very well situated one (Ravns Storø),
instead of the five they had requested. The skerries had not been opened
for inshore handline fishing and no one had seen anything of the new and
better charts of the Greenlandic waters.
In accordance with its former argument the Lagting considered ‘Tre
Brødre Havn’ (Sermilik) and ‘Hollænderhavn’ were far better situated,
only 12-20 nautical miles from the promising banks and in easier waters.
The skippers fishing up there in1926 had been questioned and only four
out of 13 vessels had used the facilities at Ravns Storø while 12 out of the
13 ships had returned with a full hold. Beyond any doubt the fishery off
West Greenland had proved its potential. The general public and all the
parties in the Lagting were united in their clamour for a broadening of the
Faroese fishery off Greenland. With many annexes the Lagting issued an
urgent address to the government as follows:
158 The deliberations and the committee reports of the Lagting of 19 September 1925
along with the shorter proposals to the Government of 28 October 1925, in
Lagtingstidende, Annex (bilag) 19, 1-3. The response of 11 February 1926 from the
Ministery of the Interior (Home Office) is printed in the Lagtingstidende, 1925, 139-42,
which includes a summary of the permissions and regulations for the utilization of the
land station on Ravns Storø.
77

1) In recognition of the concessions given to the Faroese fishermen at Greenland the
Lagting has to withhold its decisions of 1924 and 1925 and must express the wish and
hope that the government after renewed considerations in full will comply with the
wishes of the Lagting and by this with those of the Faroese population.
2) The Lagting applies to the ministry on being informed about the statements that
last year were pronounced by the Greenlandic councils in response to the wishes
expressed by the Faroe Islands in this case. 159
In Copenhagen the Social Democratic government and the central
administration took the Faroese claims much more seriously this time.
With broad acceptance both in the public and the political world,
Parliament issued a new law, to run for one year but with a clear
possibility of extension if successful.
The well situated and secure natural harbour of ‘Færingehavn’
(Kangerluarsoruseq) near the mouth of Buksefjorden and the rich Fylla’s
Bank was equipped and opened and immediately became a success. The
territorial sea off the skerries was opened for inshore fishing with
handline and longline but not for trawlers. The season was stipulated as
three months.
The debate in the Rigsdagen demonstrated that what mattered was not
the many Faroese arguments but public awareness of the real social and
economic problems of the ordinary families of the Islands. The real
obstacle for the Faroese case lay in Grønlands Styrelse (The Greenlandic
Department) which always had had much more power than the few and
divided pro-Faroese civil servants in the central administration. The
other serious problem lay in the rising self-consciousness of the
Greenlanders expressed by their country councils who more and more
vigorously opposed any interference in what they viewed as their special
rights to the natural resources. In 1928 both the Greenlandic councils
voted against prolonging the 1927 concessions to the Faroese. 160
159 Committee report and caucus considerations on the address to the government, finally
accepted unanimously 29 September 1926, Lagtingstidende, 1926, annex 73, 143-45.
160 In Lagtingstidende 1927, annex 62, 131-32 and committee report, annex 15,
185/1927 ‘Fisketørring i Grønland’, 1-2, are expressed recognitions of the achieved
results but at the same time is demonstrated the immediate pressure for further
concessions about installations for drying the fish and the use of a Greenlandic workforce
to that end. The Home Secretary presented to Parliament in the spring of 1927 a law
about the matter and urged for swift deliberation and prompt acceptance. Parliament
responded accordingly and access to the territorial sea, better harbours, new charts etc.
was confirmed by law. Only Danish (Faroese) and Icelandic fishing was allowed and no
78

The Provisional Laws concerning the Greenlandic Fishery, 1928-1937
The law of May 1927 was formulated in such a way that it had to be
renewed every year while the Home Secretary annually had to secure his
rights by dispensation to allow a restricted fishery etc. in the Greenlandic
territorial sea. Even though it was a problem for shipowners to apply
every year at the ministry for fishing rights off Greenland for the coming
season, the same procedure led to the exertion of constant Faroese
pressure by the two Faroese M.P.s in Parliament each year. The Lagting
formulated the issues and the M.P.s presented them to the two houses in
Copenhagen.
In 1928 the Lagting promoted a proposition from the Færøernes
Skipper- og Navigatørforening (the skipper association) who wanted an
extension of the inshore fishery into the prolific long fiords, but it was
turned down by the ministry. In 1929 the Lagting, in vain, applied for
another real harbour for larger vessels further up north, but in 1935 the
proposition was accepted and the harbour at Tovkussak between
Maniitsoq (Sukkertoppen) and Nuuk (Godthåb) was opened. Only a few
vessels used it, so the harbour was closed again in 1938. In 1931, after
constant Faroese pressure, the limits for fishing in the territorial sea were
extended from 62 , 40´ to 65 , 15´ north (from out of Ravns Storø up to
out of Sukkertoppen, Maniitsoq). In 1933 Faroese fishermen were
allowed to fish inshore waters directly from Færinghavn with small
boats.
The Faroese policy was effective and clear: constant demands and
persistent pressure brought results in Greenlandic waters. 161
The Faroese Get their Way; the Greenland-Agreement of 1938-39
trawlers. The area reached from Ravns Storø to Håbets Ø (out of Godthåb, Nuuk). The
Faroese M.P., A. Samuelsen, was a good advocate for his national case and ensured that
the major points of the Lagting’s propositions were pushed through. Folketingstidende, 4
May 1927, column 5283 ff. The law was extended nearly unchanged in 1928,
Rigsdagsårbogen 1926/27 p 249f and 1927/28 p 155; laws of 30 May 1927 and 4 April
1928, Lovtidende C, nr. 127 (all further references in the Rigsdagsårbogen, to debates
etc.).
161 Cf. the yearly Committee reports and addresses from the Lagting printed in
Lagtingtidende 1928-37. The essential reports, deliberations and decisions are quoted
and reprinted in the major report of the Lagting, 1938, ‘Grønlandsmál’. The deliberations
and laws of parliament 1928-38 are summarized annually and the new articles are printed
in the Rigsdagårbogen, subjects: ‘Grønland’, ‘Færøerne’, ‘Fiskeri’ in the index.
79

In 1938 the Fishery Committee of the Lagting issued a major political
report on the whole case of Faroese fishery off Greenland from 1924 to
1938. In spite of the many advantages for the Faroese (which often meant
disadvantages in the long run for the Greenlanders) the committee with
regret concluded: “The concessions that the Faroese have obtained in
Greenland in the last 15 years have not been substantial, [on the contrary
...] recently a considerable reduction in the Faroese rights in Greenland
has taken place and the Faroese have thus more difficult conditions to
work under than before.” 162 The last complaint concerns the opening in
1937 of Færingehavn by the Danish government to the ships of other
nations.
The report was accepted unanimously by the Lagting. The claim of
extended access to Greenlandic harbours and fishing banks was then
routine. The real novelty was the decision of naming a Faroese
committee consisting of respected members from the Lagting, from the
leading commercial organizations and from the fishermen’s union to
meet with prime minister Stauning and his staff. The government
accepted the negotiations which took place 23-30 January 1939 in
Copenhagen.
The deliberations included all the major problems, both Greenlandic
and Faroese, and the minutes were published.The Faroese case was
summarized as follows:
The Faroese fishing cutters have for many years sailed in great numbers to Greenland
for the cod fishery. The reason for this has been hard necessity; the fishery around the
Faroe Islands is in practice insignificant as a result of the activity of foreign trawlers,
and the Icelandic fishery has been constantly in decline due to the failure of the fish
stock. The fishing off Greenland has then been the sole fishery which could sustain
the trade and every year in the months of May-June some 80 to 100 smaller vessels
sail from the Faroe Island to Greenland for the fishery. The crews of the ships amount
to some 2,500 or even 3,000 men, nearly half of the grown male population.—The
Faroese cod fishery takes place under extraordinary difficult and dangerous
conditions for the fishermen. The ships and gear which are at hand for the Faroese
are mostly old and fragile. The distance from the Faroe Islands to the main land
station in Greenland, the Færingehavn, is of some 1,700 nautical miles. The coastline
162 The opening pages of the Committee report of the Lagting, Lagtingssag VI-I/1938,
annex 7, Lagtingstidende 1938. ‘Grønlandsmál’, 1-31. Quotation in Danish: “...de
Indrømmelser, Færingerne har opnaaet i Grønland i de svundne 15 Aar, ikke har været
store, (tværtimod hedder det videre, at) der i den sidste Tid er sket en betydelig
Indskrænkning i de færøske Rettigheder i Grønland, og at Færingerne saaledes har faaet
vanskeligere Kaar at arbejde under end tidligere.”
80

along which the fishery is carried out has a length of about 500 nautical miles. Under
a stay of several months in these waters with their innumerable dangers of ice, fog,
storms, skerries, and with only a few remedies for the navigation the Faroese have
just one solid base, the Færingehavn. Since 1927 the Faroese have been allowed to
fish inside the three nautical miles’ limits, but this access to fish near the skerries in
itself contains extra dangers threatening the ships in this yet insufficiently charted
water.—The Faroese population under these circumstances has the greatest interests
in the implementation of alterations to the existing order to promote greater security
to the Faroese fishermen concerning human life and equipment. Furthermore, the
Faroese side expresses the strongest of wishes to obtain such adaptions concerning
the access to those grounds where the cod at a given time may be found that the
Faroese vessels can return with the highest possible profit from the work of the
season. 163
The Greenlandic Department expressed sympathy for the Faroese
proposals. But only as far as it could be exercised without endangering
163 The considerations were open and put forward in mutual respect. In a condensed
version the minutes from the proceedings were printed in Rigsdagstidende, Tillæg A
(Annex A, reports etc.), column 4655ff. The Faroese report is printed in Lagtingstidende,
1938, as ‘Grønlandsmál’. A summary of the Faroese opinions and those of the Grønlands
Styrelse on behalf of the Greenlanders is printed in Rigsdagsårbogen, 1938/39 129-130.
The Faroese arguments (English translation in the main text) in Danish are as follows:
“Naar de færøske Fiskekuttere nu i en Aarrække i stort Antal har søgt til Grønland for at
drive Torskefiskeri, maa Grunden hertil søges i den haarde Nødvendighed; Fiskeriet
omkring Færøerne er praktisk talt betydningsløst som Følge af de udenlandske Trawleres
Virksomhed, og Islandsfiskeriet har været i stadig Tilbagegang paa Grund af
Fiskebestandenes Svigten. Grønlandsfiskeriet har da været det eneste Fiskeri, som kunde
give Erhvervet Eksistensmulighed, og der gaar hvert Aar i Maj-Juni 80 á 100
Smaafartøjer fra Færøerne til Grønland paa Fiskeri. De har en samlet Besætning paa
omkring 2 500 eller helt op til 3 000 Mand, næsten Halvdelen af den voksne mandlige
Befolkning. — Det færøske Torskefiskeri foregaar imidlertid under overordentlig
vanskelige og farefulde Forhold for Fiskerne. Det Skibsmateriel, Færingerne raader
over, er for den overvejende Del gammelt og lidet modstandsdygtigt. Afstanden fra
Færøerne til Færingernes Hovedstation ved Grønland, Færingehavnen, er ca. 1 700
Sømil. Kysten, langs hvilken Fiskeriet foregaar, har en Udstrækning af ca. 500 Sømil.
Under Maaneders Ophold i dette Farvand med dets utallige Farer, Is, Taage, Storme,
Skær med faa Hjælpemidler for Navigationen, har Færingerne kun eet fast Støttepunkt,
Færingerhavnen. Der er vel siden 1927 givet Færingerne Adgang til paa en ca. 150
Sømil lang Strækning at fiske inden for 3 Mile-Grænsen, men denne Adgang til at fiske
inden for Skærene indeholder i sig selv forøgede Farer, der truer Skibene i dette, endnu
mangelfuldt kortlagte Farvand. — Den færøske Befolkning har under disse Forhold den
allerstørste Interesse i at faa gennemført Ændringer i den bestaaende Ordning, der kan
hjælpe til at give de færøske Fiskere større Sikkerhed for Mennesker og Materiel. Man
nærer desuden fra færøsk Side de stærkeste Ønsker om at faa saadanne Lempelser med
Hensyn til Adgangen til de Steder, hvor Torsken til enhver Tid findes, at de færøske
Skibe kan hjemføre det bedst mulige Udbytte af Arbejdet i Sæsonen”.
81

the existing and future utilization of the resources by the Greenlanders
could the Faroese request be met. The inshore fishery was in principle
Greenlandic and no foreign fishery in the fiords could be allowed. The
hunting, especially the sealing, had to be protected. Just as the Faroese
had to fight for a living so had the Greenlanders. In general Greenland
and its inhabitants should be protected against a direct encounter with
foreigners and all economic contacts ought still to go through the hands
of the monopoly of the Royal Greenlandic Trade. No economic burden in
the matter must be laid on the shoulders of the Greenlanders. In the
inshore fishery as well as that on the territorial sea the Faroese had to
avoid any danger of destruction of the marine resources, i. e. to use hand
line and long line but no trawlers.
In the end the Faroese delegation obtained nearly all of its major
points in a paper called ‘Grønlandstraktaten’ (the Greenland Treaty),
which the prime minister, Stauning, promised to present to the
Rigsdagen as an amendment to a statute law and to see that it was
confirmed and issued the same year. The major points were:
1) The harbours of Tovkussak to the north and Ravns Storø to the south
were reopened and equipped under similar conditions to that of
Færingehavn and a new harbour further north ‘Færinge Nordhavn’
(Kangeq, between Holsteinsborg and Egedesminde) was established.
2) Inshore fishing (but not in the fiords) with smaller boats stationed at
the harbours and fishing inside the skerries with hand and long line was
allowed.
3) Fishing from smacks, cutters etc. (but no trawling) in the three
nautical miles sea territory (but not inside the skerries) was permitted
from Arsuk in the south (a little north of Ivigtut) to Attu in the north
(north of Nordre Færingehavn)—or at all the rich banks in what was
regarded as Danish-Greenlandic territory south of Disko Island.
4) Rinsing, salting, drying and storing of fish could be handled at the
land stations, while the vessels were fishing, so the season could be most
profitably utilized and the value of the catch be maximised.
A broad majority in Parliament carried the law through with only
minor corrections and even the few doubters abstained. On 6 March
1939, Parliament passed the law and later the same month it was
published. 164 The news was welcomed on the Faroe Islands. In the 1939
164 Folketingstidende 1938/39, columns 4304 ff and 4481 ff. Landstingstidende 1939,
deliberations 7-10 March 1939, columns 1224f, 1340f, 1431 f, confirmation 15 March,
1939, Lovtidende C, nr. 84 1939. Rigsdagsårbogen 1938/39, 128. The Greenland
82

season the weather was not favourable and the outcome that year of the
fishery was not as positive as the expectations.
Through the 1930s the Faroese had with good reason protested about
conditions in Greenland, for instance the lack of modern repair facilities
for ships at Færøhavn, better lighting and the need for a small hospital
there etc. The hospital was built in 1937. 165 Anyway, in spite of all
obstacles, Table II and III demonstrate how much the opening of the
Greenlandic waters meant to the Faroe Nation in the Inter-War Years.
That opening was due to Danish goodwill and understanding of the
Faroese problems which often came into conflict with considerations,
which were just as reasonable, for the welfare of the Greenlanders.
In the Second World War, the British occupation of the Faroe Islands
and the German occupation of Denmark divided the two peoples for five
years. Under great dangers and huge casualties in life and shipment the
Faroese once again fished the nearby banks and sold the catch to Britain.
Nobody in five years thought of fishing off Greenland.
Conclusion
In the 15 years between the first Faroese claims to fishing rights off
Greenland and 1939 we have seen an unusual political unanimity on the
matter among the Faroese. Already in 1924 most of the major points had
been put forward: (1) there was cod off Greenland, (2) the fishery at
Iceland was diminishing, (3) the Danish-Norwegian Greenland Treaty
provoked Danish subjects (i.e. the Faroese), (4) the Faroese fishing fleet
was outdated, (5) the historical-popular arguments of Patursson, (6) the
deterioration of the home fishery. To those arguments were added only
two; first, that the world crisis after 1930 really hit the fish industry;
second, that some sort of occupation had to be found for the small-boat
fishermen (and that could be obtained from land stations in Greenland).
Political and public opinion in Denmark took the constantly
worsening economic situation of the ordinary Faroese families very
councils had to be consulted before a date for the practice of the law could be stipulated,
finally it was announced to 1 July, 1939. It became more difficult than anticipated to get
the approval of the Greenlandic councils in the spring of 1939, but in the end they gave in
to the united pressure of the ‘sheriffs’ (Danish chairmen of the councils) and Grønlands
Styrelse.
165 Many of the calamities and miserable conditions for the Faroese fishermen at
Greenland are dealt with by E. Patursson, Fiskiveiði, 265-293. He does not mention that
the Faroese, against strong Greenland protests, in 1939 achieved what they for many
years had fought for and got it with the broadest possible backing from Denmark.
83

seriously. The issue was given more consideration because the Faroese
for once were united in a cause: ‘we want to fish off Greenland’. But at
the same time there was a broad understanding of the responsibilities
Denmark had towards the Greenlanders and their welfare.
Balancing the reasonable and contradictory Faroese and Greenlandic
interests in the matter became a major political issue for the government,
which had to act under rising Greenlandic self-consciousness and
protests.
Sources
Many documents from the Danish ministries and departments—and most of the essential
papers on Faroese fishing rights—are published in the Faroese printed minutes from the
Lagting (the county council), Lagtingstidende, dating back to the nineteenth century.
Checks in the Archives of the Realm (Rigsarkivet) prove the accuracy of these
publications. In his unpublished MA thesis ‘Færøfiskeriet ved Grønland’, 1982, Søren
Spanner demonstrates this after a painstaking search in the Rigsarkivet. Since this article
deals with the Faroese politics in the matter and only secondarily with the more general
Danish administration and politics and the Greenlandic angle I have found it legitimate in
general to build primarily on Faroese sources and Danish published governmental and
parliamentary material.
84

The major points in the debate were discussed in the Danish parliament during the
preparations, debates, votings, and committee deliberations concerning the necessary
legal foundations for the step by step alterations in the governmental politics about
Faroese fishing at Greenland and in the parallel actions of the central administration. This
has been followed by a thorough investigation of the published parliamentary minutes
and committee reports in the Rigsdagtidende, for the lower chamber in the
Folketingstidende, for the upper chamber in the Landstingstidende, and for the final laws
in the “Tillæg C” (Supplement, C) of the Rigsdagstidende.
The statistics of Faroese fishing have in general been extracted by a year by year
(1920-1939) study of the reliable, official Statistisk Aarbog (Statistical Yearbook). Other
figures have been checked there and the sources are referred to in the footnotes. Based on
the extensive Statistiske Meddelelser, 4. Række (series), Fiskeriberetninger 1911-1939,
and Vedel Tåning, Fiskeri- og Havundersøgelser ved Færøerne, 1943, E. Patursson,
Fiskiveiði,1961, has published many interesting figures and tables especially in vol. I,
and in vol. II, chap. “Veiðirættindi í Grønlandi”, pp 255-293, has given the first serious
description in the Faroese language of Faroese policy towards the fishery at Greenland
1920-1939. According to the nationalist interpretation of Faroese history Patursson
claims “historical rights” for the Faroese at Greenland as a part of the Old-Norse
inheritance of the Viking Age settlements on Greenland—the fact that there was only
Inuit and no Norse settlement there from around 1500 to the 1720s is completely left out
of the argument. His interpretation of the Faroese point of view in the inter-war period is
informative but lacking in an understanding of the Greenlandic and Danish positions in
the matter. On the more general political interactions between the Lagting and the Danish
government and Parliament Steining’s part in vol. VI of the authoritative Den danske
rigsdag 1849-1949 is still the most solid study.
Select Bibliography
Andreasen, Jens Pauli, “Á øðrun sinni í Grønlandi við ‘Knørri’”, Varðin,
1927, 531
Beretninger og Kundgørelser om Grønland (Copenhagen, some issues
consulted, 1920s and 1930s)
Blað Føroya Fiskimannafelag (Faroese fishery newspaper, some issues
consulted, 1920s)
Den danske Rigsdag, 1849.1949, ed. H. Frisch et al., I-VI (Copenhagen,
1949-1953)
Dimmalætting (Faroese newspaper, Tórshavn 1878 ff., 1920-40)
Fiskeri-Beretninger, 1911-1939 (Copenhagen)
Føringatíðindi (First Faroese newspaper in the Faroese language, 1890-
1906, reprint, Tórshavn 1969)
Føroya Tíðingi (Newsletter with close connections to the shipping
companies and the influental merchant family, Mortensen, Suðeroy;
some issues consulted, 1920s).
Folketingstidende, vide: Rigsdagstidende
Hansen, Paul M. & Frede Hermann, Fisken og havet ved Grønland
(Copenhagen, 1953)
85

Lagtingstidende, 1914-1940 (The printed county council minutes of the
Faroe Islands)
Landstingstidende, vide: Rigsdagstidende
Løgtingstíðindi, vide: Lagtingstidende
Mørkøre, Jógvan, ‘Class Interests and Nationalism in Faroese Politics’,
North Atlantic Studies, vol. 3,1 (Århus 1991), 57-67
Nolsøe, K., ‘Færøsk fiskeri ved Grønland’, Grønland, (Copenhagen,
1973) 199-208
Patursson, Erlendur, Fiskiveiði–fiskimenn 1850-1939, I-II (Tórshavn,
1961)
Patursson, Jóannes, Færøsk Politik (Tórshavn 1931)
Rigsdagstidende, 1920-1940
Forhandlinger i Folketinget (Folketingstidende), yearly
Forhandlinger i Landstinget (Landstingstidende), yearly
Tillæg A, Lovforslag etc., yearly
Tillæg C, Vedtagne Lovforslag, Beslutninger etc., yearly
Rigsdags-årbogen, = Aarbog for Rigsdagssamlingen, 1920-40, (The
official parliamentary year-book, like ‘Hansard’, Copenhagen)
Spanner, Søren, ‘Færøfiskeriet ved Grønland i 1920’erne – Kampen om
færøske fiskeres adgang til fiskeri i grønlandske farvande 1924-
27.’ Unprinted MA-thesis, history (Aarhus University, 1982)
Statistiske Meddelser, 4. Række, ff.
Statistisk Aarbog, 1917-1939 (Copenhagen)
Steining, Jørgen, ‘Rigsdagen og Færøerne’, Den danske Rigsdag 1849-
1949, VI, (Copenhagen 1953), 105-201
Steining, Jørgen, ‘Danmark og Island’, Den danske Rigsdag, VI,
(1953), 313-410
Sveistrup, P. P.: ‘Rigsdagen og Grønland’, Den danske Rigsdag, VI,
260-287
Tingakrossur (Faroese newspaper, f. 1901, radical and autonomistic,
some issues consulted, 1920s)
Trap, J. P., Danmark, 5. ed., (Copenhagen 1970), XIV, ‘Grønland’,
XIII, ‘Færøerne’
Tåning, Å. Vedel, Fiskeri- og Havundersøgelser ved Færøerne
(Copenhagen 1943)
Wåhlin, V., M. S. Lund, H. M. Kristensen and B. Tersbøl, Mellem færøsk
og dansk politik 1917-1920 (Tórshavn & Århus 1994)
Fig I.
Greenlandic cod catches 1915-1965. Source: J.P. Trap, XIV, ‘Grønland’, 172
86

Table II. Faroese Fisheries, 1917-1938
The sloop fisheries
Dried fish,
total
Dried fish,
caught off Iceland
Dried fish,
caught off Greenland
Year ,000 kg ,000 DKK ,000 kg ,000 DKK ,000 kg ,000 DKK
1938 21,945 6,302 8,820 2,528 13,061 3,754
1937 19,188 5,496 7,725 2,210 11,366 3,253
1936 16,693 4,709 5,445 1,609 11,248 3,100
1935 18,748 5,813 11,472 3,604 7,250 2,202
1934 21,635 5,995 11,310 3,098 10,317 2,895
1933 25,618 6,043 18,402 4,228 7,216 1,815
1932 25,203 4,534 19,189 3,334 6,007 1,300
1931 29,385 5,657 21,396 4,460 7,973 1,187
1930 30,115 7,523 21,172 5,554 8,921 1,962
1929 25,554 8,008 21,689 6,576 3,864 1,432
1928 20,448 7,033 19,825 6,802 523 197
1927 15,345 4,212
1926 15,686 4,997
1925 11,954 6,398
1924 12,540 6,891
1923 14,105 5,229
1922 16,206 7,107
1921 12,042 6,841
1920 8,035 6,426 Source Table II and III:
Statistisk Aarbog, 1917-1940, Part II,
1919 12,916 10,278
Færøerne, Tabel 6
1918 10,167 7,516
1917 5,795 3,029
87

Table III. Faroese Fisheries, 1917-1938
The boat fisheries
Cod Other fish Total boat
fishery
Sloop and boat
fisheries, total
Year ,000 kg ,000 DKK ,000 DKK ,000 DKK ,000 DKK
1938 1,795 217 126 343 7,010
1937 1,987 217 46 263 6,283
1936 865 103 197 300 5,113
1935 1,194 149 203 352 6,239
1934 1,362 186 72 258 6,293
1933 1,638 212 32 244 6,360
1932 3,203 314 97 411 5,011
1931 1,060 101 39 140 5,848
1930 1,585 251 35 286 7,834
1929 1,369 218 38 256 8,264
1928 2,944 434 58 492 7,562
1927 4,670 564 51 615 5,369
1926 3,635 489 18 507 5,860
1925 4,266 1,106 69 1175 7,963
1924 2,875 590 28 618 7,509
1923 2,837 401 43 444 5,673
1922 1,545 250 87 337 7,444
1921 3,408 711 - 711 7,552
1920 5,305 1,566 18 1584 8,010
1919 10,084 2,737 116 2853 13,131
1918 10,459 2,526 9 2535 10,051
1917 7,962 1,520 12 1532 4,561
88

Fishing by the Greenlanders
Axel Kjær Sørensen
Introduction
This paper deals with the commercial fisheries conducted by
Greenlanders in their territorial waters during the twentieth century. It
will provide a brief outline of the development of this native fishery,
focusing on the research undertaken into this subject.
The commercial fisheries started in 1910 and grew to be Greenland’s
most important export industry by the mid-twenties. Cod was the most
important species. Its arrival in Greenland waters was caused by a rise in
water temperature in about 1915 which continued until the mid-sixties.
Previous research has produced a fairly good account of such topics
as the magnitude of the catch, number of fishermen and boats involved,
and processing facilities. We also know something in broad terms about
official policy towards the fisheries.
Our knowledge is based on official records kept in the archives and to
a great extent printed in yearly reports, but is scanty in the
socio-economic field as well as in the socio-cultural field. More
information can be generated by asking new questions of the known
material. In particular, research in the archives of local and central
authorities will probably bring forth new and more detailed evidence
about policy and its implementation.
Up to the Second World War
The Greenlanders have always fished to provide for their own needs. In
traditional Greenlandic society fishing was held in low esteem. It was an
occupation for old men no longer capable of hunting, and for women and
children who had lost their breadwinner. Three species of fish played an
important role. Ammassat (capelin), which came in huge shoals close to
the coast in the early summer to spawn, were caught with big landing
nets, dried on the rocks, and used as dog fodder and emergency food in
winter time. Nipisat (lumpsucker), which came close to the coast in the
early spring, were caught for the sake of their roe. Kapitsillit (Atlantic
salmon) were caught in the summer in streams and were a welcome diet
89

variation. Several place names bear witness as to how important it was to
remember where they used to arrive. 166
The economy was largely based on seal hunting which remained
virtually unchanged until the beginning of this century. In the middle of
the nineteenth century, though, shark and cod liver was taken in by the
monopoly trade. So were Atlantic salmon and Greenland halibut in 1903.
This was because Danish civil servants had developed the private exports
of these species.
Due to the growing population the stock of seals was insufficient to
cover needs. The Royal Trade Company, in charge of Greenland, was
eagerly looking for alternative occupations for the Greenlanders. From
1906 sheep herding was introduced, and this activity found a foothold in
the far south of Greenland. It never became a big business due to the lack
of suitable pastures. For the Danish government, the Faroese Napoleon
Andreasen tried deep water fishing in 1906 but with little success. No
cod worth mentioning was found. State-initiated fishery experiments
were continued by Adolf S. Jensen from 1908, again without much
success. However, a commercial fishery for halibut was started from
1910 in southern Greenland, almost exclusively in a single fjord,
Alluitsoq.
The fishery experiments and the fishery for halibut under the
Greenland Administration 167 are well covered statistically. Also the
overall strategy is known: to develop rational (the technical expression
for commercial at the time) fishery both to exploit local resources and to
export. The fishery was not meant to inhibit seal hunting which still was
regarded as a solid and lasting resource. Annual reports and other
materials from the fishing stations still exist to a great extent. Summaries
of the reports, some very lengthy, have been printed in Beretninger og
Kundgørelser (the official reports from the Greenland Administration).
A thesis completed in 1991 by Henning Bro at the University of
Copenhagen has investigated the participation of the Greenlanders in the
fishery in the Alluitsoq-fjord by tracing the individuals’ occupation over
166 Greenlandic places are mostly named after the configuration of the landscape. Names
of hunting animals, however, often occur.
167 The official name of the Government office in charge of Greenland was ‘Styrelsen af
kolonierne i Grønland’ meaning: The administration of the colonies in Greenland.
Before 1908 the name was: ‘Direktoratet for den kongelige grønlandske Handel’
meaning: The Directorate for the Royal Greenlandic Trade Company.
90

time. Using primary sources, he has analyzed the policies of the
authorities in the hectic years, 1905-1908. He identifies an aggressive
Danish private interest in the deep water fishery off the Greenland coasts,
and has very convincingly asserted that concern for the welfare of the
Greenlanders was the reason for the politicians’ rejection of private
enterprise.
Pia Boisen and Bue Nielsen have tried to find an economic motive in
the endeavour of the authorities to promote fishing, but their research
suffers from serious theoretical flaws, and cannot be trusted. 168 Their
main thesis that the Royal Trade Department was eager to promote the
fishery in order to make money by trading is disproven by Henning Bro,
who shows, on the contrary, that the Trade Department was most anxious
that the fishery might harm seal hunting.
The experimental cod fishery around 1908-1912 had not given much
hope for the future. From 1917, however, the cod began to appear on the
coasts of Greenland, and the Trade Department began to export it, a
business that proved an overwhelming success as the cod was kind
enough to return year after year. Judged by Greenlandic standards, a
tremendous spate of building of fish stations, to salt and store the cod,
began. The Greenland Administration engaged Danish ‘fish masters’, as
they were called, to be consultants at the catch and to take charge of the
processing. By 1925 the value of cod surpassed the value of the
customary main article, seal blubber. From the late 1920s, everybody,
the Country Council in Southern Greenland included, put their faith in a
cod fishing future.
The main publication in the field is still William G. Mattox’s 1971
doctoral thesis, Fishing in West Greenland 1910-1966, The Development
of a New Native Industry (McGill University). He has brilliantly
delineated the development of this fishery, using all printed materials,
not only the yearly reports and statistics but also the debates in books and
periodicals. The core of his work is an extensive statistical analysis
which allows him to establish the catch by place, species, number of
boats, fishing stations, etc. In his field Mattox seems to have exhausted
the material. Further research, however, is most likely to be rewarding in
the political and sociological areas, topics which are barely touched upon
by Mattox. The published literature can be analyzed from these angles,
168 Boisen and Bue Nielsen, Axel Kjær Sørensen, Erik Schmidt in the periodical
Grønland 1983.
91

and the use of unpublished sources would amplify and qualify such
research.
Some round figures may indicate the significance of the fisheries in
this period. The catch of cod increased between 1911 and 1917 from 20
tons to nearly 200 tons a year; between 1918 and 1925 from 500 to 1,000;
between 1926 and 1930 from 2,000 to a peak of 9,658. From there it
stayed between 7,000 and 9,500 tons until 1942, excepting 1938, when a
meagre catch of 5,492 tons was returned. This was not only an absolute
growth, but a relative one as well. Compared to all products sold to the
Royal Trade Company, the cod catch of 1911-1917 was up 5%; that of
1918-1925 was up between 8 and 13%; and the figure for 1926-1939 was
30-45% higher. The number of fishermen also grew substantially
between 1911 and 1940 (see table 1). It is fair to say that the fisheries in
this period grew to be the single most important industry in Greenland.
Table 1. Number of fishermen, Greenland, 1911-1940
Year Number of
fishermen
Percentage of
labour force
1911 322 11
1921 476 15
1930 1324 32
1940 1500 27
Several issues characterise the period to the end of the 1920s, none of
which have been studied properly using the sources. Outstanding is the
controversy in Greenland between traditionalists, who wanted to hang on
to seal hunting as the main occupation, and modernists, who saw
opportunities for Greenlanders in developing the fishery. Both camps
had their patrons in the Danish political/administrative system. A
problematic source situation exists in this field. The written debate is
very limited, and worse still, most of it is written in Greenlandic, a
language which only a few master. Some possibilities for
92

non-Greenlandic speakers are at hand. In recent years people with a
knowledge of the language have read and translated Greenlandic
literature and newspapers. 169 Furthermore, some of the articles in local
newspapers have been translated into Danish for the authorities to read in
Copenhagen. These translations can be found in the archives. Some
Greenlandic fiction has also been translated into Danish. 170 Besides that,
Danish civil servants in Greenland have participated in the debate, partly
in the periodical Det grønlandske Selskabs Årsskrift and other
periodicals, and partly in memoirs. All administrative papers are in
Danish.
The changes in the material side of Greenlandic society are well
documented in contemporary reports among which the central one is
Beretning og Kundgørelser. An excellent statistical survey, covering the
period from about 1850 to 1938, was made in Copenhagen during the
war and published between 1942 and 1947. Its numerous tables and
textual explanations cover in many ways a broader field than the yearly
reports. Research on Greenlandic reactions in the period should
commence with the minutes of the Greenlandic Country Councils, which
were greatly concerned with the fishery. A print out for teaching
purposes of the debate on fishing between 1924 and 1939 covers 100
standard pages.
Changes in Greenlandic attitudes are harder to register. Some
important topics must at this point be left to speculation. Thus, Ditte
Goldschmidt pointed out in 1994 that because of the change in the
fishing economy the Greenlanders lost the last business in which they
were the acknowledged experts, namely seal hunting. Now they had to
be pupils of Danish civil servants to earn a living. This must have been
detrimental to their self-confidence.
That the Greenlanders demanded that their children should be trained
in the Danish language puzzled the contemporary Danish authorities
who believed that this was due to the need to learn the new industries. 171
Another factor was the colonial situation in general. Assimilation was in
fact an issue for some colonial native elites in the French African
colonies between the wars. By considering the colonial status of
169 Among them Chr. Berthelsen, H.C. Petersen, and Kirsten Thisted
170 Mathias Storck, En Grønlænders drøm (1913). Augo Lynge, 300-år efter
(1931/1992).
171 Axel Kjær Sørensen (1983) 56-61.
93

Greenland a whole world of comparison is opened. The sparse work I
have done in this field shows that the Danish government followed the
same path as other colonial powers in her policy towards Greenland. It
also indicates that the paternalistic, protective policy which the Danes
perpetually emphasized as being special to the treatment of Greenland is
not that unique.
The 1930s and the Quarrel over Faroese Fishing in Greenlandic Waters
This was a highly sensitive political issue. The Danish government had
to find a balance between the Faroese requests on new and expanding
fishing rights on the coast and its concern for the Greenlanders. Very
little has been written about this subject. Karl Nolsøe wrote an
informative article in the periodical Grønland in 1973. Søren Spanner, in
his thesis ‘Færøfiskeriet ved Grønland i 1920-erne’, has analyzed the
first period. In Axel Kjær Sørensen (1983) there are a couple of pages on
the subject. The minutes from the Greenlandic Country Councils, from
the Faroese Lagting, 172 and from the Danish Parliament provide
extensive source materials, not to mention the archives of the said
authorities.
The War Experience
The development in the scope of the fishery is fairly well documented in
contemporary statistics. Thus the cod catch leapt to 12,000 tons in 1942,
growing to 14,000 tons in 1945. Knowledge of the overall economic
balance is lacking. It is thus not known if the fisheries were
self-sustaining or even contributed to the running of society, or if in fact
they were subsidized by the export of cryolite. Down to 1950 Greenland
had a typical planned economy with its own internal price relations
which were fixed out of consideration for society as a whole with little or
no regard for the prosperity of individual businesses. Up to 1938, the
analyses conducted by the Greenland Administration provide much
information. New research in the archives, however, may reveal much
more. But it is clear that the Greenlandic fisheries doubled during the
war, so there was every reason to believe in cod as the basis for the
future.
The Intensified Expansion after 1946
172 See Wåhlin’s paper in this volume.
94

The first sign of a new Greenland policy came with a report from a joint
Danish-Greenlandic committee in 1946. It recommended a net capital
transfer as great as the whole annual budget up to then. The
recommendations were accepted by the authorities. Over a five year
period eight million kroner was to be invested in building new industries,
with a quarter going to the fisheries. On a yearly basis a two million
kroner deficit in running costs was accepted, nearly half of it to bolster
business, although virtually nothing was to go to the fisheries. This
primary sector was supposed to carry its own costs. An internal report
from the Greenland Administration revealed that during 1946-1948
600,000 kroner were invested in fishing stations and about 2 million
kroner in boats and engines for the Greenlanders. Investments outside
the fisheries added up to 13.5 million kroner, half of which was directed
to the development of weather forecast facilities. 173 The fish catches
were steadily rising although not in proportion to investment. Cod
catches rose in the period 1946-1954 from 15,000 to 19,000 tons. Still,
the fishery held its overwhelming significance, accounting for 75% of
the value of total production in the early 1950s.
The Great Leap Forward in 1950
Economically, the decisive changes in policy from 1950, called ‘The
New Order’, saw a massive enlargement of investment and income
transfer to Greenland. The trade monopoly introduced in 1721 and
restricted access to Greenland were lifted, and Danish private enterprise
was called upon to operate under state surveillance. The economic
philosophy was to let the Danish society cover the investment and the
overall public expense, while primary Greenlandic production, sealing
and fishing, was supposed to be self-sustaining. In time they were
expected to cover public expense as well. Danish private enterprise was
expected to invest in modern fish processing and to tutor the
Greenlanders in entrepreneurial techniques. Elsewhere, I have
researched private Danish interests in Greenland and found it to be very
modest, extending to only a handful of fishing cutters from Esbjerg. 174
How they operated in Greenland is only described in memoirs. 175
173 Oldendow, Knud, ‘Fremstilling af Arbejdet i Grønland, 28/6-1948’. To be found in
the parliamentary archives, Greenland Committee, box 6, II folder 9.
174 Axel Kjær Sørensen, 1984.
175 Frede Sørensen, 1952; Claus Sørensen, 1979.
95

Industrial Plants in 1959
Besides Claus Sørensen in Esbjerg, who for some years ran a fishing
station on the Greenlandic coast, no further Danish private investment
was made. Perhaps it was the ‘sternness’ of state surveillance or simply
that investment in fishing in Denmark was much more promising. The
lack of modern fish processing plants was detrimental to the planned
development. Therefore, the state by Act of Parliament undertook to
build such plants in 1959. They were placed at six locations along the
coast. Later the state also invested in great trawlers to catch the fish for
the plants.
By this time, ten years after the ‘Great Leap Forward’, when much
was initiated, many new problems had occurred. The Greenlanders took
the initiative to raise the Greenlandic question again. The ensuing
negotiations with Danish politicians resulted in a new 10-year plan
which again doubled the transfer to Greenland. The aim remained
unchanged, with a major attempt being made to bring Greenlandic
society to an economic level at which the Greenlanders, by their own
effort, would have a standard of living comparable with that of Denmark.
Deep water cod fishing was to form the basis. Mogens Boserup delivered
an optimistic economic analysis on the prospects, establishing that the
Greenlanders only caught between 7 and 12 % of the catch in the sea off
Greenland.
Table 2
Fisheries as a percentage of the Greenlandic Gross Domestic Product
1955 6
1966 5
1975 5
1987 17
1992 11
Percentage of GNP
Note: Calculated from Martin Paldam 1994 table 4.3a, 57
96

The Disappearance of the Cod in the Mid-Sixties
Just when everything looked well the phenomenon that many authorities
had feared, and some had warned against, occurred: the cod disappeared
again. If it did not totally disappear, it declined steadily up to 1975, and
thereafter became very unreliable. Some good luck amidst the disaster
was the beginning of the shrimp fishery in Disko Bay from the 1960s.
This fishery soon overtook cod fishing as the most important business.
Still, shrimp exploitation was never on a scale that could finance the
societal development which all politicians agreed to further. In the
beginning of the 1990s, the shrimp fishery declined and export prices
fell. The prospect of financing Greenlandic society by fishing began
evaporating in the frosty air. 176
Figure 1. Cod and Shrimp Catches in Greenland (tons)
These developments can be seen in figure 1. The number of fishermen
grew to about 2,500 in the 1960s and stayed there for the next 25 years.
Together with the staff in fish processing plants and in auxiliary
businesses, the fishery employed about 25% of the population in the
176 Martin Paldam, 1994.
97

1990s. Due to expansion in other occupations the fishery’s share of the
Greenlandic GNP was not that high, although it grew in the eigthies and
nineties.
Research Prospects
The development in the fisheries after 1951 is well documented in
Mattox (up to 1968), and in a modern statistical apparatus. Other issues
relating to a fishing society are only treated sporadically. In writing this
paper, I have made two minor investigations into the question of how
much fishery problems concerned Greenlandic politicians.
The minutes from the Country Council in Greenland were examined
to single out the items on the agendas relating to the fishery. The results
in the following figures underestimate its importance because they only
count items with fishery mentioned in the title. Beyond that, fishery was
strongly presented in all items concerning general industry and
development plans. In figure 2 only the items which had fishery as part
of their title are shown. The figure highlights three points. 1) The items
specifically related to the fishery vary between 5 and 15% of the
Council’s business during this period. 2) Coverage differed considerably
from year to year. 3) From the end of the sixties a shift to a lower level
took place. The minutes from the Country Council thus contain sufficient
evidence to scrutinize the Greenlandic attitude to the fishing industry.
Figure 2. The Country Council, Greenland. Agenda: Items on fishery
Source: Examination of 2,830 items on the agendas of the Greenlandic Country Council
1951-1978.
98

The other investigation concerns the treatment by the Greenland
Council of fishing issues. The Greenland Council was a political
Greenlandic-Danish common body which advised the Ministry on
questions of development and planning in Greenland. It existed from
1964 to 1979. During this period several documents were produced for
the Council. The public had access to most of the documents. As in the
case of the Country Council, all documents on general development and
planning contained a great deal about the fishery as well. A count of
documents specifically related to the fishery therefore underestimates the
significance of the issue. Nevertheless, out of 605 documents, 71 were
essentially concerned with the fishery. We thus find the same level as at
the Country Council: 11%.
Summary and Outlook
Before 1900, the Greenlanders had only fished to cover their own needs
even if other products such as seal hides and seal blubber had been traded
for 150 years. The paper is concerned with four questions regarding the
twentieth-century fishery of the Greenlanders: 1) What do we know
about the fisheries in Greenland? 2) From where do we obtain our
knowledge? 3) Where do we get more information? 4) In which fields is
our knowledge especially sparse or non existant?
The questions can be answered as follows:
1) We have a fairly good account of the scale of the fishery, especially
such factors as the magnitude of the catch, number of fishermen and
boats involved, and processing facilities. In outline, we know something
about the politics of the fishery.
2) Our knowledge stems from official records kept in the archives and to
a great extent printed in yearly reports. These data were generated
because all Greenlandic business up to 1950 was managed by a state
agency. It was obliged to keep records as the Treasury in the final
analysis had to cover its deficit. A list of some of these publications is
attached to the paper.
3) More information can be gleaned from further analysis of known
material. In particular, research in the archives of local and central
authorities can probably bring forth new and more detailed knowledge
about policy and its implementation.
4) Our knowledge is scanty in the socio-economic and socio-cultural
fields.
Three areas seem to be of major interest:
100

a) The transition in Southern Greenland between the wars from a seal
hunting economy to a fishery economy. The goal was the same as in
Iceland and the Faroe Islands a generation or two earlier: to create a
commercial deep water fishery. But the background was quite different.
The peasant societies in these two countries had gained experience in
commercial fishing over many centuries. Greenland had not. Therefore,
the shift from one economy to another was more profound in Greenland.
In Iceland and the Faroe Islands the fishery developed as a private
enterprise in a liberal economy. In Greenland a state agency had the
monopoly of all trade and had come to have an actual monopoly of all
commercial activities by default. Greenland was thus a planned
economy. Consequently, the state played a decisive role in initiating and
running the new industry. The Greenlanders themselves had neither the
experience nor the means to run a modern business. How did this affect
them? For now, this question can only be answered tentatively.
b) The Faroese fishery at Greenland. This topic has three angles: the
Greenlandic, the Faroese, and the Danish. It entails some study of a clash
of interests between two peoples in a realm with the government as
mediator with interests of its own. Besides the historical interest in
finding out what in fact happened and how, the subject may contribute to
conflict theory by examining on which grounds the parties judge their
own interests rational and reasonable while they find those of their
opponents unacceptable.
c) The building of a mechanised fishing industry in the 1950s and 1960s
meant the construction of a quite different culture characterized by huge
capital investments, mechanisation of the working processes, regular
working hours, a money economy, formalization of occupational
training which was much more theoretical than before. How did the
Greenlanders manage to cope with this? A good question, but not easy to
answer. The whole society was reshaped, so it is difficult to discern a
special fishery angle in the numerous publications about the ‘misfitting’
of the Greenlanders in those years.
Select Bibliography
Vinnie Andersen, ‘Fra Fangst til fiskeri. Erhvervsskiftet og dets
betydning for husstandsstruktur og bosætttelse i Sydprøvens distrikt i
Sydvestgrønland 1900-1940’. History Department, University of
Copenhagen, 1993.
101

Boisen, Pia & Bue Nielsen, ‘Årsagerne til erhvervsskiftet fra fangst til
fiskeri i Vestgrønland’. Tidsskriftet Grønland 1982 125-139
(Copenhagen, 1982 [The causes of the change from hunting to
fishery]
Boserup, Mogens, Økonomisk Politik i Grønland (Copenhagen, 1963)
[Economic policy]
Bro, Henning, ‘Dansk privatkapital og KGH’s monopol i Grønland
omkring 1900-1917’. Tidsskriftet Grønland 1991 225-249 [Danish
private enterprise and the Royal Greenland monopoly]
Dunbar, M.J., & Thomson, D. H., West Greenland Salmon and Climatic
Change (Montreal, 1976)
Dunbar, M.J., ‘On the West Greenland Sea-Life Area of the Atlantic
Salmon’. Arctic vol 26. number 1. March 1973, 1-6
Ette, Henry, Et Dansk Havfiskeri. 30 Aars nordligt Liv (Copenhagen,
1930) [Deep water fishery]
Hansen, Paul M., ‘Fisken og havet ved Grønland’. Skrifter fra Danmarks
Fiskeri- og Havundersøgelser 15 (København, 1953) [The fish
and the sea around Greenland]
Hansen, Paul M., ‘Grønlændernes Fiskeri’. F.V. Mortensen and A.C.
Strubberg, Dansk Saltvandsfiskeri 180-201 (Copenhagen,
1935) [The Greenlanders fishery]
Jensen, Ad. S., ‘On the Fishery of the Greenlanders’. Meddelelser fra
Kommissionen for havundersøgelser. Serie: Fiskeri VII:7
(Copenhagen, 1925)
Jensen, Ad. S., ‘Indberetning om S/S Danas praktisk-videnskabelige
fiskeriundersøgelser ved Vestgrønland 1925’. Beretninger og
Kundgørelser 1926:2, 409-427 (Copenhagen, 1926) [Fishery reports]
Jensen, Ad. S., ‘Udviklingen af grønlændernes fiskeri 1910-1925’. Det
Grønlandske Selsskabs Årsskrift 1925-26 15-38 (Copenhagen,
1926) [The development of the Greenlanders fishery]
Larsen, G. B., ‘På fiskeriinspektion ved den grønlandske vestkyst’.
Tidsskriftet Grønland 1968 278-288 (Copenhagen, 1968) [Fishery
inspection]
Lemche, Einar, ‘Den fiskeripolitiske situation i Grønland efter
udmeldelsen af EF’. Tidsskriftet Grønland 1985, 5-10 (Copenhagen,
1985) [Fishery policy]
Mattox, William G., ‘Fishing in West Greenland 1910-1966, The
Development Of A New Native Industry’. Meddelelser om Grønland
197, 1 (Copenhagen, 1973)
102

Nolsøe, Karl, ‘Færøsk fiskeri ved Grønland’. Tidsskriftet Grønland 1973
199-208 (Copenhagen, 1973)
Paldam, Martin, Grønlands økonomiske udvikling (Århus, 1994)
[Economic development]
Poole, Graham, ‘An Economic Analysis of the Development of
Greenland’s Shrimp Fishing and Processing Industry’. Nordic Arctic
Research on Contemporary Arctic Problems 65-78 (Aalborg, 1992)
Rask, Sven, ‘De første erhvervsmotorbåde, Om fangstens betydning for
udvikling af industrifiskeriet’. Tidsskriftet Grønland 1993
100-118 (Copenhagen, 1993) [The first motor boats for industry. The
significance of hunting for industrial fishery]
Smidt, Erik L. Balslev, ‘Om overgangen fra fangst til fiskeri i
Vestgrønland’. Tidsskriftet Grønland 1983, 125-144 (Copenhagen,
1983) [The change from hunting to fishery]
Smidt, Erik L. Balslev, Min tid i Grønland - Grønland i min tid. Fiskeri
Biologi Samfund: 1948-1985 (København, 1989) [Memoirs of
a biologist]
Sørensen, Axel Kjær, ‘Fra fangst til fiskeri i Vestgrønland
(Julianehåbdistriktet) - en indsigelse’. Tidsskriftet Grønland 1982,
343-346 (Copenhagen, 1982) [The change from hunting to fishery]
Sørensen, Claus, Claus Sørensens Erindringer V (Esbjerg, 1979)
[Memoirs of an industrialist]
Sørensen, F. Aa., ‘Boom - Boomerang? Om det grønlandske fiskeri og
betragtninger vedr. fiskeriets tilstand og årsagerne til samme’.
Tidsskriftet Grønland 1977, 028-25 (Copenhagen, 1977) [On the
causes of the condition for fishery in Greenland]
Sørensen, Frede, ‘“Det grønlandske Fiskerikompagni”s virksomhed’.
Det grønlandske Selskabs Årsskrift, 1952, 122-125 [Company
history]
Vaslev, Aage Barthold, ‘Grønlændernes ændrede livsforhold og
muligheder for dansk havfiskeri ved Grønland’. Året i Grønland 1928
(Copenhagen, 1929) [Opportunities for Danish deep water fishery
around Greenland]
Winther, Gorm, Erhvervsudvikling i Grønland - en selvforvaltet
fiskeindustri? (Aalborg, 1988) [The fishing industry]
Printed sources
Grønlands Styrelse (pub.), Fishery reports in Beretning og Kundgørelser
Landsrådenes forhandlinger [Minutes from the Country Councils]
103

Rigsdagens forhandlinger [Minutes from the Danish Parliament]
Ministeriet for Grønland, Grønland Årsberetning (1968-1985)
[Greenland Yearbook] (Copenhagen)
Ministeriet for Grønland, ‘Statistiske oplysninger om udviklingen i
Grønland 1948-1958’. Beretninger vedrørende Grønland 1960, 6
(Copenhagen, 1960) [Statistical information]
Statsministeriet, Grønlandsdepartement. Grønland Årbog 1986-
[Greenland Yearbook] (Copenhagen)
Grønlands Styrelse, Betænkning afgivet af det i december måned 1920
nedsatte udvalg til drøftelse af de grønlandske anliggender
(Copenhagen, 1921) [Committee report]
Ministeriet for Grønland, Betænkning fra Grønlandsudvalget af 1960
(Copenhagen, 1964) (Betænkning nr. 363. 1964) [Committee
report]
Grønlands Styrelse, Grønlandskommissionens Betænkning 5, I+II,
Erhvervsmæssige og økonomiske forhold (Copenhagen, 1950)
[Committee report]
Archives
Grønlands Styrelse og Den kongelige grønlandske handel. Rigsarkivet
(Danish National Archives)
Grønlandsrådet (1964-1979) mødereferater og dokumenter. Rigsarkivet
Rigsdagens/Folketingets Grønlandsudvalg. Folketinget [Parliament
Archives]
104

Dutch Fisheries:
An Historiographical
and Thematic Overview
Jaap R. Bruijn
For centuries the inhabitants of the coastal regions of the Netherlands
have been involved in all kinds of fisheries. The coastline stretches from
south to north along the maritime provinces of Zeeland, Holland (from
c1800 South-Holland and North-Holland), Friesland, Groningen and
five Wadden Isles. Until 1932 this coastline included the Zuyder Zee as
well. The number of natural ports, however, was small and they were
mainly located along the estuaries of the rivers Scheldt, Meuse and
Rhine. Harbours in most cases had to be dug and constructed and
required regular dredging. In the late sixteenth and early seventeenth
centuries, for instance, harbour construction took place on a vast scale. 177
It was not until the 1870s that the long coastline of Holland was breached
by two canals: the Waterway and North Sea Canal. Before then the beach
of more than 120 kilometres length was unbroken. Several small fishing
and agrarian communities were located in and behind the dunes along the
beaches. In the interior parts of Holland major cities such as Alkmaar,
Haarlem, Leiden and The Hague consumed the catches of the fishermen
in these communities. The lack of harbour facilities and the presence of
rather broad beaches resulted in fishing with flat-bottomed vessels,
stored on the sand.
Environmental circumstances thus dictated for ages a sharp division
between the types and methods of fishing based in natural and man-made
ports and those conducted from open beaches. Keel and flat-bottomed
vessels symbolized this difference. Keel ships were used for catching
herring, cod and haddock, and were operated from port cities, mainly
from Enkhuizen in the north and Brielle, Delfshaven, Rotterdam,
Vlaardingen and Maassluis in the south, and from Zierikzee and
Flushing in Zeeland. The herring fishery, officially called the “Great
177 Sigmond, Nederlandse zeehavens.
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Fishery”, was a world of its own with strict regulations and membership.
The cod and haddock fishery, often referred to as the “IJsland en
Doggevaart”, was not formally organized. It was concentrated in
Maassluis, Vlaardingen and Zierikzee. The third branch of Dutch
fisheries was the “kust- en steurvisserij” based on flatfish and ungutted
salted herring (to be smoked ashore). Fishing villages along the sandy
coast of Holland—like Scheveningen, Katwijk, Noordwijk or Egmond
—were engaged in these activities and also had their own organizations.
Though not catching fish but sea mammals, the whaling industry has to
be mentioned as a fourth branch operating in the Northern Seas. The
centres of this industry were mainly the areas around Amsterdam,
Zaandam and Rotterdam, and they had no links whatsoever with the
other three branches.
In broad terms this picture pertained from the late Middle Ages until
well into the nineteenth century. Great changes have taken place since
then. Some of these changes were international in character: the
introduction of propulsion by steam and motor engines, new types of
vessels and fishing nets. Other changes bear a Dutch hallmark. Great
infrastructural works—e.g. the construction of the two canals, a railway
track on the main islands of Zeeland and later the Afsluitdijk (1932) and
finally the so-called Deltawerken (1958-1975) —had a great impact
upon Dutch fishing communities. New fishing towns came into being
such as IJmuiden, Den Helder, Urk and Stellingdam, while
Scheveningen greatly expanded. Others, such as Vlaardingen, Maassluis
and Noordwijk, disappeared. The Zuyder Zee was transformed into an
inland lake with eel becoming the main catch. At the beginning of this
period new legislation was passed. In 1857 liberal legislation declared all
existing rules, bounties, protections and prohibitions obsolete. Any kind
of fishing activity became free, creating, for instance, new opportunities
for the villages along Holland’s beaches, which from 1751 had not been
permitted to take part in the gutted salt herring fishery. At the end of the
period—since 1983—the catch restrictions and scrap regulations of the
European Union figure prominently. Whaling in the Arctic waters had
already come to an end around 1800 and was only temporarily resumed
in the Antarctic waters from 1946 to 1963. 178
178 Bruijn, ‘Een verdwijnende bedrijfstak; Bruijn, ‘De Nederlandse Maatschappij’.
106

The Infrastructure for Research on the History of Dutch Fisheries
The history of the Dutch fisheries is many-sided indeed and offers
several lines of approach for research. However, it is still partly a
neglected field of research and no immediate change in that situation is
expected. Only one long-term research project is in progress, at the
University of Groningen, on the catch and trade of cod by the Dutch.
Some aspects of fishing history are taught in the maritime history courses
at the University of Leiden. A few students have written M.A. theses on
the history of fishing. No more than three Ph.D. theses in this field have
been defended over the past ten years. Funds and opportunities for
further research are not available. In government research institutes for
modern fisheries, hardly any inkling exists of the value that historic
research can have for illuminating present-day and future problems.
Apart from source material in state and municipal archives, good
research facilities are provided by the library in the Fishery Museum at
Vlaardingen. A number of thematic exhibitions in this museum in the
early 1980s boosted related research. However, subsequent budgetary
problems have drastically curtailed the operations of this museum. The
Fishery Museum has national pretentions, but other fishery museums are
locally orientated, and some are more in the nature of an antiquities’
room.
It is evident, and the same goes for other fields of maritime history,
that research on narrow aspects of fishing history is mainly done by
non-professional historians and individual historians. That happens on
an irregular basis and ought to be supported as strongly as possible. A
promising initiative was launched last year: a cash prize for the best
study of the history of fishing. A new journal, called Netwerk, edited by
the friends of the Fishery Museum includes short articles.
An Historiography
In the early 1870s the study of maritime aspects of Dutch history was
encouraged by competitions held by learned societies which resulted in
two excellent books on the early history of whaling and the fishing
industry. The prize winners were a young lawyer, later archivist, S.
Muller Fzn, and an economist, later a professor, A. Beaujon. The latter’s
book covers exactly the theme of the contest: “the history of Dutch
seafisheries, their progress, decline and revival, especially in connection
with the legislation on fisheries in earlier and later times”. An
international exhibition on fisheries at London in 1883 was the reason for
107

this contest. The book was published two years later. Beaujon, for the
first time, wrote a broad survey of the different fisheries, culminating in a
laudation of liberal legislation in recent decades. Muller’s book
described the first decades of Dutch whaling in the early seventeenth
century. This author’s doctoral thesis (Mare Clausum, 1872) dealt with
the political entanglements between the Dutch Republic and England in
the seventeenth century, mainly regarding the herring fishery.
This scholarly attention to the fisheries was soon to be followed by a
guide to the practices of the herring, long-line and trawl fisheries and
their historic background. This very informative book was written and
illustrated by a well-known fishing shipowner at Vlaardingen, A.
Hoogendijk Jz. It was published in 1895. 179 A local schoolteacher at
Scheveningen, J.C. Vermaas, put his many notes on the history of his
village, and of its coastal fishery in particular, together in essays, which
were posthumously published in 1926 (reprinted in 1968).
Academic interest resumed in 1935 when M. Simon Thomas
defended her substantial thesis on the relations with Iceland in the
seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, in which the cod fishery received a
good deal of attention. By far the most important book on the history of
the Dutch deep sea fisheries of the early modern period was the work of
an economist, H.A.H. Kranenburg (he later called himself Boelmans
Kranenburg). His dissertation (1946) analyzed and revised the available
information, and, from an economic point of view, created a well
balanced picture of the scale and importance of the herring, cod and
haddock fisheries. During a life-long association with the world of sea
fisheries, Boelmans Kranenburg later wrote a rich number of books and
articles on all kinds of aspects of the early and modern fisheries. He was
the leading scholar in the field until his untimely death in 1980. He has
not yet been replaced in this respect.
This does not imply that others have not paid attention to the subject.
In 1962 two Ph.D. studies were published on the history of the fisheries
in the Zuyder Zee and in the IJsselmeer. 180 In the 1970s J.P. van de Voort
of the Fishery Museum wrote on a vast scale about the North Sea
fisheries, often from a folklore point of view. Quite recently, three other
Ph.D. studies have appeared. A.P.van Vliet has analyzed the deep sea
and coastal fisheries settled in the Meuse estuary during the Eighty
179 See also Mulder Bosgoed, Bibliotheca.
180 Ypma, Geschiedenis and A. Schaper, De IJsselmeervisserij.
108

Years’ War (1586-1648) and the impact of Flemish privateering upon it.
Conflicts about fishing net regulations in the Zuyder Zee in the late
nineteenth century were studied by J.M. Kerkhoven. An ethnological
approach was applied by R. van Ginkel in his study of fishermen’s
communities on the isle of Texel in the nineteenth and twentieth
centuries, 181 as he had done before in a booklet on a similar kind of
community in Zeeland, which lived mainly from oyster and mussel
farming. An interesting sideline is the book by S.J. de Groot on the
history of the fishing research in the Netherlands and Dutch East Indies.
Recent developments include publications on the inland fisheries. 182
As well as this selection of more sizeable studies, various smaller
publications are available, generally in local and regional journals. The
subjects range from the fish auction at Middelharnis and shipowners at
Katwijk to a special issue of the regional journal Holland on nineteenth
and twentieth century fisheries (vol.16, 1984). Publications over the past
25 years can be found in the extensive bibliography in each issue of the
Mededelingen of the Dutch Society for Maritime History, from 1982 the
Tijdschrift voor Zeegeschiedenis. An annotated bibliography is available
in the four volumes of the Maritieme Geschiedenis der Nederlanden
(Bussum 1976-1978) which also provides the reader with a good
introduction to the history of the fisheries and whaling, ranging from the
early Middle Ages to the late 1970s. 183
Boelmans Kranenburg’s observation of 1961 that the fisheries are a
rather neglected field of historical research, is still more or less valid.
However, this observation does not apply to whaling. The history of the
Dutch ventures in the Arctic and Davis Strait has been fairly well
researched. The Dutch played a prominent role in early whaling. At its
peak (1721), nearly 260 ships were involved. A solid amount of
statistical information in contemporary sources forms the backbone of
many studies. Muller’s book, mentioned above, refers to the founding
period. The South African C. de Jong wrote a good but not easily
accessible survey of Dutch whaling in the seventeenth and eighteenth
centuries. A.M. van der Woude integrated whaling into the social,
economic and demographic structure of the northern part of Holland. P.
181 See also the International Journal of Maritime History Vol. VI (1994), 199-231.
182 Martens, De zalmvissers; Harbers, ‘Binnenvisserij’ and Harbers, ‘Riviervisserij’.
183 See also De Vries and Van der Woude, Nederland 1500-1815, 284-321.
109

Dekker studied the careers of various masters of whaling vessels.
Innovative, because of its multi-disciplinary approach, was L.
Hacquebord’s dissertation on the first Dutch whaling activities and
settlements on Svalbard in the early seventeenth century. He put the
numbers of vessels involved into the right perspective and proved that
new patterns in whaling had been caused by climatic changes. J.R.
Leinenga has recently analyzed the Dutch ventures in the Davis Strait.
Hacquebord and Leinenga together have further developed the topic of
ecology and climate in relation to early modern whaling. A complete
survey of the historiography of Dutch whaling—with all the relevant
titles—is available in Tijdschrift voor Zeegeschiedenis vol. XIII (1994)
19-40.
Periodisation
Historians cannot live without periodisation. It is obvious that the herring
fishery, which has always been the most important branch of the Dutch
fisheries, has to be the starting point for such an exercise. From the end
of the fifteenth century Holland surpassed Flanders and remained the
unquestioned leader in this respect. The peak of the herring business was
reached in c1630 with 500 to 600 vessels operating annually. Later in the
seventeenth century a slow decline began, resulting in a reduction of the
herring fleet to 150-200 vessels in the latter half of the eighteenth
century, and a further shrinkage during the so-called French period
around 1800. The recovery was limited indeed, the lowest ebb occurring
around 1850. From then on an upward trend was evident. The next peak
was reached on the eve of World War I when 776 herring vessels were
registered at Vlaardingen, Maassluis, Scheveningen and Katwijk. The
total sea-going fishing fleet in 1914 comprised 1,335 vessels. 184
Thus the herring fishery can be divided into the following periods:
late fifteenth century-mid seventeenth century, c1650-1850 and
1850-1914. A complex assortment of reasons caused the decline in the
early modern period, while the upsurge in the nineteenth century finds its
main explanation in liberal legislation. A division line after 1850/60
would also be in accordance with developments in the other fisheries.
For many a fisherman in Scheveningen and Katwijk, relieved of formal
and strict prohibitions from 1857, after a while switched over to salt
herring fishery.
184 Gouda, De Nederlandse zeevisserij, 18.
110

The catch of cod and haddock has nearly always been of less
importance than that of herring. It can be divided into the so-called
summer and winter season in the North Sea and a separate branch in the
waters near Iceland. The Icelandic cod-fishery was probably a new
feature from 1655; it reached a peak in the second half of the eighteenth
century (c1770 about 110 vessels), but disappeared in the first half of the
nineteenth century. North Sea cod and haddock were caught by
fluctuating numbers of vessels, but by and large the trend was upwards
from the sixteenth to the end of the eighteenth century.
In this context the coastal trawl and fresh fishery ranks far behind and
does not allow periodisation. The same is true for whaling; its demise is a
late eighteenth-century phenomenon.
Sources for a Quantitative Approach
The fisheries in general formed a regulated industry. The different
branches—whaling included—had their own organizations, called
colleges or collegiums. Some had wider regulating powers than others.
These organizations operated on a provincial scale. Local magistrates
represented their villages, towns or cities. In most cases the
representatives had no, or only minor, bonds with the industry itself. The
colleges, which under different names still exist in 1995, issued all kinds
of regulations and collected information about the fleet, the catch and the
market. Their archives are often rich sources for historians and over time
they have been used for several publications. Statistics for certain
periods or branches figure prominently as appendices in many books and
articles. A systematic collection in one publication would be of great
interest for the history of the fisheries in general and for the Netherlands
in particular.
However, there are more sources, not always in very obvious places.
Salt was an indispensable raw material in most fisheries. Salt was also a
commodity traditionally taxed by local and other authorities. The yield is
sometimes known and can be used for fairly exact estimations of the
herring caught and shipped in, for it was well-known how much salt was,
for instance, required for a raised tun of herring. Another source is the
yield of auctions or church accounts. In some communities shipowners
or skippers made donations to the church in proportion to their catches
and voyages. It is often hard to sort out the prices for which the various
fish were sold. The accounts of orphanages and old people’s homes can
provide local prices paid by consumers. Van Vliet has recently made an
111

ingenious use of this kind of source in order to establish a good insight
into the fishing activities in the Meuse estuary around 1600. The data is
often not of a serial nature.
For the nineteenth and twentieth centuries it is easier to collect data.
Beaujon, for instance, as early as 1885 provided his readers with figures
concerning the quantities of herring (gutted and ungutted) brought
ashore from 1814 (1823) to 1883 or the tons of salted fish exported to
Belgium and Germany.
Some Materials for a Thematic Approach
Boelmans Kranenburg and to a large degree Van Vliet are the sole
authors who have studied the fisheries in a wide economic and social
context. The first for a period of two centuries, the latter for a time span
of almost eighty years, and both for the early modern period. Van Vliet
has refined and improved Kranenburg’s findings. In the following I
would like to make a few observations about perhaps typical Dutch
aspects and also to present some results of on-going or recently
completed research.
Employment
In a previous section I have given a few figures about the number of
fishing vessels in use over the past four centuries. There are fairly
reliable data available on the manpower on board. The most detailed
figures for the early modern period are provided by Van Vliet. In the
1630’s one eighth (4,700) of the total population of 35,000 in the five
main cities in the Meuse estuary (Rotterdam, Delfshaven, Schiedam,
Vlaardingen and Maassluis) could be considered fishermen. For the
Dutch population at large (less than 2 million) the number of fishermen
must have been c10,000. The herring fishery was responsible for about
two-thirds of total employment. The overall number of seamen and
fishermen is estimated at c50,000 to 55,000. 185 Nearly all fishermen
were locally recruited by the skippers, either in an inn or in the skipper’s
home. The people involved in supplying and fish processing have not
been quantified.
No such elaborate information exists for later periods. A fair guess for
c1770 would suggest about 5,500 fishermen. Only two-fifths of them
185 Van Vliet, Vissers, 41, 139 and 161; Maritieme Geschiedenis, vol II, 131-32; Bruijn
and Van Eyck van Heslinga, ‘Seamen’s employment’, 10-11.
112

were active in the herring fishery. During a couple of decades cod and
haddock were almost as important as herring. The decline in the fishing
industry would continue deep into the nineteenth century. However, the
recovery was then rapid indeed. In 1892 the industry already required
more than 6,000 hands, in 1914 even more than 12,000! Most of the
fishermen operating in the Zuyder Zee (3,000 to 4,000) are not included
in this figure. 186 In 1916 the overall peak of vessels and manpower was
reached. The proportion of foreign labour always remained small and
differed vastly from the situation in the navy and the mercantile marine.
In 1995 about 500 beam trawlers and 12 huge deepfreeze trawlers
comprise the sea-going fleet, providing work for about 2,700 men,
almost all Dutchmen. 150 vessels are active in the catch of mussels,
cockles and oysters and another 125 operate in the former Zuyder Zee. It
should be taken into account that nowadays one man at sea means
employment for five others ashore. There are, for instance, no less then
eleven fish auctions. 187 The total population of the Netherlands is about
15 million.
The short-lived revival of whaling (in the Antarctic) in 1946-1963
needed a labour-force fluctuating between 350 and 700. A small majority
was Dutch. During the heyday of old whaling, the fleet was manned by
5,000 to 10,000 seamen, nearly half of them originating from abroad. 188
Of National Importance
Fishing has always ranked second, third or fourth on the ladder of
national importance of the Dutch maritime industries. Overseas trade had
by tradition priority in the state’s interest. However, the herring fishery
figured high in the seventeenth-century conflicts with England. Much
herring was traditionally caught in or near English territorial waters. The
English envied the Dutch success in this branch of fishery, for it was
thought to be at the cost of their own fishermen. Various diplomatic
missions negotiated this issue in London but it was never solved. The
overall economic rivalry between the Republic and England was such
that two wars on this issue turned out to be unavoidable (1652-1654 and
186 Gouda, De Nederlandse zeevisserij, 15-18; Ypma, Geschiedenis, 205.
187 Oral communication by H. van der Bent, editor of the journal Visserijnieuws (July
1995).
188 Bruijn, ‘De Nederlandse Maatschappij’, 249.
113

1665-1667). 189 The Dutch government once again supported the
fisheries when in 1740 the Danish authorities decided that the territorial
waters around Iceland should be more strictly obeyed. A few Dutch cod
fishermen were held and brought into port. Two warships convoyed the
fishermen in 1741 and the next year the conflict was over. 190
During the first half of the sixteenth century local communities with
fishing interests combined their efforts as soon as Charles V and Philip II
involved the Low Countries in their wars. They asked for armed
protection of their fishing vessels, which was mostly granted. This
became more or less normal procedure. The outlay was generally paid by
the parties concerned. Contacts with the naval authorities continued in
the following centuries. In time of war, it was quite common for
warships to escort the herring fleets, at least when requested. The coastal
and cod fisheries mostly had to take care of themselves. During the wars
against the Dunkirk privateers it regularly proved to be impossible to
secure adequate protection. In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, it
became quite common procedure for so-called fishery inspection ships
of the navy to visit the luggers in the fishing areas in order to make sure
that regulations were being obeyed, rivalries were kept under control and
smuggling was prevented.
A sideline, though of some interest, is government acceptance of a
responsibility for the fishing industry at large. That happened in 1888,
when the biologist Dr. P.P.C. Hoek was appointed scientific advisor in
fishery matters. Hoek founded fish biology as a subdiscipline of biology,
stimulated international co-operation as to the resources of the sea, and
voiced an early warning against overfishing. He was one of the initiators
of the International Council of the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) in 1902.
Hoek established small research centres and research vessels,
culminating in the Netherlands Institute for Fisheries Research (RIVO),
from 1957 based in IJmuiden. 191
State Interference and State Abstinence
The decline of the herring fishery in the late seventeenth and eighteenth
centuries led to provincial and national protection and financial support.
189 Wilson, Profit; Van Vliet, Vissers, 145-50.
190 Simon Thomas, Onze IJslandsvaarders, chapter 7.
191 De Groot, Een eeuw.
114

In 1719 the States General forbade the export of brine and string for nets,
and in 1725, drift nets. Import and export of bands for barrels was
forbidden in 1750. Impost on victuals and salt for herring vessels was
abolished as were export duties on salted herring. These measures were
introduced between 1750 and 1754. The unofficial rule, dating back to
1663, that only Great Fishery members could gut their herring was
hardened into a monopoly.
Financial support was introduced by the provincial authorities. In the
1750s the States of Zeeland began to pay their provincial fishermen a
bounty per vessel. The financial consequences for Zeeland were
calculable, for the number of vessels was small. Britain had set an
example. The States of Holland did not immediately follow. For the bulk
of the fisheries was settled in that province. In 1775, however, Holland
could no longer abstain from financial support. A herring shipowner
would now receive a bounty of 500 Dutch guilders for each vessel
equipped in a certain year. In 1788 this measure was extended to the
Icelandic cod fishery. Whaling vessels were treated accordingly. 192
The effect of state protection and support is uncertain. The best one
can say about it is that it may have slowed down the decline. Neither the
regimes installed by the French around 1800 nor the new kingdom of the
Netherlands changed the policy. Also the coastal fishery could now rely
upon bounties. The regulations around gutted and ungutted herring were
even extended. The fisheries walked down a dead-end road. Various
shipowners needed the bounty to balance expenses and the catch’s yield.
For the coastal fisheries from the 1820s to the 1850s current research is
going to prove that it could not have survived without bounties. Only by
a combination of trawl and drift net (for the ungutted salted herring)
during the year plus the bounties did fishermen and shipowners survive.
Without bounties government would have had to spend more on
poor-relief, a contemporary observed.
After the 1848 “revolution”, liberal ideology ran through ministries.
The fisheries were one of the most protected industries. The bounties
should disappear and the value of all existing laws and regulations be
seriously reconsidered. In February 1854 a state commission began this
work. Seven months later its report was ready, advising the abolition of
laws and regulations and pleading liberty. One regulation, however,
should be maintained. Inspection and control of the quality of the
192 De Vries, De economische achteruitgang, 147-49.
115

herring, before it could go to buyers, could not be abolished. In 1857
Parliament decided differently. 193 The fisheries were freed of all
restrictions and prescriptions. Only one body would represent the
fisheries in relation to the government. This “College voor de
Zeevisserijen” could only give advice. Its carefully administered annual
reports have become a priceless source of information for historical
research. From 1857 onwards, anybody was allowed to catch, process
and sell any kind of fish. The effect, however, was not an immediate
revival of the fisheries. More was therefore required such as the
introduction of cotton nets and the lugger.
From Buys to Beam Trawler
Over the ages various types of fishing vessel have been used. Some have
a Dutch connotation, others have been copied from abroad. The buys is
of medieval origin and since the early fifteenth century associated with
the catch of herring, though it could occasionally be used for transport
purposes. The buys was the showpiece of the Republic’s herring fishery,
at its zenith in numbers of 500 to 600, built in shipyards of the herring
cities. Its cargo capacity fluctuated around 30 lasts or 60 tons, with a
length between stem and stern of 15 to 18 m. There had to be a balance
between the size of the vessel and the drift net. The buys was manned by
twelve men and two boys. Its main characteristic was the three low,
square rigged masts, of which the fore and main mast were struck when
the catch had begun. The buys was a keel vessel and continued to be used
into the nineteenth century.
The cod and haddock fisheries also had their own type of vessel: the
hoeker, a name derived from the hook or haak of the long-line. The
hoeker, a keel vessel too, is medieval in origin like the buys. As it
operated in winter time and near Iceland, it was of stronger construction.
It often had a fish well. For commercial aims, the hoeker was also
employed. The main difference with the buys was not in the hull and the
size, but in the presence of two masts (the main mast tall, the mizzen
small) and two continuous bulwarks. The buys’ bulwark had on both
sides an opening for the drift nets. Later in the seventeenth century the
hoeker became bigger. Around 1600 its capacity was no more than 10 to
193 Beaujon, Overzicht, 262-81; Smolders, ‘Opbeuring’.
116

15 lasts. Its average crew was about twelve men. The hoeker disappeared
only late in the nineteenth century. 194
The most renowned nineteenth-century vessel in Dutch coastal
fishing was the bomschuit. This single-masted vessel with fore and aft
rigging was flat-bottomed. When not fishing the bomschuits were stored
by tens on the beaches near the fishing communities along Holland’s
shore. Gales could play havoc with them. The last bomschuit was used in
1915, eleven years after Scheveningen had finally been equipped with a
harbour. In the late nineteenth century, the bomschuits were attractive
and often centrally positioned objects in the seascapes by many a painter
from The Netherlands and from abroad, who frequented the seaside
resorts.
A good example of innovative ideas in fishing communities is the
development of the slup in Vlaardingen in the mid-nineteenth century.
The slup was a boat used for the catch of fresh fish, but was now enlarged
for the so-called “far” herring and cod fishery. J. Ploeg, a modelmaker,
has carefully analyzed this development as well as the introduction of the
French lugger into the Netherlands in 1866. 195
World War I was a boom period for the Dutch fisheries. Huge profits
were made, but also great losses of ships and human lives were suffered.
The North Sea became so dangerous that in November 1917 steam
trawlers were forbidden to sail. A group of shipowners in the new fishing
town of IJmuiden wanted to continue and demonstrated creative ideas.
They bought up old tugs, converted them into fishing boats and used
them for the coastal fishery, which was still permitted. These “new”
types of fishing vessel were obviously redundant when the war was over.
In 1919 and 1920 no less than thirteen vessels sank in uncertain
circumstances, but without loss of life. The Raad voor de Scheepvaart
investigated the disasters but could never provide positive evidence of
evil intent. 196
194 Van Vliet, Vissers, 42-5; Van Beylen, Schepen, 134-43; Hoving, Nicolaes Witsens
Scheep-bouw-konst, 342-8.
195 J. Ploeg, ‘Sloepen en loggers. Nieuwe scheepstypen voor de aloude Noordzeevisserij
1800-1875’ (1993), manuscript available in the Fishery Museum at Vlaardingen and the
Department of Maritime History, University of Leiden.
196
Research seminar paper by D.E.D. van Iterson 1995 (Department of Maritime
History, University of Leiden).
117

The judgements of the Raad voor de Scheepvaart—an independent
body of nautical and legal experts, appointed by government, to
investigate shipping disasters—are an interesting source of information
on all kinds of shipping, for instance, as to beam trawlers in the 1960s.
Eighteen vessels capsized between 1960 and 1974. Investigations by the
Shipping Inspection and the Raad voor the Scheepvaart resulted in better
construction of weighted trawls plus an inspection of the stability of all
590 beam trawlers. No less than 78 lost their licenses and 56 were
lengthened. 197 The beam trawler was safe again. Hull and rig had been
adapted to a heavier fishing gear.
Conclusion
The purpose of this paper has been to examine the historiography of
fishing in The Netherlands. Much has been done, much has been
achieved, but always as the result of individual efforts. There is no
infrastructure for on-going research. This paper only touches upon a few
aspects. Nothing, for instance, is said about the inland and foreign
markets. The coming of railways had its impact as well. A number of
monographs cover certain periods. A general overview and analysis of
the Dutch fisheries is still lacking. Sufficient material, however, seems to
be available, though some specific research is still required.
What the Dutch historiography is clearly lacking, is an international
perspective. The approach is always Dutch and comparisons with
developments abroad are never made. The great variety of fisheries
offers ample opportunities, and its importance in relation to other
countries should stimulate this. Those very beam trawlers, referred to
above, were in the 1970s responsible for 80 percent of the catch of sole in
Western Europe and 50 per cent of the catch of plaice.
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A broad and detailed survey of statistical data on Dutch fisheries is available from the
author or from Dr Jan P van de Voort, Amalia van Solmslaan 6, 3136 CD Vlaardingen.
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zeevisscherijen (Leiden, 1885)
J. van Beylen, Schepen van de Nederlanden (Amsterdam, 1970)
197 Research seminar paper by C.J. Schotsman 1995 (Department of Maritime History,
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118

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Scheepsrampen bij de Nederlandse zeevisserij 1860-1976
(Bussum, 1979)
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1946-1967’. Economisch- en Sociaal-Historisch Jaarboek 48 (1985),
233-57
J.R. Bruijn, ‘Een verdwijnende bedrijfstak: de Nederlandse
walvisvaart (ca. 1780-ca. 1850)’. G. Maréchal (ed.), Een kompas met
vele streken (Antwerpen, 1994), 44-51
J.R. Bruijn and E.S. van Eyck van Heslinga, ‘Seamen’s employment
in The Netherlands (c.1600-c.1800)’. Mariner’s Mirror 70
(1984), 7-20
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gemeenschap, Yerseke 1870-1914 (Zutphen, 1991)
R. van Ginkel, Tussen Scylla en Charybdis. Een etnohistorie van
Texels vissersvolk (1813-1932) (Amsterdam, 1993)
D.J. Gouda, De Nederlandse zeevisserij tijdens de Eerste
Wereldoorlog 1914-1918 (Haarlem/Antwerpen, 1978)
S.J. de Groot, Een eeuw visserijonderzoek in Nederland 1888-1988
(IJmuiden, 1988)
M. Harbers, ‘Binnenvisserij in en rond Rotterdam tot in de 19e eeuw’.
Rotterdams Jaarboekje 103 (1992), 139-70
M. Harbers, ‘Riviervisserij tussen de Maasmond en IJsselmonde’.
Netwerk, 6 (1995), 7-17
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Walvisvaart. Honderd jaar onderzoek naar de geschiedenis van de
Nederlandse walvisvaart’. Tijdschrift voor Zeegeschiedenis 13
(1994), 19-40
L. Hacquebord and J.R. Leinenga, ‘De ecologie van de Groenlandse
walvis in relatie tot walvisvaart en klimaatveranderingen in de
zeventiende en achttiende eeuw’. Tijdschrift voor Geschiedenis 107
(1994), 415-38
A. Hoogendijk JZ., De Grootvisscherij op de Noordzee (Haarlem,
1895)
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(Franeker, 1994)
J. Kerkhoven, Het net en de wet. Conflicten onder Zuiderzeevissers en
overheidsbeleid, 1878-1918 (Amsterdam, 1994)
H.A.H. Kranenburg, De Zeevisscherij van Holland in den tijd der
119

Republiek (Amsterdam, 1946)
Maritieme Geschiedenis der Nederlanden, 4 vols. (Bussum, 1976-
1978)
P.J.M. Martens, De zalmvissers van de Biesbosch 1421-1896
(Tilburg, 1992)
D. Mulder Bosgoed, Bibliotheca Ichthyologica et Piscatoria.
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van de visschen en walvisschen, de kunstmatige vischteelt, de
visscherijen, de wetgeving op de visscherijen, enz. (Haarlem, 1873).
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E.W. Petrejus, De bomschuit. Een verdwenen scheepstype
(Rotterdam, 1954)
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(Amsterdam, 1989)
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visscherij (Amsterdam, 1935)
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Zijde onder het premiestelsel tussen 1823-1854 (M.A. thesis,
University of Leiden, 1995)
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1968)
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Hague, 1994)
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visserijbedrijf in geschiedenis en volksleven (The Hague, 1975)
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achttiende eeuw (Leiden, 1968, second impression)
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ronde van moderne economische groei (Amsterdam, 1995)
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Wars (London, 1957)
Y.N. Ypma, Geschiedenis van de Zuiderzeevisserij (Amsterdam,
1962)
120

The Sea Fisheries of the
British Isles, 1376-1976:
A Preliminary Survey
Robb Robinson & David J. Starkey
Historians of the fisheries conducted from the British Isles since the late
fourteenth century are confronted by two main obstacles. In the first
place, this is a vast subject, not just in the long chronological span
involved, but also because of the complex range of activities it embraces.
At any given time during this period many different types of fishery were
being prosecuted from the British Isles. While there were marked
regional variations in technique, catch and market, numerous contrasting
forms of fishing enterprise might be conducted concurrently from a
single port or locality. Secondly, there are practical problems regarding
the collection and interpretation of data, for the primary sources
pertaining to Britain’s fisheries are extensive, assume many different
forms and are scattered in libraries and record offices throughout the
United Kingdom. The evidence, more importantly, is uneven in temporal
terms, with comparatively little relating to the pre-1750 period, and also
with regard to its topical range—some fisheries, and some ports, having
generated more, or more useful, records than others.
Such difficulties are reflected in the literature pertaining to the
development of Britain’s fisheries. While few students have considered
the business of fishing before the eighteenth century, the focus of the
majority of works has been restricted to a particular type of fishery, to the
fishing enterprise of a designated port or stretch of coastline, or to a
certain facet of the process of catching, transporting, preserving and
selling fish. More critically, the literature, with notable exceptions,
suffers from a number of intellectual weaknesses. Fishing historians
have often been lax in setting parameters for their work and in adopting a
systematic approach to their ill-defined topics. Accordingly, descriptive,
parochial and romanticised accounts of how fishing was practised are
rather more numerous than analyses of why the activity developed to the
extent, and in the form, that it did. A general reluctance to contextualise
121

is also apparent, few authors having attempted to place their particular
subjects in a national, let alone, international, comparative setting. The
net result of these shortcomings is that a rigorous, comprehensive history
of the British fisheries has yet to be written.
The present paper draws upon the available literature to sketch an
outline of the development of sea fishing in the British Isles in the six
centuries prior to 1976. It considers the commercial sea fishing
operations of the inhabitants of England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland in
the North Atlantic. Disregarded are river and estuarial catches, the
exploitation of shellfish, and the fisheries prosecuted from Britain’s
overseas colonies. Whaling, as a producer of oil rather than food, is also
neglected. The chronological bounds of the paper extend from the late
fourteenth century to 1976, with a division drawn in the mid-nineteenth
century when the conveyance inland of fresh fish heralded the greatest of
the many watersheds in the history of British fishing. While the
contributions of social and political historians are recognised, a largely
economic approach is adopted, with fishing treated as an industry rather
than a way of life or a factor in international relations. The paper
considers the historiography of this broad subject and concludes with
some tentative suggestions as to the chief weaknesses in the literature.
Limited Markets
A petition was laid before Edward III in 1376, complaining that:
where in creeks and havens of the sea there used to be plenteous fishing, to the profit
of this Kingdom, certain fishermen for several years past have subtily contrived an
instrument called ‘wondyrechoun’ made in the manner of an oyster dredge, but
which is considerably longer, upon which instrument is attached a net so close
meshed that no fish be it ever so small which enters therein can escape, but must stay
and be taken ... By which instrument in many places, the fishermen take such
quantity of small fish that they do not know what to do with them ... . 198
As well as serving as a convenient departure point for the present survey,
this first recorded reference to trawling in British waters highlights
various features of the country’s medieval and early modern fisheries. It
illustrates quite clearly the evidential problem facing fishing historians,
for it is essentially an isolated piece of information which offers little
indication as to how widespread was the use of the wondyrechoun, let
alone any measure of the significance of trawling at this time. Incidental,
198 Alward, Sea Fisheries, xx.
122

qualitative and uncorroborated, the 1376 petition is largely typical of the
evidence available on the fisheries before 1700. As one author has
observed with regard to the fifteenth century:
the major impediment to study is the very frugal and random nature of the sources:
no medieval fisherman or fishmonger has left any letters or accounts which can
compare with those of the wool trading Cely family; ownership of boats is seldom
recorded in wills and we have no description and no certain pictures of the boats
used; no extant document locates the fishing grounds with any precision and the fish
aroused the curiosity of no medieval naturalist, if there was such a man; records of
fish prices are too widely dispersed chronologically and geographically to offer
much help. 199
In the face of these difficulties, historians have been obliged to presume
and to extrapolate from generally limited data bases to form an
impression of Britain’s fishing interests before the modern era.
Such an impression suggests that many features of the nineteenth- and
twentieth-century fisheries were evident in much earlier epochs. The
case of the wondyrechoun echoes recent concerns about the depletion of
fish stocks by intensive harvesting methods. It further implies that other
catching techniques were in use, that rivalries arose between competing
fishing interests and that, as the ‘subtily contrived instrument [entailed]
great damage to the commons of the realm’, the fisheries were of some
import to the national economy and therefore warranted the intervention
of the state. With regard to the types of fishery prosecuted in late
medieval and early modern times, there are strong and varied indications
that the structure of the industry was basically similar to that which
pertained in more recent times, with three principal fisheries conducted:
inshore, herring and distant-water. These sectors were not wholly
discrete, and fishermen, then as now, might shift from one to another
according to season, climate and fish abundance. Nevertheless, they
were distinguished by the inter-related factors of species caught, distance
of the catching grounds and capital requirements. It is therefore
convenient to consider them separately.
The inshore fisheries were a seemingly ubiquitous facet of maritime
activity around the coasts of the British Isles. Historical accounts of
Britain’s fishing interests, or indeed those of particular ports, estuaries or
regions, almost invariably refer to the ancient roots and commonplace
character of the activity. Such references generally imply that this
everyday, mundane business was of significance only to those it
199 Heath, ‘North Sea Fishing’, 53.
123

engaged, that it was essentially small in scale, deployed primitive
techniques, and was worked by self-employed fishermen whose product
met subsistence needs. While this may have been the case in particular
localities at certain times, it is a generalised view that largely understates
the extent and contribution of the inshore fisheries. At Scarborough, for
instance, the records of parish income between 1414 and
1442—typically provided by an incidental documentary source—relate
that tithes were paid by at least 21 fishermen who worked inshore waters
for plaice in winter, lobsters and cod during Lent, and skate in summer,
operations that yielded a comfortable annual average income of £7 per
man. The craft deployed in this activity were described as either
‘batellae’, which were presumably rowing boats, or ‘cobellae’, an early
reference to the coble, a vessel of c20ft in length, with three oars, a sail
and a crew of three to five men. 200 Peculiar to the north-east coast of
England down to the twentieth century, these craft were distinguished by
a high brow and two side keels fitted aft to facilitate landing and
re-launching from open beaches. 201 Less prosperous, and perhaps less
glamorous to the historian, Scarborough’s inshore fisheries nevertheless
engaged more fishermen and proved more enduring than the
distant-water ventures mounted from the port.
Glimpses of inshore fishing in other parts of the British Isles are
available in scattered sources. The probate inventories of the parish of
Clee, on the south bank of the Humber, are of value in this respect,
though by its very nature this source relates only to persons of some
wealth and therefore excludes many of those engaged in fishing. Traps,
nets, lines and ‘fishing grounds’ appear regularly in the inventories to
suggest the type of fishing practised in the early sixteenth century.
Significantly, such belongings generally formed just part of the
deceased’s property, the bulk of which comprised animals, land and
farming implements, indicating that fishing was a secondary occupation
for many local farmers. 202 In south west England, the observations of
Hooker and Hitchcock, together with incidental documentary accounts,
offer much evidence on inshore fishing in the late sixteenth and early
seventeenth centuries. Here, the distinction between inshore and offshore
200 Heath, ‘North Sea Fishing’, 57-9.
201 Godfrey, Yorkshire Fishing Fleets, 11-12.
202 Ambler & Watkinson, Farmers and Fishermen, 20-4.
124

fishing is clearly apparent in references to ‘home’ voyages undertaken by
Brixham fishermen in local and coastal waters as opposed to ventures in
the ‘deep’ sea. In these ‘home’ waters a wide variety of fish was caught,
with haddock, colefish, cod, ling, hake, mackerel, gurnard, bass, plaice
of many sorts, sole and ‘holy book flounders’ among the species taken.
While many were trapped in the seine, tuck and hake nets set in the
coastal waters, especially off the south Devon coast, others were
captured by hook and line. 203 Scottish fishermen likewise engaged in
inshore fishing. The picture painted of the innumerable fishing
communities located on both the east and west coasts of ‘North Britain’
in the late eighteenth century surely portrays an activity familiar for
many centuries. With women and children baiting and repairing lines
while the men sought cod, ling and haddock by short lines worked from
small vessels a few miles offshore, this was a small-scale business of
great significance in the income it generated, and sustenance it provided,
for many coastal settlements. 204
Quantitative data relating to the scale of these inshore fisheries is
almost entirely lacking. While it is feasible to estimate the scale of the
business in isolated instances—for example, at least 40 cobles operated
out of Scarborough in the early fifteenth century, 205 while some 102 nets
were in use off South Devon in 1619 206 —there are no indications of
gross investment, employment or output generated by this branch of
Britain’s fisheries. Rather more detail is available on the scale and
character of the herring fishery conducted from the British Isles. Again it
is widely assumed that this facet of the fishing industry has a long
pedigree. References to the taking of herring in drift nets off Yarmouth
suggest that the activity dates back to the sixth century at least. 207 In
fifteenth-century Scarborough, tithes were paid in herring caught in
vessels owned by the more substantial members of the town’s business
community. 208 Herring were likewise sought off the coasts of south-west
England from at least the twelfth century when Sutton Prior (Plymouth)
203 T Gray, ‘Devon’s Fisheries’, 139-40.
204 M Gray, Fishing Industries, 9-26.
205 Heath, ‘North Sea Fishing’, 58.
206 T Gray, ‘Devon’s Fisheries’, 139.
207 Holdsworth, Sea Fisheries, 49.
208 Heath, ‘North Sea Fishing’, 57.
125

was merely ‘a mean thing as an inhabitation for fishers.’ 209 The
seasonality of this business is emphasised by contemporary observers
such as Risdon, who noted in 1630 that off Lynmouth in north Devon
herring in shoals of great numbers ‘from September until Christide offer
themselves to the fishermen’s nets, to the no little benefit of this land’. 210
Defoe, in 1724, also noticed this pattern, remarking that ‘the herrings
about October, were driving up the Severn Sea ... and are caught in great
quantities by the fishermen’, a suggestion supported by a reference in the
Bideford Port Books to the export of 825 barrels (c200 tonnes) of cured
herring between November and March 1722/3. 211
The seasonal character of the herring fishery reflected natural factors.
Herring is a cold-water species, hence its shoaling off the north coast of
Devon and Cornwall in the autumn and winter months. This is virtually
the southern limit for herring, a similar surface-swimming, shoaling,
pelagic species, the pilchard, being generally found in some abundance
to the south of the peninsula where it has long since been exploited by
Westcountry fishermen. As this region lies athwart the boundary
between seas that are ‘northern’ and ‘southern’ in character, it has
witnessed some marked fluctuations in fish landings according to
long-term climatic changes. Thus, in a comparatively warm era such as
the late sixteenth century, pilchard were cured and exported from
Plymouth and Dartmouth in great quantities, so much so that legislation
was necessary to control the trade. A century later, during the ‘Little Ice
Age’, pilchard were no longer present off south Devon, their apparent
westward retreat coinciding with a marked increase in herring catches off
the English, as well as the Bristol, Channel shores of the peninsula. 212
In the colder waters around the Scottish coasts and in the North Sea,
herring fishing was generally much more important than in the south and
the west. This was particularly so in Scotland where fishing almost
certainly constituted a greater component of the economy than it did in
England. One estimate has it that in the early seventeenth century, fish
products, chiefly cured herring, represented approximately 20 per cent of
the value of Scottish exports, and in the 1630s and again after the 1690s
209 Southward & Boalch, ‘Marine Resources’, 54.
210 T Gray, ‘Devon’s Fisheries’, 140.
211 Southward & Boalch, ‘Marine Resources’, 55.
212 Southward & Boalch, ‘Marine Resources’, 58-60.
126

the percentage was possibly higher. From the west coast, fish was
despatched to France in some quantity before the 1680s, though the flow
of east coast herring to the Low Countries and, more especially, the
Baltic, was the mainstay of Scotland’s fish export trade. Domestic
consumption of fish was likewise higher in the northern kingdom than in
England according to the limited evidence available, the chief market
being centred on the Firth of Forth, notably Edinburgh and Leith. Even
so, as elsewhere, fluctuation and uncertainty marked the Scottish herring
fishery, with barren periods frequently following years of glut depending
on the unpredictable movement of the fish. With the fishing effort largely
concentrated in small boats of limited range, Scottish fishermen were
unable to shift the location of their operations in line with the changing
patterns of herring abundance. The fishery therefore obtained an
intermittent character until well into the nineteenth century. 213
Two herring seasons were exploited domestically off the English
North Sea coast. From Scarborough, Staithes, Robin Hood’s Bay and
other settlements on the North Yorkshire coast, ‘farcostae’ and five-man
cobles were sent out to engage in what fifteenth-century parish records
describe as the ‘Winter herring fare’ or the ‘North Sea fare’. 214 Many of
these vessels sailed south for the second and more important herring
fishery conducted off Yarmouth and Lowestoft in the autumn months. In
these waters, they fished alongside boats belonging to the East Anglian
ports, vessels from the English Channel coast and a variety of foreign
craft, chiefly from the Netherlands and France. Surviving municipal
records from Great Yarmouth indicate the fluctuating scale of this
activity in terms of the number of local boats wintering in the port
between 1581 and 1714. It would seem that this fishery reached peaks of
120, 124 and 162 vessels in 1604, 1629 and 1654 respectively, with
notable troughs evident in the 1620s, the 1650s and 1660s, and from the
late 1670s onwards. But in neglecting the contribution of foreign
fishermen, the figures offer inadequate measures of the output of the
fishery because much of the herring cured and packed in Yarmouth,
particularly before the mid-seventeenth century, had been landed by
Dutch and French vessels. 215 Indeed, foreign competition, especially
213 Michell, ‘European Fisheries’, 147-8; M Gray, Fishing Industries.
214 Heath, ‘North Sea Fishing’, 56-9.
215 Michell, ‘European Fisheries’, 143-7.
127

from the Dutch, was a potent factor in the development of herring fishing
in Britain during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The
efficiency and prosperity of the Dutch herring busses were sources of
wonderment and jealousy to British fishermen, pamphleteers and
policy-makers alike. Attempts at emulating Dutch processing and
preserving techniques were largely unsuccessful, and from the 1650s
onwards legislation and prohibitions formed the chief weapons in
English attempts to undermine the commercial supremacy of the
Netherlands. 216
Distant-water fishing was also significant, being largely concerned
with the taking of white fish, primarily cod. It embraced a range of
activities, all of which were conducted beyond a fishing boat’s home
waters. Over time, of course, the location and relative importance of such
activity tended to change. In the late medieval period, for instance, east
coast fishermen engaged in comparatively long-distance forays into the
North Sea, while south-western vessels ventured as far as the Yorkshire
coast, a round voyage of some 500 miles, and the shores of Ireland. 217 By
this time, some English fishing ports had acquired a valuable interest in
Icelandic grounds. 218 Trade in stockfish with the Icelanders also
developed and during the fifteenth century merchants involved in the
business formed important elements of the community of ports such as
Hull and Lynn. From at least the 1490s, the riches of the Grand Banks of
Newfoundland were known to English fishing interests though it was not
until the late sixteenth century that Englishmen began serious
exploitation of these prolific grounds. From thence it was but a step to
the prosecution of New England waters, a business that flourished briefly
in the early seventeenth century before passing into the hands of the
growing resident population of the American colonies. 219
While these distant-water fisheries can be treated separately, they
exhibited many common characteristics. From a practical point of view,
working distant waters not only entailed relatively large-scale fishing
units, but also the carriage of productive factors and processed catches
216 Michell, ‘European Fisheries’, 148-9.
217 T Gray, ‘Devon’s Fisheries’, 140-2.
218 Carus-Wilson, ‘Iceland Venture’; Heath, ‘North Sea Fishing’, 58; Michell, ‘European
Fisheries’, 143-9; Childs, ‘England’s Icelandic Trade’.
219 T Gray, ‘Devon’s Fisheries’, 142-3.
128

across large expanses of sea. Moreover, various operational linkages
between the different activities can be detected. Fishermen, of course,
were highly mobile, and poor prospects in one area generally led to a
shift in the fishing effort to more promising grounds. For instance, men
from Newton Ferrers, near Plymouth, fished off Newfoundland between
1617 and 1621, off northern New England in 1622 and 1623, off Ireland
from 1624 to 1626 and again in 1631, before resorting once again to the
Grand Banks in 1633 and 1634. 220 Assuming such flexibility was
widespread—and the available evidence suggests that it was—it is
hardly surprising that techniques applied in one area should be
transferred to other fisheries. This seems to have occurred when the
process of drying cod on shore-based flakes, used extensively in Iceland
in the fifteenth century, emerged as a central feature of Britain’s
Newfoundland fishery a century or so later. Likewise, the seasonal,
migratory pattern of the Newfoundland trade which quickly took root
before 1600 formed the basis initially of the New England fishery in the
1610s and 1620s. 221
At a broader level, the distant-water fisheries constituted an important
factor in the social, economic and political development of the Atlantic
region. The quest for fish led men, and eventually women, to new,
distant territories and thereby played a significant role in the processes of
migration, emigration and colonisation. Westcountrymen, for instance,
sought cod, hake and ling off Ireland, encouraging men such as William
Hull and his followers to settle in Munster. It was the abundance of cod
in the Gulf of Maine that led fishermen to investigate, utilise (as fishing
stations), and then settle northern New England. 222 And it was the
exploitation of the cod fishery that placed such a distinctive stamp on the
development of Newfoundland from the sixteenth century. Here, the
migratory basis of the business pertained until the late eighteenth
century, serving in many respects to retard the colonisation of the island.
Each spring, the productive factors—vessels, labour, provisions,
salt—necessary to prosecute the fishery were transported to
Newfoundland; temporary bases for fishing ‘rooms’ were then
established on the island’s shores to dry the catch; and in the autumn,
220 T Gray, ‘Devon’s Fisheries’, 141.
221 Innis, Cod Fisheries.
222 T Gray, thesis.
129

cargoes of dried, lightly salted cod were conveyed to the extensive
markets of southern Europe. Though efforts to settle the island were
made from the 1620s, the merchants engaged in the fishery, anxious to
retain their customary rights to the shore, were consistently hostile to
such developments, and as a consequence it was not until the 1750s that a
viable permanent population began to develop. 223
The carriage of productive factors and cargoes, together with supplies
for the slowly growing resident population meant that the Newfoundland
fishery held significant trading and shipping ramifications. Moreover, in
generating earnings and employing seafaring labour deemed to be vital
to the state’s naval capability in wartime, 224 the Newfoundland trade was
afforded an important place in Britain’s imperial strategy. This political
prominence, of course, was heightened by the fact that other powers,
initially Spain and Portugal and then the French, also sought to exploit
the fishery and island of Newfoundland. 225 While these rivalries have
naturally proved of interest to political historians, they are also relevant
to the fishing historian for the British government and other interested
parties, in seeking to stimulate and defend the Newfoundland trade,
collected statistics relating to the capital stock and output of the fishery.
Though such data are fragmentary before the 1690s, they suggest that the
30-strong English fleet active off Newfoundland in 1574 had expanded
to over 300 ‘fishing ships’, producing over 300,000 quintals of dried cod,
in 1620 (1 quintal = 112 lb). From this high-water mark, the extent of the
fishery fluctuated through the seventeenth century in line with variable
fish stocks and the incidence of war, with a nadir of 32 ‘fishing ships’
being recorded in 1682. 226 As new operational modes were introduced
into the fishery, the business became generally more buoyant, the trend
being upwards from the 1730s with the output of the migratory fishery
reaching a climax of almost 350,000 quintals p.a. in 1784-1792. At this
point, however, this British-based element of the fishery collapsed
dramatically and the fishing effort thereafter was undertaken by the
island’s growing resident population.
223 Matthews, thesis; Starkey, ‘Devonians and the Newfoundland Trade’, 163-71.
224 Starkey, ‘West Country-Newfoundland Fishery’, 93-101.
225 Innis, Cod Fisheries.
226 Matthews, thesis; Starkey, ‘Devonians and the Newfoundland Trade’, 164.
130

This sudden contraction was of some significance to the economy of
south-west England, the heart of the Newfoundland trade. But in national
terms, it was merely one of a number of factors that coalesced between
1780 and 1850 to shift the focus of Britain’s fisheries to east coast ports
drifting for herring or trawling for white fish—the crucial climacteric for
the latter being the development of the national railway network during
the 1840s. Though there is regional evidence showing some expansion of
fishing between 1780 and the 1840s, overall production does not appear
to have increased in line with population. Indeed, while the demographic
surges which occurred between 1520 and 1640, and again from the
1740s, stimulated an increase in agricultural productivity noted by
contemporaries and historians alike, no such ‘revolution’ is evident in
British fishing. The key reasons for this appear to be linked to the
problems of processing for the export market and distribution for the
domestic. Even though large quantities of cured fish were exported,
particularly from the Shetlands—from whence dried fish was despatched
to Spain and Germany—Scotland and some English regions, the
performance of the British overseas was relatively poor until the
nineteenth century, especially in comparison to the Dutch, who produced
better quality cured herring.
Problems on the demand side largely explained the modest
performance of Britain’s fisheries in the home market during these years,
even though the trading networks developed by this time were more
sophisticated than has sometimes been supposed. Fish landed on the
Yorkshire coast, for instance, was carried overland by teams of pannier
ponies to towns such as York, Leeds, Bradford and Halifax. By the
1780s, this means of transport regularly supplied Manchester, and even
Liverpool, with fresh North Sea fish. 227 Likewise, fish merchants in
Devon transported their produce overland to Honiton, Tiverton and
up-country as far as Bath, 228 while haddock taken by the inshore
fishermen of Fife was also regularly despatched overland for sale in
Edinburgh. 229 Water transport was used by the home fish trade, with
fresh catches shipped up navigable rivers, most notably the Humber and
its tributaries, to inland centres. Coasters, too, were deployed to carry
227 Robinson, ‘Fish Trade’, 233-4.
228 Northway, ‘Devon Fishing Industry’(1994), 127.
229 M Gray, Fishing Industries, 16.
131

fish to market, though their cargoes were generally processed products
like the parcels of cured fish conveyed from the Yorkshire coast to
Newcastle, Sunderland and London, the barrels of smoked herring
carried from north-east Scotland to Leith and Edinburgh, and the pickled
herring taken coastwise from East Anglia to London, and from North
Cornwall to Bristol. Despite these trading linkages, the ceiling on
domestic demand for fish remained low until the 1840s. Most fish
transported to inland towns and cities was destined for the luxury end of
the market. Only the better quality fish, which commanded the highest
prices, could stand the cost of swift overland transport. Fish was, of
course, a perishable commodity, and if it was to be retailed in a relatively
fresh condition it was essential that it reached inland markets swiftly.
Pannier ponies and fish vans were fast by contemporary standards, but
they could only carry limited consignments which kept up costs.
Contemporary economics therefore determined that lining was the
principal means of white fish capture because trawling took large
quantities of lower quality fish which were unsuitable for the overland
trade. The only fish that poorer sections of inland communities could
afford was that which had begun to go ‘off’ and such produce was far
from popular. Even herring, which in season was shipped in bulk quite
cheaply from East Anglia to the London market, deteriorated rapidly and
was often in poor condition by the time it reached the consumer. 230
Thus, demand-side constraints inhibited the fish trade’s ability to
exploit the potential of the mass market that was developing apace in the
inland industrial districts of northern England, the Midlands and central
Scotland in the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. In breaking this
log-jam, the railways were to change the face of Britain’s fisheries.
The Advent and Impact of the Mass Market for Fresh Fish
Evidence relating to Britain’s fisheries from the mid-eighteenth century
is abundant compared to that which has survived for earlier eras. Much
of this information is incidental, varying in character from newspaper
reports to archeological finds to the views of witnesses appearing before
Parliamentary enquiries. However, substantial series of centrally
generated documentary and statistical material exist for long stretches of
the post-1750 period. For example, data pertaining to the number and
tonnage of fishing vessels—a measure of capital investment—registered
230 Robinson, ‘Fish Trade’, 230-1.
132

in English and Welsh ports is available for each year between 1772 and
1808 in the customs records. 231 That the data are disaggregated by each
port facilitates local and regional analysis of the scale of the fisheries. 232
Likewise, the Customs House Ship Registers, which exist for nearly all
ports from 1824 and for many from 1786—permit detailed local study of
the stock of fishing vessels, though those of 15 tons or less did not
require to be registered and are therefore not covered. 233 Crew lists in
respect of registered vessels have survived for certain ports from the
1740s and can be used to examine crew size and composition, and the
occupation of the vessel; Dartmouth’s crew lists, for instance, emphasise
the prominence of the Newfoundland fishery to the port in the 1770s and
1780s. 234 Later series of crew lists, from 1836 to 1862, and from 1863 to
the present, are both more comprehensive and detailed regarding the
deployment of vessels, the wages of the crew and the incidence of health
and discipline problems. 235 Moreover, the size of the labour force, both
locally and nationally, can be gleaned from the decennial census of the
population from 1841 onwards; thus, in the UK as a whole the number of
males employed in the fishing industry increased from 24,000 in 1841 to
58,000 in 1881, declining to 40,000 in 1931 and 26,000 in 1951.
More systematic archives, specifically relating to the fisheries, are
also available. Excellent records of the various fishery boards which
oversaw aspects of Scottish fishing from 1808 are housed at Register
House, Edinburgh. The various reports, accounts and papers printed by
Parliament are a further valuable source of information for the fishing
historian. From the late eighteenth century, various Parliamentary papers
illuminate aspects of the fisheries; for example, an account of the number
of fishing smacks entering the port of London, presented to Parliament in
1800, provides a good indication of the scale of the capital’s fish trade
between 1780 and 1799. 236 Likewise, a government enquiry into the sea
fisheries of the English Channel, published in 1824, offers an insight into
the nature and scale of fishing activity in southern England in the early
231 London, Public Record Office, CUST 17.
232 Northway, ‘Devon Fishing Industry’ (1994).
233 See Robinson, thesis.
234 Starkey, ‘Devonians and the Newfoundland Trade’.
235 Northway, ‘Devon Fishing Industry’(1994), 131.
236 Minchinton, ‘London Fisheries’.
133

nineteenth century. 237 More importantly, from 1868, the government
commenced publishing comprehensive annual data relating to the
number, tonnage and class of fishing vessel registered at each UK port,
adding details as to the means of propulsion, sail or steam, from 1888.
Information relating to the quantities of fish transported by rail were
published annually from 1878, while the type of fish taken, the grounds
fished, and the value of the catch were all systematically recorded and
added to the statistical data published by Parliament after 1902. Of
course, the agencies responsible for the collection and presentation of
information have changed, but the quality and quantity of the data
available for the fisheries has remained constant to the present day.
These statistical series, supported by a variety of more qualitative source
materials, provide ample evidence for a thorough analysis of the
development of the fishing industries of the British Isles since the early
nineteenth century. 238
As we have noted, the ceiling on demand for fish remained low in the
early nineteenth century, but the railways, in providing a relatively fast
and cheap means of conveyance, transformed the market for fish. Such
change was gradual rather than revolutionary in tempo. Indeed, it was
not until the early 1840s that the railways began to have a significant
impact on the fish trade, and not until the late 1850s, almost three
decades after the coming of the steam railway, that anything resembling
a national mass market for fresh fish was truly evident. A number of
factors explain this pattern. Not least of these was the simple fact that the
railway network itself was limited in scale until the mid 1840s. A second
reason lay in the manner in which the railway network developed, its ad
hoc, localised character obliging those concerned with long distance,
through traffic to transfer periodically their goods from one carrier to
another. Moreover, despite providing a novel means of transport, railway
promoters were initially intent on cultivating existing trades rather than
in creating new lines of business. Accordingly, few, if any, of the railway
pioneers afforded the expansion of the fish trade any priority in their
construction plans, while the fact that fresh fish, because of high road
transport costs, had always been a luxury item continued to influence
railway pricing policies into the 1840s. In essence, therefore, railway
carriers merely adopted the rates of the road hauliers and fish remained
237 Northway, ‘Devon Fishing Industry’ (1994), 127.
238 Rule, ‘British Fisherman’.
134

eyond the means of the inland urban masses until mid-century. Given
this inertia in the transport sector, it is hardly surprising that a further
constraint on the market for fish, the slow development of fresh fish sales
and marketing agencies, remained a feature of the fish trade until the
mid-1850s.
Gradually, however, a mass market for fish emerged between 1840
and 1860. During these pivotal decades, railway mileage expanded and
there emerged a network in the place of a collection of discrete lines,
thereby facilitating the passage of fish from the coast to the interior.
Rates for carrying fish declined as railway companies, following the lead
of the Manchester & Leeds Railway, took positive steps to serve the fish
trade from the early 1840s. Meanwhile, outlets like the pioneering
shop-cum-stall opened in Manchester by the Flamborough and Filey Bay
Company in 1842, were rapidly established. Before long, increases in the
value of fish carried to markets as distant as Sheffield and Billingsgate
were evident. By 1860, fresh white fish had become an important
component of the working class diet in Britain’s urban centres, a position
that it was to maintain for over a century. 239
Such major changes in demand inevitably held ramifications for the
supply side of the fishing industry. Though traditional inshore activities
and offshore line fishing all benefited from the growing mass inland
market for fresh fish, it was the massive increase in trawling activity
which enabled the supply side to satisfy growing demand. Trawling was,
of course, an ancient activity, but until the late eighteenth century the
practice had been largely restricted to the ports of Brixham and Plymouth
in the south west and the approaches to the Thames which were fished by
smacks working out of Barking. Thereafter, there was a gradual
expansion from these centres, particularly along the English Channel and
into the North Sea. The railways, however, created the environment for
the rapid expansion of the activity from the 1840s by providing
marketing opportunities for the large catches of cheap fish taken in the
trawl.
Just as farmers in times of growing demand seek to increase crop
yields by bringing more land into cultivation, so the nineteenth-century
trawl fishermen, facing similar circumstances, searched for new grounds
to exploit. The gradual expansion of trawling in the first decades of the
239 Robinson, ‘Evolution of Railway Fish Traffic Policies’; Scola, Feeding the Victorian
City.
135

nineteenth century had led to the discovery of new trawling grounds and
this expansion across more distant areas of the sea bed increased after
1840. Symptomatic of this attempt to improve the supply of fish was the
‘discovery’ of the Silver Pits, which were first subject to large-scale
exploitation by trawlers during the winter of 1844-5. 240 Though the
particular impact of these predominantly cold-weather grounds has
perhaps been overstated, they were part of a trend which saw trawlermen
working over many new grounds across the North Sea through to the
1870s. At the same time, the proximity of the ‘new’ grounds to the east
coast profoundly affected the location of the fishing industry. With
labour, capital and, not least, trawling techniques attracted from other
regions, most notably south-west England, the fish trade swiftly
gravitated to those North Sea ports which could provide rail links with
inland centres of mass consumption. Initially, in the early 1840s, this
meant Hull, with Grimsby, on the other bank of the Humber,
participating vigorously from the mid 1850s.
When the Royal Commission on the Sea Fisheries convened in 1863,
it was to consider an industry that had undergone a major transformation
during the previous twenty-five years. Stimulated by demand-side
pressure, the supply of fresh white fish had increased massively as more
efficient catching methods were used over a wider area. In general terms,
this meant that distant-water trawling based in a few east coast ports had
emerged as the leading sector of the fisheries undertaken from the British
Isles. Essentially, this structure endured until the mid-1970s. Of course,
there were many developments in the fish trade during this period, but
change tended to be a matter of degree rather than of kind. Within this
framework, the domestic market for fresh fish continued to play a critical
role. While this source of demand expanded due to the sustained growth
of Britain’s urban population—down to the 1920s at least—it also grew
as a result of product refinement and innovations in retailing. Perhaps the
best example of this market development occurred during the late
nineteenth century in the growth of the fried fish market associated with
the emergence and swift institutionalization of the fish and chip shop. 241
Almost as dynamic, if less culturally influential, was the extension of the
mass market effected by the introduction of frozen, filleted fish during
the 1960s.
240 Bellamy, ‘Pioneers’; Robinson, ‘Rise of Trawling’.
241 Walton, Fish and Chips.
136

A similar pattern of incremental innovation and growth pertained on
the supply side of the trawling sector from the 1850s. However, clear
shifts in gear can be discerned. With regard to the catching operation, the
displacement of the beam trawl by the otter trawl from the mid-1890s led
to substantial improvements in efficiency. Likewise, the stern factory
freezer trawler, a concept pioneered in Britain during the 1950s but then
developed more vigorously by East European nations, greatly enhanced
the catching capacity of the industry. 242 In conjunction with the
intensification of the fishing effort, technological developments in vessel
propulsion significantly extended the range of British trawlers. The
application of steam power to trawling in the final quarter of the
nineteenth century was especially important in this respect. While sailing
trawlers had sustained the expansion of white fish supplies from the
1840s, their range was necessarily limited by the elements and their
efficiency impaired by a dependence on steam cutters to convey catches
to market. In effect, the application of steam—which remained the prime
motive force until the 1950s—permitted British trawlers to operate
beyond the North Sea, and long before the First World War such vessels
were prosecuting grounds off Iceland and Norway, and as distant as the
Barents Sea. 243 The advent of distant-water steam trawling also had a
major bearing on the structure of firms, for it entailed a substantial
increase in initial and operational costs. As a consequence, highly
capitalized joint-stock companies swiftly came to dominate the industry,
raising funds from outside the fishing communities and employing
trawlermen on a wage labour basis. In effect, the application of steam
propelled distant-water trawling into the realms of capitalistic big
business. 244
Notwithstanding the significance of distant-water trawling, this was
not the only facet of the modern British fishing industry. As in medieval
and early modern times, the herring fishery continued to play an
important part in the economies of many coastal communities, especially
in east Scotland between 1815 and 1914. Though subject to short-term
fluctuations, this business generally expanded in terms of output and
income during this period, reaching a climax in the 1907-1911
242 Robinson, ‘Sea Fisheries’.
243 Robinson, ‘Development of British Steam Trawling’.
244 Robinson, Rise and Fall.
137

quinquennium when Scotland’s production of cured herring reached a
peak. On the eve of the First World War, earnings from the herring
fishery exceeded £2.25m, thereby dominating the non-trawling sector of
Scotland’s fishing interests. 245 The factors explaining this trend were
similar to those which underpinned the development of distant-water
trawling. Demand, again, was a critical determinant, though the herring
fishery depended almost entirely on the supply of a cured product to the
overseas market. Railways featured prominently in this context, for it
was the exploitation of the continental market, opened up by rail
connections to Baltic ports, that gave the business its greatest impetus.
Typically, fishermen responded to such propitious conditions by
intensifying their catching effort and prosecuting more extensive
grounds, a combination of factors which led to the rapid adoption of
steam propulsion in the early 1900s. The collapse of demand for cured
herring, most notably in Russia, as a consequence of the Great War,
meant that this sector of Britain’s fisheries went into long term decline,
though related branches such as mackerel and pilchard fishing have
experienced short-lived booms off the coast of southern England.
The herring fishery adopted the motor as well as the steam engine. In
contrast to the steam trawling sector, the application of the internal
combustion engine to various other fishery activities did not require such
a radical restructuring. These engines took up less space than their steam
counterparts and were much cheaper to acquire and operate. Moreover,
many existing sailing vessels were initially adapted for motors. Thus,
motorisation, while increasing efficiency and encouraging the
introduction of new techniques, including seining, allowed the tradition
of small scale ownership to continue to flourish in many sectors outside
of the middle and distant water trades.
Inshore fishing, too, has remained a part of Britain’s fishing effort.
This small-scale, dispersed activity has generally been neglected, as
fishing historians, not surprisingly, have focused their attention on the
dynamic sectors of the industry, especially the herring boom and the rise
and fall of distant-water trawling at Hull and Grimsby, Aberdeen and
Fleetwood. Yet the aggregate output and local significance of fishing
based in the so-called ‘traditional’ communities, from Staithes and Robin
Hood’s Bay on the Yorkshire coast to Mevagissey and Newlyn in
Cornwall, from the diminutive harbours of western Ireland to the
245 M Gray, Fishing Industries, 148-9.
138

crofting communities of the highlands and islands of Scotland, was
considerable and clearly warrants closer examination. An economic
perspective on this activity is particularly lacking, for contemporary
observers and social historians have considered the inshore fisheries in
some depth. 246 Incorporating this business into the mainstream of the
fishing industry will locate it in an appropriate context and help explain
why by the late 19th century fishing was in many places already in confrontation with a
growing tourism. This confrontation provides, perhaps, the saddest chapter in the
social history of the fisherman. A study of the fisherman where port and resort
coincided could illuminate a dark corner of the social history of the British holiday.
From proud fishermen into eventual summer tip-grubbers and winter dole-queuers,
has been the reality of tourism for many. 247
Conclusion and Prospect
Writing in 1977, A R Michell remarked that ‘one could look at general
histories of England in the nineteenth century and never guess that Great
Britain was the most important fishing nation in the world’. 248 It is the
contention of this brief survey that this misleading impression derives
largely from the inadequacy of the literature on the fisheries of the
British Isles, in particular the ‘dearth of monograph material’ noted by
another observer in 1973. 249 Only a comprehensive study of the fisheries
of the British Isles, perhaps the collaborative work of a number of hands,
can adequately correct this deficiency. Such a project would have a
substantial foundation—at least for the modern period—on which to
build in the growing volume of local and regional studies published in
recent years. It would require inter alia to focus on four main
weaknesses:
1. Fishing conducted from the British Isles in medieval and early
modern times lacks a detailed and comprehensive coverage, with
important areas such as long-term price movements and coastal
settlement patterns almost entirely neglected. A substantial research
effort is needed to identify and analyse appropriate source materials.
246 Reynolds, Poor Man’s House; Thompson, Living the Fishing.
247 Rule, ‘British Fisherman’, 62.
248 Michell, ‘European Fisheries’.
249 Rule, ‘British Fisherman’, 61.
139

2. Discussion of Britain’s fisheries is uneven in topical terms. A new
appraisal should embrace all facets of the activity through the ages in
order to ensure balance and enhance understanding. Too frequently the
focus has been narrowly confined to a single, usually dynamic, element
of a broad, complex collection of activities.
3. Many of the accepted explanations of the development of the
fisheries require revision. For instance, fishing historians, perhaps
sub-consciously, have generally adopted the model of the classic
‘industrial revolution’ as the conceptual framework for their studies of
Britain’s nineteenth-century fisheries. Thus, fishing activity is deemed to
have passed through various stages, being classified as industrial or
pre-industrial according to the nature of the gear used or, more
commonly, the means of vessel propulsion deployed. This impedes
analysis of a broad range of fishing operations, for some were changing
at a different rate, and in different ways, than the leading sectors.
Likewise, with regard to labour, the eternal ‘standard of living debate’
has been transshipped from the manufacturing districts to the trawling
ports with the result that the so-called ‘industrialization’ of the
distant-water fisheries has been viewed as leading to the impoverishment
and immiseration of the populations of Hull, Grimsby and elsewhere. 250
Superficially attractive, such hypotheses need testing rather more
rigorously than has hitherto been attempted.
4. The contexts in which Britain’s fisheries have been considered
need to be broadened. This entails comparative and interdisciplinary
work. As the fishing history of the British Isles has been studied largely
without regard to the experience of other nations exploiting the same
waters it is time that the subject is placed in a European or North Atlantic
setting. This is especially so for the modern era when international
disputes and agreements have exerted a major influence on the character
and prosperity of fishing. But it is also true of earlier periods in which the
British fought and negotiated for the right to exploit Newfoundland cod
and North Sea herring. Similarly, understanding Britain’s fishing
industry would greatly benefit from the input of colleagues in other
disciplines. For instance, it is self-evident that the findings of marine
biologists on such matters as fish movements and resilience should
inform interpretations of past as well as current fluctuations in the
prosperity of the fisheries. In a like manner, climatologists and
250 Thompson, Living the Fishing.
140

oceanographers might well provide historians with answers to some of
the riddles which cloud our understanding of the development of fishing.
Accordingly, links between institutions and with other disciplines are
essential if a thorough investigation into the history of Britain’s sea
fisheries is to materialise. It is hoped that the North Atlantic Fisheries
History Association will emerge as one of the means by which such
collaboration can take place.
Select Bibliography
(place of publication is London unless otherwise stated)
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F G Aflalo, The Sea-Fishing Industry of England and Wales (1904)
G L Alward, The Sea Fisheries of Great Britain and Ireland (Grimsby,
1932)
R W Ambler & B & L Watkinson, Farmers and Fishermen: The
Probate Inventories of the Ancient Parish of Clee, South Humberside
1536-1742 (Hull, 1987)
P Anson, Fishermen and Fishing Ways (1932)
P S Bagwell, The Railway Clearing House (1968)
R H Barback, The Political Economy of the Fisheries (Hull, 1966)
T C Barker et al, eds, Our Changing Fare (1966)
T C Barker & J Yudkin, eds, Fish in Britain (1966)
J M Bellamy, ‘Pioneers of the Hull Trawl Fishing Industry’. Mariner’s
Mirror, 51 (1965)
J M Bellamy, The Trade and Shipping of Nineteenth-Century Hull (Hull,
1971)
D Boswell, Sea Fishing Apprentices of Grimsby (Grimsby, 1974)
D Butcher, The Driftermen (Reading, 1974)
E M Carus-Wilson, ‘The Iceland Venture’. E Power & M M Postan, eds,
Studies in English Trade in the Fifteenth Century (1933)
W R Childs, ‘England’s Icelandic Trade in the Fifteenth Century: The
Role of the Port of Hull’. P Holm et al, eds, Northern Seas Yearbook
1995 (Esbjerg, 1995)
D H Cushing, The Arctic Cod (1966)
C L Cutting, Fish Saving (1955)
J Dunlop, The British Fisheries Society 1786-1893 (Edinburgh, 1981)
E Ford, Nation’s Fish Supply (1943)
E Gillett, A History of Grimsby (Hull, 1970)
141

A Godfrey, Yorkshire Fishing Fleets (Clapham, 1974)
C A Goodlad, Shetland Fishing Saga (Shetland, 1972)
M Gray, The Fishing Industries of Scotland 1790-1914 (Aberdeen,
1979)
T Gray, ‘Devon’s Coastal and Overseas Fisheries 1597-1642’.
(unpublished PhD thesis, University of Exeter, 1988)
T Gray, ‘Devon’s Fisheries and Early-Stuart Northern New England’. M
Duffy et al, eds, The New Maritime History of Devon, vol 1: From
Early Times to the Late Eighteenth Century (1992)
P Heath, ‘North Sea Fishing in the Fifteenth Century’. Northern History,
3 (1968)
E W H Holdsworth, The Sea Fisheries of Great Britain and Ireland
(1883)
P Holm, ‘The Modernisation of Fishing: The Scandinavian and British
Model’. L R Fischer et al, eds, The North Sea (Stavanger, 1992)
H A Innis, The Cod Fisheries: The History of an International Economy
(Toronto, 1954)
G Jackson, Hull in the Eighteenth Century (Hull, 1972)
A Jarvis, ‘An Historical Backwater: The Fishing and Fish Trading of
Liverpool’. P Holm et al, eds, Northern Seas Yearbook 1995
(Esbjerg, 1995)
E March, Sailing Drifters (1952)
E March, Sailing Trawlers (1953)
E March, Inshore Craft of Great Britain (1970)
K Matthews, ‘A History of the West of England-Newfoundland Fishery’
(unpublished DPhil thesis, University of Oxford, 1968)
A R Michell, ‘The European Fisheries in Early Modern History’. E E
Rich & C H Wilson, eds, The Cambridge Economic History of
Europe (Cambridge, 1977)
W E Minchinton, ‘London Fisheries in the Eighteenth Century’. P Holm
et al, eds, Northern Seas Yearbook 1995 (Esbjerg, 1995)
J Nicholson, Food from the Sea (1979)
A M Northway, ‘The Devon Fishing Industry 1760-1860’ (unpublished
MA dissertation, University of Exeter, 1970)
A M Northway, ‘The Devon Fishing Industry in the Eighteenth and
Nineteenth Centuries’. M Duffy et al, eds, The New Maritime History
of Devon, vol 2: From the Late Eighteenth Century to the Present Day
(1994)
S Reynolds, A Poor Man’s House (1908)
142

R N W Robinson, ‘The English Fishing Industry 1790-1914: A Case
Study of the Yorkshire Coast’ (unpublished PhD thesis, University of
Hull, 1985)
R Robinson, ‘The Evolution of Railway Fish Traffic Policies,
1840-66’.Journal of Transport History, 7 (1986)
R Robinson, A History of the Yorkshire Coast Fishing Industry
1790-1914 (Hull, 1987).
R Robinson, ‘The Fish Trade in the pre-Railway Era: The Yorkshire
Coast 1780-1840’ Northern History, XXV (1989)
R Robinson, ‘The Rise of Trawling on the Dogger Bank Grounds: The
Diffusion of an Innovation’. Mariner’s Mirror, 75 (1989)
R Robinson, ‘The Sea Fisheries’ in L R Fischer & D M Williams, eds,
Maritime Europe (Aldershot, 1995)
R Robinson, ‘The Development of the British North Sea Steam Trawling
Fleet, 1877-1900’. Proceedings of the Third North Sea History
Conference (Aberdeen, 1995)
143

R Robinson, The Rise and Fall of the British Trawl Fishery (Exeter,
1996)
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Labour History, 27 (1973)
R. Scola, Feeding the Victorian City: The Food Supply of Manchester,
1770-1870 (Manchester, 1992)
A J Southward & G T Boalch, ‘The Marine Resources of Devon’s
Coastal Waters’. M Duffy et al, eds, The New Maritime History of
Devon, vol 1: From Early Times to the Late Eighteenth Century
(1992)
D J Starkey, ‘The West Country-Newfoundland Fishery and the
Manning of the Royal Navy’. R Higham, ed., Security and Defence in
South-West England before 1800 (Exeter, 1987)
D J Starkey, ‘Devonians and the Newfoundland Trade’. M Duffy et al,
eds, The New Maritime History of Devon, vol 1: From Early Times to
the Late Eighteenth Century (1992)
P Thompson et al, Living the Fishing (1983)
J Th Thor, ‘The Beginnings of British Steam Trawling in Icelandic
Waters’. Mariner’s Mirror, 74 (1988)
J Th Thor, British Trawlers in Icelandic Waters (Reykjavik, 1992)
J Tunstall, The Fishermen (1962)
J K Walton, Fish and Chips and the British Working Class (Leicester,
1992)
144

Norwegian Fisheries 1100-1970
Main Developments
Pål Christensen and Alf Ragnar Nielssen
Historiography
The Norwegian fisheries have been afforded much attention by
historians. This is because the fisheries have long been the cornerstone of
the national economy, providing more exports, by value, than any other
industry. Therefore discussions about the political development of the
Norwegian state have invariably taken the ups and downs in the fishery
into consideration. This is especially true for the earlier periods when the
Hanseatic merchants were in control of the fish trade. 251
From the 1960s the perspective of historians has changed. They have
been more concerned with the fisheries as an industry in itself, and its
roles in the subsistence of the population and the pattern of settlement,
especially in the north. The great importance of the export trade (which
was taken for granted by previous generations of historians), as well as
the role of the market economy in pre-industrial society, have been
seriously questioned. 252 In recent years more attention also has been paid
to the role of fishing in home consumption.
The literature treating the period before 1900 is to a great extent
concentrated on inshore cod fishing which mainly took place on the
northern and western coasts of Norway. The cod fisheries were already
commercialized in the Lofoten area by c1100 A.D. and in Finnmark from
about 1250-1300. After the Hansatic merchants took over the fish export
trade from the Norwegian tradesmen in the period after 1250, and
especially when the rise in fish prices took place after 1350, the
importance of the commercial fisheries increased. But the consequences
of this growth were often over-estimated by older historians, as shown by
K. Lunden. 253 His analyses of the national fish export trade concluded
that its volume was low in the Late Middle Ages, but his results have
251 Schreiner 1935.
252 Lunden 1967.
253 Lunden 1982.
145

since been disputed by A. Nedkvitne (see below). Studies of the local
settlement pattern in the fishery districts of North Norway nevertheless
give support to Lunden’s conclusion—the population decrease during
the crisis in the Late Middle Ages was remarkably strong also in the
north. 254
In the 1500s price data show a long-term reduction in stockfish
prices, reaching its minimum in the middle of the seventeenth century.
Studies of the fisheries in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries have
traditionally been greatly concerned with the depression and its
consequences, which were apparent already in the sixteenth century, 255
but recent research has shown that it did not result in a real crisis until in
the 1620s. 256 And in spite of the price depression, it is important to note
that the volume of fish traded increased up to the 1650s. 257
On the other hand there is no doubt that the period 1650-1750 was one
of stagnation. 258 But after 1750 a new positive trend emerged. This
included rising prices, new methods of production and technological
improvements. After a temporary setback during the Napoleonic Wars,
this positive development continued during the nineteenth century.
The only comprehensive survey of the Norwegian fisheries is Trygve
Solhaug’s two-volume edition De norske fiskeriers historie 1815-1880
(1976). For the earlier periods the best survey is Arnved Nedkvitnes
“Mens Bønderne seilte og Jægterne for” – Nordnorsk og vestnorsk
kystøkonomi 1500-1730 (1988). His doctoral thesis Utenrikshandelen fra
det vestafjelske Norge 1100-1600 adds important information as to the
fisheries and the fish trade in the medieval period. Another useful
volume for the earlier periods is Norsk Økonomisk Historie 1500-1850
with chapters on fishing written by Stein Tveite. A classic work, which
also should be mentioned in this context, is Axel Coldevin’s Næringsliv
og priser i Nordland 1700-1880 (1938), even if its main concern is trade
and prices. As for the national question and the role of the Hanseatic fish
trade, Johan Screiner’s book Hanseatene og Norge i det 16. århundre
(1941) is the seminal work, even if many conclusions have now been
254 Nielssen 1981. Høgsæt (Aarsæther) 1980.
255 Coldevin 1938.
256 Lindbekk 1978; Nielssen 1986.
257 Dyrvik, Fossen, Grønlie, Hovland, Nordvik, Tveite 1979: 37.
258 Dyrvik etc. 1979: 39-40.
146

ejected. The new social and economic perspective was introduced in
Kåre Lunden’s article ‘Hanseatane og norsk økonomi i
seinmellomalderen’ (1967) and followed up in many works of local and
regional history. One of the most important works in this connection is
Lofoten og Vesterålens historie vol. 2 (1500-1700) by Kari Lindbekk.
The literature for the period after 1900 covers a great number of
themes and specialized studies, but synthesizing, more comprehensive
books like those of Nedkvitne and Solhaug are still lacking. Of the more
specialized studies many concentrate upon the fishermen’s political
efforts in organizing themselves to defend their rights against the fish
buyers, producers and exporters on the one hand and the government
administration of the sector on the other. 259
The importance of local studies must not be overlooked in the modern
period. Many of the books in the voluminous Norwegian local and
regional historical writing tradition contain a lot of material about the
fisheries. The academic standard varies and a lack of proper
documentation often makes it difficult to use the information for
scientific purposes. Absence of a comparative aspect and the national
perspective represents a problem, especially with regard to the older
books of this tradition. But the enormous detail in this literature provides
much valuable information and makes it quite clear that there are great
local variations along the Norwegian coast with regard to biological fish
resources, the employment patterns in the fishing industry, the
technological adaption, the political and organizational framework and
so on.
A special facet of this local literature, concentrating only upon the
fishing industry, are the regional fishing histories. These have been
written for a number of regions along the Norwegian coast from
Nordland county southwards, but unfortunately not yet for the important
fishing districts of Troms and Finnmark. In this regional fishing
literature academic standards vary, though some of the latest are
excellent, especially Karl Egil Johansen’s book on the fisheries of the
Hordaland and Bergen area in Western Norway 1920-1990. 260
259 Hallenstvedt & Dynna 1976, Hallenstvedt 1982, Christensen & Hallenstvedt 1990.
Christensen 1991 b gives a survey of the literature for the period after 1945. Nordstrand
1985 is a comprehensive study of Fiskeridirectoratet, the main government institution in
the sector, but this work has not been published yet.
260 Johansen 1989.
147

The First Phase of Commercial Fishing, 1100-1300
The fisheries of Norway before c1900 were mainly inshore. The
extremely long and varied coastline gave such an abundance of fish
resources in home waters that it was not necessary to go into the open sea
to catch the fish. The inshore fish resources have formed part of the
subsistence economy of the coastal population since the Stone Age. But
when were the fisheries commercialized?
The first indisputable evidence that a commercial fishery existed,
dates back as far as the early twelfth century. In 1103-07 a royal tax was
issued on those who were fishing in Vágar in Lofoten, a tax which seems
to have had an even older origin. 261 Further evidence of a commercial
fishery is to be found in two of the king's sagas where it is said that King
Eystein (1103-17) had built a church and cottages for fishermen in
Vágar. 262 In the twelfth century Bergen developed as an export town in
the southwest, and stockfish (dried cod) is from this time onwards
referred to in several sources as a trading commodity. In this early period
the seasonal cod fishery in Lofoten seems to have been very dominant,
due to the large ‘skreid’ which could be (and still is) caught in the months
of February, March and April, giving a first-class stockfish product. This
is due to the climate in Lofoten during late winter and spring, which is
especially favourable for the drying process. In the beginning of June the
stockfish would be ready for the market.
This commercial cod fishery was capitalized to a very minor extent,
as it was carried out by common farmers. The fishing season occurred
during a slack period on the farm, and the household could therefore
easily combine fishing and farming. Seasonal fishing for the market
became an integral part of the household economy in the north. Farmers
equipped small boats of 4-5 men (and boys) and went to stay at different
fishing stations in Lofoten during the season. The fishing equipment was
handline and nothing but that. The food, clothes and other equipment
which the fishermen needed, were mainly produced on their own farms.
Therefore there was a close interaction between farm production and
participation in the seasonal fisheries—some of the farm goods supplied
the fishermen, cereals being in greatest demand.
261 Bjørgo 1982.
262 In the saga Morkinskinna (ed. Finnur Jónsson) (Copenhagen, 1932).
148

In this early phase of commercial fishing the traditional settlement
pattern was not affected much, as farming was still the most important
economic activity. But commercial fishing clearly added to the income
of the households. This organization, a low-capitalized coastal fishery
carried on by non-specialists as a supplement to farming, was
characteristic of the fishery of Lofoten into our own century.
In the twelfth, thirteenth and partly the fourteenth centuries, the
stockfish was sold at the market in the medieval town of Vágar.
Tradesmen from the southern towns and representatives of the King,
bishops, nobility etc. came to the large summer market in Vágar to do
business, collect the fish tithe and other taxes. The stockfish was
transported by sea to Trondheim and Bergen for export. Even if figures
documenting the size of the commercial fisheries in this early period are
lacking, several qualitative sources indicate that both the home market
and the export market for fish products soon became of great importance.
England no doubt was the most important recipient of stockfish in this
period. Arnved Nedkvitne has calculated the export from Bergen to the
ports in eastern England to have been about 2000 tons in the first decade
of the fourteenth century. 263 The figures have since been criticized by
Lunden who thinks they were considerably lower (see below).
The Hanseatic Trade and the Rise of the Fisheries, 1300-1600
In the second half of the fourteenth century the trade system of the High
Middle Ages seems to have deteriorated—possibly because of a
dramatic reduction in the number of native merchants in the period after
the Black Death. The market in Vágar ceased to exist as the remaining
Norwegian merchants failed to maintain the connection between the
fishery districts and the export towns of Trondheim and Bergen. The
fishermen themselves had to arrange the transport of their stockfish to
market. This resulted in the rather unique transport system called
‘jektefart’. 264 The ‘jekt’ was a small trading vessel owned by a captain,
but manned and sailed by the farmers of a local community. In early June
a large fleet of these ships went from the north to Bergen with stockfish
and fish oil, to exchange it for barrels of grain and flour. The voyage
could be repeated at the end of the summer. This transport system,
263 Nedkvitne 1976.
264 Descriptions of the system of ‘jektefart’ in Coldevin 1938: 37-43, 78-80 and Kiil 199.
149

placing the risk on the fishermen, continued to exist until the second half
of the nineteenth century.
Already around 1240-50 the Hanseatic merchants of Lübeck had
started their trade in Bergen, and a hundred years later their Kontor was
established. 265 From that time onwards they completely dominated the
export of stockfish from Norway. The fishermen from the north therefore
came into direct contact with the representatives of the most powerful
trade organization in northern Europe. It was not always to their
advantage, but the Hanseatics were able to establish a secure trade for the
first time, covering the demand for cereals in the coastal areas. Another
new development was the credit system which at least in the Late Middle
Ages must have been advantageous for the fishermen. In the long run,
however, there were negative side effects as the system created a
dependency on one single merchant, and in consequence a price
monopoly for the Hanseatic merchants. 266
As for the question of living conditions in the north, the trade system
of the Hanseatics no doubt reduced the need to grow cereals in this
climatically vulnerable area. It also made it possible for parts of the
population to specialize in fishing, thereby laying the foundations of the
first permanent fishing villages. 267
Stockfish Prices and the Volume of Exports
Analyses of fish prices from the Late Middle Ages by Lunden and
Nedkvitne have concluded that prices were extraordinarily high in
comparison with cereals in the period 1350-1500. In Bergen 1 kg. of
stockfish had approximately the same value as 2 kg. of rye flour in the
period 1270-1350, while one could get as much as 6-7 kg. of rye flour for
1 kg stockfish between 1350 and 1500. In the period 1500-50 the ratio
had sunk to 1:3 and in the latter half of the same century 1:2 - that is the
same price relation as in the High Middle Ages. 268 The high fish prices in
the Late Middle Ages, combined with the very high taxes still being paid
by Norwegian fishermen around 1520, 269 lend strong support to the
265 Helle 1982: 379-88, 730-50.
266 Helle 1982: 739-40, 770-71.
267 Nielssen 1994.
268 Nedkvitne 1988: 42.
269 Holmsen 1975: 549-554.
150

common contention of historians that the Late Middle Ages were very
favourable for the fisheries and the fish trade.
As for the volume of trade in this period, it has traditionally been
estimated as being very large. But Lunden, who was the first historian to
apply quantitative analysis, came to another conclusion in his 1967
article. He found that the stockfish export from Bergen to the staple in
Lübeck in the period 1368-1400 could not have been higher than 200
tons annually. Consequently he concluded that the importance of
stockfish exports from Norway had been greatly exaggerated by earlier
historians. Considering that some historians, especially German, had
argued that the stockfish trade had been necessary for the settlement in
North Norway, 270 his conclusion is indisputably correct. On the other
hand, he has been criticized by Nedkvitne both for underestimating the
volume of trade, and especially for having disregarded the export of
stockfish to Western Europe which did not go through the staple in
Lübeck. 271
Foreign Fisheries
The Norwegian kings in the High Middle Ages tried to centralize the
stockfish inland market on Vágar and to have the stockfish brought
further to Bergen and Trondheim by national merchants. A law issued by
the king as late as in 1384 was designed to maintain this old system. In
the Late Middle Ages when the Hanseatics took over the export trade and
it was centralized on Bergen, neither the Hanseatic nor other foreign
merchants were allowed to sail to the fishery districts and trade directly
with the fishermen in the north. It is difficult to say to what extent the
prohibition was respected, but there is not very much evidence showing
that Hanseatic ships took part in active fishing in the north. The text of
the law mentions illegal trade in ‘fiords and fishing villages’. Another
law text from 1425 mentions ‘the sailing of German and other foreign
men to Hålogaland, Finnmark, Iceland and the other ...skattland.’ 272 But
as a rule, and as long as Norwegian tradesmen, and after 1350 the
fishermen themselves, could bring the stockfish to Bergen, the
Hanseatics would not have any strong motive to go to the north to get
hold of the stockfish.
270 Lunden 1967: 98-99.
271 Nedkvitne 1976.
272 Johnsen 1923: 33.
151

For other foreigners the situation was very different. English fishing
and fish trade was expanding, and from the beginning of the fifteenth
century English ships fishing and trading in the north is well
documented. This is in the same period that the English fisheries around
Iceland developed, and their presence in North Norway must be seen in
connection with this general expansion. There were many complaints
about the illegal trade of the English, especially from merchants in
Bergen, and some of the documents even have reports of the plundering
of settlements in the north. In the middle of the century English activity
seems to have been reduced, partly as a result of a treaty between
Christian I of Denmark-Norway, and Edward IV of England.
According to a local source in 1591, the memory of a former extensive
English trade in Lofoten was still vivid at that time. 273
In the sixteenth and first half of the seventeenth century foreign
fishing and trade was more or less regular in the eastern parts of
Finnmark (Varanger) and at the Kola peninsula. This eastern area was
not under the monopoly of Bergen, and ships from Holland, England and
from the towns of Malmø, Helsingør, Haderslev and Flensborg
frequented the area. The merchants of Bergen protested vigorously
against this traffic, and in the 1630s and 1640s it terminated. The foreign
trade has been evaluated by E. Niemi as a positive contribution to the
population in eastern Finnmark in this period. 274
The Fishing Villages
The phenomenon of specialized and permanently settled fishing villages
occurred around 1300, or a little earlier. They were especially frequent in
Finnmark in the very north, but fishing villages grew up in many places
along the coasts of North-, Mid- and West-Norway. Nevertheless, recent
settlement studies have shown that the movement of people from
farming to fishing districts in the Late Middle Ages has been quite
exaggerated. South of the grain cultivating border (in Hálogaland) farm
settlement continued to dominate as before. It was still more covenient
for the great majority to combine farming and fishing. On the other hand
the participation of farmers in the commercial fisheries no doubt
increased, but then by prolonging the fishing seasons and perhaps
increasing the effort.
273 Lindbekk 1977: 182.
274 Niemi 1983: 151-54.
152

The area which was dominated to the greatest extent by permanent
fishing villages was Finnmark. Even if the written sources from the
medieval period are meagre, it is possible to see how the boundary of the
Norwegian population expanded north of the grain cultivation limit in
the period after 1200. The church in Tromsø, which was founded as the
northernmost in Norway around 1250, was built during the reign of
Håkon Håkonson who interestingly enough is the same king who signed
the first treaty with Lübeck in 1250. After 1250 there seems to have been
a very fast settlement development in the north, as a church in Vardø is
referred to as early as 1307. In the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries there
is both written and archaeological evidence confirming the existence of
several fishing villages in Finnmark.
In the sixteenth century documentary sources give more extensive
information about the character and the size of the fishing villages. The
taxation lists of 1520 and 1567 are the first to register the settlements
systematically, and from 1610 there are annual lists. In Finnmark the
total population of the fishing villages has been estimated at between
2,000 and 2,500 persons in 1520—in the 1590s it reached its peak with a
population of about 3,000. 275 The reduction in the stockfish price in the
sixteenth century was therefore not large enough to stop the positive
settlement development in the coastal districts. In the Lofoten area, as
well as in many other combined farming and fishing areas, the
population continued to increase up to the 1620s, while a negative
tendency at that time had emerged in the more specialized fishing areas.
There were many immigrants from South Norway and also from
abroad to the fishery districts in the sixteenth century. The surnames of
the fishermen tell us that there were Danes (especially from Jylland),
Swedes, Germans, Scots, Dutchmen and many from the Faroes and
Shetland. It follows that the fishing villages were cosmopolitan in
character. Some fishermen stayed only for a short period, but many
stayed for good. The typical fisherman of the north had a wife and
children and had settled permanently. Either he had his own fishing boat,
or he was a crew member on a boat owned by the neighbour. The small
fishing boats which were used all along the coast, were manned by 4-6
men. The fisherman and his wife would normally also be the owners of
one or two cows and some sheep and goats for the supply of milk
products and meat, and hides and wool as raw materials for clothes. In
275 Nielssen 1994: 27.
153

general the sixteenth century seems to have been a favourable period for
the fishermen and their families, in spite of the reduction in the stockfish
price during the period.
There are also many indications that the volume of the fishery and the
fish trade increased towards the end of the sixteenth century. The class of
national merchants was growing, and their intermediate role between the
fishery districts and Bergen increased again. 276 In the second part of the
sixteenth century larger ships than before, owned by Norwegian
merchants, took over much of the transport between Finnmark and
Bergen.
Growth and Depression, 1600-1750
The Traditional Stockfish Production
In the seventeenth century there are many signs of depression in the
coastal settlements. One of the most manifest is the crisis which occurred
in the late 1620s. The crisis was caused by the general rise in the prices of
cereals during the Thirty Years War and the temporary cessation in the
trade connection between Bergen and the continent due to the
involvement of the Danish-Norwegian king in the war. One can detect a
dramatic reduction of the population in almost all the fishing
villages—many of them were laid waste during these years. In the
combined farming-fishing districts the demographic consequences were
not so far-reaching, but a state of economic depression is also evident.
During the 1630s conditions were more normal, with two exceptions:
The stockfish price as compared with cereals permanently stayed at a
lower level than before, and the position of the fishing villages was
reduced for good. In Finnmark, for instance, a large part of the
Norwegian settlement moved from fishing villages to the fiords and
more emphasis was put on animal husbandry than before. Others gave up
fishing and moved to the south.
While the blame for the negative population growth in the fishing
villages traditionally has been attributed to the effect of the local trade
monopolies, historians today seem to agree that the causes of the
depression were mainly of an international character, partly due to the
lowered demand for stockfish after the Reformation and partly due to
276 Nilsen 1966.
154

heavier competition on the fish market, especially from English and
Dutch production of klipfish. 277
But even if stockfish prices fell and fishing villages were abandoned,
the population in the combined farming-fishing areas increased. The
volume of the total stockfish production also increased at least up to the
1650s. Figures of production are still uncertain in this period, but a
redoubling of the volume has been assumed from the 1570s to c1600 and
another redoubling from 1600 to 1650. Tveite has assumed that the
increase was larger in Mid- and West-Norway than in the north in this
period. 278 To be able to explain the ambiguity of the development,
Norwegian historians have assumed that the price fall made it necessary
for the fishermen to increase their efforts in the seasonal fisheries, to
keep their income at a normal level. The production increase was
therefore mainly of an extensive character. The population growth in the
farming-fishing districts was in itself a cause, and it was strengthened by
the increased energy and longer periods of activity in the seasonal
fisheries.
But after 1670 there was a marked drop in output, and the volume fell
back to about the same size as c1600. 279 The central fishery in Lofoten
seems to have gone through the largest setback—there were also
negative tendencies in the cod fisheries further south. International
competition from the klipfish was one important cause—another seems
to have been initiated by Mother Nature herself—the occurrence of cod
in close waters declined, probably due to a reduction in the sea
temperature during the Little Ice Age. The negative trend in the cod
fisheries continued till about 1750.
Herring
Herring had been the most important fish on the European market since
the Middle Ages. On the Norwegian coasts herring had been caught in
some quantity since at least the Viking Age, but only to be used in the
household. It was usually caught by seines. Because of lack of salt, it was
usually conserved by drying or smoking. In the sixteenth and
seventeenth centuries there was an increase in herring fishing for the
277 Nedkvitne 1984; see also Holm’s paper in this volume.
278 Dyrvik, Fossen, Grønlie, Hovland, Nordvik, Tveite 1979: 39.
279 Dyrvik etc. 1979: 39-40.
155

home market, and herring became an important object of exchange
between the coast and inland. 280
It was not until the sixteenth century that Norwegian herring became
a commodity on the international market. It had commenced in the
southwestern parts of the country in the early 1520s and moved north to
the Bergen area around 1550. But after 1570 the herring had disappeared
from West Norway again. Then in the period 1556-1590 the great herring
fisheries in Båhuslen took place. From 1614 there was a herring period at
the coast of Trøndelag (Bjugn-Stjørna), ending in 1641. And in the
second half of the century the herring returned again to the coasts of
West Norway. 281
In the 1600s the annual export volume was about 25,000 barrels. In
the 1700s there was a very large increase in the average figure to about
250,000 barrels a year. This was caused by the boom in the herring
fisheries especially in the period 1740-60. 282 But another important
factor was the new organization of the herring production and trade. As
compared with stockfish production, the production of herring was more
capital intensive, as salt and barrels had to be provided. 283 It could not be
done by the fishermen themselves, but had to be organized by merchants,
and in the eighteenth century the class of native merchants was
developing rapidly in Norway. The basis was the merchants of the old
towns of Bergen and Trondheim, but a merchant class developed also in
Stavanger, Kristiansund and Ålesund. After 1760, and especially after
1780, the herring disappeared again, not returning until 1808. But after
then there was a strong resurgence in the herring fisheries, increasing the
annual export volume to 1.2 million barrels a year. 284
Dried salt cod (klipfish)
The negative situation in the cod fisheries seems to have ended around
1730. In this decade there was a marked increase in output in the
southern part of the codfishing area—that is Møre and Trøndelag. The
rise came some decades later in the north—in Lofoten from the 1760s. At
the end of the century cod fishing was greatly reduced in the south again,
280 Nedkvitne 1988: 470-504.
281 Nedkvitne 1988: 473-74.
282 Nedkvitne 1988: 475-6.
283 Nedkvitne 1988: 477-87.
284 Nedkvitne 1988: 470.
156

and Lofoten reclaimed its pre-eminent position. From 1750 to 1800 the
total export of Norwegian cod almost doubled. In this period qualitative
changes both in the fishing and in the production process were
responsible for the growth (in contrast to the increase before 1650).
Klipfish, which for several hundred years had been produced by
Englishmen and Dutchmen, was introduced as a new export product
from Norway in the 1740s. In the 1750s klipfish was produced in most of
West Norway, and from the 1780s there was a breakthrough for this
product in North Norway as well. In the 1750s about 1/10 of the cod was
produced as klipfish, while the share had been increased to 1/4 around
1800. 285 The salt to be used in klipfish production was provided by the
same merchants who were central in the development of the herring
fisheries in the same period. It was natural for them to participate in
klipfish production as well when the cod occurred in large numbers at the
coasts of Møre and Trøndelag at the middle of the 1700s. And when
Lofoten took over towards the end of the century, the merchants of the
same southern towns began to send their ships to the north to buy the raw
fish and have it salted aboard.
Technology
The handline had dominated cod fishing all along the coast in the earlier
period. Longlines were introduced in Finnmark in the 1500s by
Englishmen and Dutchmen, and in the 1570-80s they were commonly in
use among the local fishermen. Further south, in West Norway, longlines
and nets came into use in the cod fisheries during the 1600s. They were
not only used in the inshore fisheries, but also in the open sea as
fishermen from Sunnmøre in the 1700s developed a cod fishery in the
open sea at the fishing ground called Storegga. 286
In the most important cod fishing area, Lofoten, longlines and nets
were not really introduced until the 1760s. Inventories from the early
1700s show almost a total absence of these fishing tools, while they had
become very common in the second part of the century. 287 But prolonged
conflict about the legality of nets and longlines immediately began, and
as a result their use was restricted to specific waters and specific periods
of the year.
285 Dyrvik etc. 1979: 158-9.
286 Nedkvitne 1988: 435-6.
287 Nielssen 1994b: 63.
157

The question of why there were such great chronological differences
in the introduction of new fishing techniques between geographical
areas, has not been fully examined yet, but factors such as the influence
of foreign fishermen, the adequacy of the local fisheries, and a
conservatism among the fishermen because of their fear of big capital in
the industry, have been emphasized.
Trade Liberalization and Increasing Fish Markets
Growth in Catch and Production, 1750-1900
With the exception of a temporary setback during the Napoleonic Wars,
the period 1750-1900 was characterized by prosperity for the Norwegian
fishing industry, especially with regard to the cod fishing sector.
From the last part of the eighteenth century major changes began to
take place in the fishing communities, especially in Northern Norway.
The trade system was gradually liberalized, first by legalizing the
establishment of local tradesmen from 1762, secondly by the founding of
the first modern towns late in the century (Hammerfest and Vardø in
1789, Tromsø in 1794). 288
Fish production increased, partly due to a growing population and an
increased number of fishermen, partly as a consequence of a change in
fishing technology. For many fishermen more effective fishing gear,
longlines and nets, replaced the older handlines.
Market conditions also improved with increasing demand for fish on
the European markets and high prices. New opportunities were opened
up for the local fishermen in the north. Their close connection with and
dependency on the merchants of Bergen was loosened. They gradually
became more able to choose between different market
alternatives—drying their fish for sale to Bergen in the traditional way,
selling it directly to sailing producers of salted and dried fish, or selling it
to local tradesmen. With increased demand in the markets these different
groups competed against each other when buying the fish. Of course, this
competition proved to be an advantage to the fishermen, as it resulted in
higher prices in the first hand.
The establishment of the so-called Pomor trade was another
important change which took place in the north in this period. 289 This
was a kind of barter between local Norwegian small scale fishermen and
288 Knudsen 1973, Hartvigsen 1979, Solhaug 1976 og Knutsen (ed.) 1988.
289 Solhaug 1976, 245-264. Niemi (ed.) 1992 has a comprehensive bibliography.
158

Russian sailing merchants from the White Sea area. The Russians
brought grain, cereals and other goods. These products were exchanged
for raw fish which was salted directly aboard the ships. In the beginning,
this barter was unlicensed and difficult for the local authorities to control.
Gradually, however, some kind of trade between Russians and
Norwegians was allowed for specific commodities, but only in a limited
geographical area and also chronologically limited to a part of the
summer.
From the point of view of the North Norwegian coastal inhabitants
this exchange of cereals for fish had several advantages. First they got a
new channel of grain delivery and were therefore not so vulnerable to
obstacles in the transport system as before. This advantage was of special
importance during the Napoleonic Wars. Second the Russian demand for
fish was strongest during the summer when the quality of dried fish was
poor and when it was particularly difficult to sell it in regular markets. In
the summer time the drying process was a hazardous undertaking
because flies easily damaged the fish by placing their eggs in the fish
meat. Besides, there was a very low demand for salted summer fish on
the other foreign markets and prices here were consequently very low. A
third advantage was that the direct barter between the small-scale
fishermen and the Russian sailing tradesmen gave a kind of
independence to the first group with regard to their relationship to
domestic tradesmen, whether they were local or distant ones.
Participation in the most important regional fisheries was also
increasing during the nineteenth century. At Lofoten, the number of
fishermen of the great cod fishery in the winter reached its peak in the
years 1888-1897. 290 In eight of these ten years more than 30,000
fishermen were participating. At Finnmark another great cod fishery was
developing from the middle of the century. It took place in the spring,
when the cod was seeking the coast for food purposes, following the
capelin, a small salmon fish. An average of 15,000 fishermen were
taking part in this fishery in the second part of the century. Many of them
came from other regions, especially from the other counties of Northern
Norway, Nordland and Troms. In Western Norway, herring fishery was
still the most important. The great herring period of the century started in
1808 and lasted for more than 60 years. When participation was at its
290 Solhaug 1976, 169.
159

maximum, between 30,000 and 40,000 fishermen were taking part in this
fishery.
Organizational Efforts, State Intervention and Technological
Modernization in the Fishing Industry, 1900-1970
Compared to other groups of workers, fishermen had difficulties in
organizing themselves in trade unions. 291 This was mainly due to
specific features in the occupation itself. The fishermen’s way of life
varied a lot along the coast and between different types of fisheries. Their
diversified problems asked for many kinds of solutions. It was not easy
to define a framework of common interests which most Norwegian
fishermen could agree upon. While the industrial workers and the
farmers formed their organizations in the late nineteenth century, the
fishermen had to wait about 30 years before they could complete the
same process. The union was not realized until 1926 when The
Norwegian Association of Fishermen—Norges Fiskarlag—was founded
at a meeting in the town of Bodø.
The Norwegian state was involved in the process leading to the
establishment in Bodø, supporting it with money and in other ways. The
fishermen were not strong enough as a group to manage the task
themselves. Similar kinds of government support were activated when
the herring fishermen of Western Norway formed the first sales
organizations only a few years later (Storsildlaget 1927, Stor- og
Vårsildlaget 1928). 292
But this initial help soon proved insufficient. If a sales organization
was to run effectively, it was necessary for all fishermen to support it.
Outsiders threatened the whole idea of selling in common. The
fishermen's organizations therefore asked the central authorities for a
more effective weapon to compel outsiders to sell their fish under terms
decided by the co-operative. The government listened to the claim and
the first law of regulation came in 1930, confined to the herring sector. It
was followed by the common Raw Fish Act in 1938 and the
establishment of the Raw Fish Association—Norges Råfisklag—in the
cod fisheries of Northern Norway in the same year.
What was the reason for this state intervention in the Norwegian
fishing industry in the interwar period? Mainly it represented a kind of
291 Hallenstvedt & Dynna 1976 and Hallenstvedt 1982.
292 Fasting 1960. Naastad 1982. Christensen & Hallenstvedt 1990.
160

experiment during a deep economic crisis. Fish prices were falling
heavily after 1920 and the fishermen could not keep up their incomes and
pay back their loans. Exports of fish was also of great importance to the
total Norwegian economy. Social and political reasons also came into
consideration. The fishermen in general were one of the weakest groups
among the workers of Norway at this time. Their income, education and
standard of living were at a pretty low level. State intervention gave them
a kind of protection against still deeper deterioration. At the same time
they numerically represented a rather significant group in the elections.
The political parties therefore competed against each other to get their
votes.
Technologically the fishing industry has gone through an enormous
developement in the last century. Looking upon the Norwegian part of
this general picture, some specific features may be pointed out. While the
steam engine was successfully integrated in the fleet of fishing vessels in
several other countries in Western Europe around 1900, this happened
only to a small degree in Norway. 293 The Norwegian fishermen in fact
heavily resisted the introduction of large steam ships and their use of
modern purse seine equipment in the Lofoten fishery. The main
confrontation came at the famous battle of Trollfjorden in 1890. The
fishermen feared a structural development away from the small scale
system where they could take part as free individual owners of boats and
fishing gear, to a large scale system where they only could participate as
employees. The central government listened to the protest and a few
years later the use of purse seine was prohibited in the Lofoten fishery.
This prohibition still exists. 294
Introduction of the combustion engine in the Norwegian fleet of
fishing vessels, however, did not meet problems of the same kind. This
fundamental change in technology started a few years later and took
place at an astonishing pace. 295 The county of Møre and Romsdal on the
western coast was at the head of the development right after 1900,
followed by Nordland and Troms around 1910. By 1920 the first phase
of the motorizing process had come to an end. The combustion engine
was much easier to integrate into the Norwegian fishing industry because
293 Brandal 1983.
294 The use of purse seine in Lofoten was allowed for a short period after World War II.
See Glomseth 1969 for a survey of the topic.
295 Thorsvik 1972, Mathisen 1982, Christensen and Pedersen 1995.
161

this could be done without changing the small scale structure of the fleet
and the structure of ownership; at least such changes were not necessary
to take the new technology into use in the first phase. A combustion
engine could easily be placed in the existing fishing boats at prices that
many of the fishermen themselves could afford with some financial
support from other fishermen in their neighbourhood, local banks, or
official funds.
One important result of the motorizing process was a kind of
specializing in the existing diversified fish-farming economy. Fishermen
who had invested their own money and borrowed the rest to buy the new
technology had to use their boats more effectively during the year in
order to secure their income. This meant that they could not work as
much at their farms as before. The farming activities in the combined
farming-fishing districts continued to be undertaken by the women even
more so than in earlier periods. In the long run this specializing process
created a division of the fishing-farming economy. Some became
specialized fishermen, some became specialized farmers and a great
number left both occupations and moved to the urban areas. The pace
and more detailed characteristics of this process have not yet been fully
examined and are still being debated, 296 but it is obvious that it went on
for many years and varied in different parts of the country. Although this
fundamental change started right after 1900 it did not end until well after
World War II.
While the introduction of the combustion engine in Norwegian
fishing industry went on rapidly and was inhibited by very few
controversies, this was not the case with two other major changes in
fishing technology in the decades after 1900. In the herring fisheries
increasing use of the purse seine equipment in narrow waters on the coast
was heavily opposed by many fishermen who still used ordinary nets or
the older seines anchored on shore. They argued that the purse seine
caught too much of the herring stock, that it scared the herring and that
their own fishing operations were disturbed and damaged. But the
Norwegian fishing authorities were not keen on regulation at this
moment. In the herring sector, they wanted the technological
developement to be as free as possible without state intervention.
296 Brox 1984, Drivenes 1982, Fulsås 1987.
162

In the cod fisheries, conflict was focused on the introduction of
Norwegian trawling in the decade before World War II. 297 Foreign
trawlers, primarly from England and Germany, had visited Norwegian
waters from 1905 onwards. Their fishing operations had resulted in some
disputes with Norwegian fishermen, but these problems did not have a
wide scope before c1925. Later on foreign trawlfishing operations in
Norwegian waters heavily increased and so did the confrontations at sea
between the trawlers and Norwegian fishermen, as long lines and fishing
nets suffered damage or were lost.
This development was caused by several factors. Cod fishing in the
North Sea experienced decreasing catches after 1922 and never
recovered its former position. The result was increased trawling
activities in other areas, such as the North Atlantic, around Iceland, in the
Barents Sea, in the Norwegian Sea and near Spitsbergen and Bear Island.
This was also possible because improvements in refrigeration
technology facilitated long distance operations on a much wider scale
than before. Norwegian fishermen had at the same time, after their
investment in mechanical machinery, been able to operate more
frequently on the outer banks than before. Both factors increased the
possibility of conflicts at sea.
The Norwegians tried to introduce high sea trawling on several
occasions after 1900, but for many years without success. The traditional
fishermen neither had the ability to invest in great steam trawlers nor
wanted such vessels to take part in the Norwegian fisheries. Business
interests in the domestic fishing industry had on the other hand a more
positive attitude. Buyers and producers of fish could secure their supply
of raw material by the use of steam trawlers. By investing in such
technology, they might be able to improve their control of the fish
delivery, which was a very uncertain factor in their business operations.
Some experiments in this field took place in the years until 1933, but
they showed to be definitive failures. Such companies soon got into
trouble and had to give up after a while. They did not prove profitable for
the investors. One main reason must have been that the firms had great
problems in competing in the European markets. The trawling steamers
in countries like England and Germany were delivering their catch at
home in order to supply their own population with fresh fish. The
domestic market for fresh fish in Norway was probably too small to
297 The presentation of the trawling controversies is based upon Christensen 1991 a.
163

sustain profits partly because of the small population and partly because
of a large supply from the ordinary domestic fishing industry. Norwegian
trawling companies therefore primarily had to base their business on
exports. But this was difficult indeed in the fresh fish market. Newly
established and economically weak, such firms had to compete with big
English and German trawling companies in their home markets.
After 1933, however, the first successful Norwegian large-scale
steam trawling companies were established. The main change compared
to earlier failures was a shift in production strategy from fresh fish to
salting the fish at sea. The dried and salted fish industry onshore stood
behind these investments, and in 1936 Norway had a fleet of 11
large-scale steam trawlers. One can talk about a kind of vertical
combination in this case, between the fishing, production and export
sectors of the fishing industry.
But successful investment in large-scale steam trawling in the
Norwegian saltfish production and trade soon made the alarm bells ring
among the traditional small-scale fishermen. The alarm bells were also
set off in the political system, resulting in the Trawler Acts of 1936 and
1939. These acts made an increase in the number of Norwegian trawlers
impossible and laid strict regulations as to the use of the existing ones.
Small-scale fishermen partly resisted the trawlers because they
regarded them as a threat to their traditional way of life and to the fish
stocks. But the main argument in the thirties both for this small-scale
resistance and for the legislator was the current economic situation. The
fisheries, like the rest of the economy, were in a period of great
depression, with decreased demand and low prices. A transition from the
traditional fisheries to the more effective big trawlers would in this
situation lead to unemployment for many fishermen. After World War II
the situation changed, with work being a limited factor, combined with a
high demand for fish in the markets. The restrictions in Norwegian
trawling were modified, although many small-scale fishermen continued
to fight against them. Even today the trawl net is under debate, but now
the struggle is mainly concentrated on the question of trawling and its
impact on the diminishing stocks of fish.
In general, the technological modernization process of the fishing
industry has made possible an enormous increase in catching capacity
and effectiveness. 298 While Norway had c100,000 fishermen at the turn
298 Pharo 1983, 71f.
164

of the century, the number fell rapidly after 1945 and was just 30,000
around 1970. At this time the fish-farming economy hardly existed any
more. Most of the employees of this sector were specialized fulltime
fishermen. Their modern equipment gave them a production capacity
which was nearly unlimited. For the first time in history they were able to
deplete the fish stocks. In the herring fishery of Western Norway this
nearly happened in the years before 1970, a development which
represented a foretaste of what was going to happen in the fishing
industry as a whole in the years to come. The natural resource proved to
be finite and had to be protected by management systems.
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Nilsen, Halkild, Bergensernes handel på Finnmark i eldre tid
(Oslo, 1966)
Nordstrand, Leiv, Fiskeridirektoratets historie 1900-1977 (Bergen,
1985)
Pharo, Helge, ‘Liberalisering, teknologisk endring og markedsreguleringer
i fiskeriene’. Norge fra U-land til I-land. Vekst og
utviklingslinjer 1830-1980 (ed. Trond Bergh, Tore Hanisch, Even
Lange and Helge Pharo) (Oslo, 1983)
Rabben, Folk ved havet. Fiskarsoge for Møre og Romsdal, I (Ålesund,
1982)
Sandnes, Jørn, Avfolkning og union 1319-1448. Cappelens
Norgeshistorie, 4 (Oslo, 1977)
Schreiner, Johan, Hanseatene og Norges nedgang (Oslo, 1935)
Solhaug, Trygve, De norske fiskeriers historie 1815-1880, I-II (Bergen,
1976)
Thorsvik, Eivind, Mekanisering av fiskeflåten (Oslo, 1972)
Thorsvik, Eivind, Ut mot hav. Fiskerihistorie for Nordland (Bodø, 1977)
Tronstad, Roger, ‘Monopolhandel i Finnmark på 16- og
1700-tallet’. Heimen 1985:3
Vollan, Odd, Den norske klippfiskhandels historie (Førde, 1956)
Vollan, Odd, Sildefisket gjennom tusen år (Oslo, 1971)
Ytreberg, Nils A., Nordlandske handelssteder (Trondheim, 1941)
Ytreberg, Nils A., Handelssteder i Finnmark (Trondheim, 1942)
168

Fisheries in Western Sweden
c1650-1950
A Short Historical, Bibliographical
and Statistical Survey
Bertil Andersson
Introduction and historical background
During the latter part of the Middle Ages and the early modern period
Sweden’s emerging great-power aspirations were almost entirely
oriented eastward towards the Baltic region. Sweden’s fishing interests
were concentrated in the Baltic and in the great lakes and rivers with
fishing largely a matter of meeting domestic demand. Around 1650 the
situation changed radically. In peace treaties with Denmark the former
Danish/Norwegian counties—Bohuslän, Halland, Skåne and
Blekinge—became Swedish territory, and new fishing possibilities were
opened for Sweden. Of great importance was the herring-fishing inside
the skerries.
The periodicity in the herring fishery has been much discussed and
many explanations have been offered from sun-spots, changes in the tide
and market conditions in Europe. Nevertheless some periods of good and
very good herring fishing can be identified: 1556-1589, 1657-1713,
1747-1808 and 1877-1896. The great herring period of the sixteenth
century created an economic boom in Bohuslän, partly due to the decline
in the Netherland’s herring fisheries in the North Sea. As a result of the
development of herring fisheries in the latter part of the eighteenth
century, a specialized class of fishermen emerged.
The fisheries in Bohuslän and the periodicity in the fishing also
affected population growth. During the latter part of the eighteenth
century the population in Bohuslän grew rapidly, the number of
fishermen rising from about 800 to more than 2,000 before declining. In
the 1880/90s the number of fishermen again exceeded the 2,000 level.
The total fishing population in the county of Göteborg och Bohus län
was 7,600 in 1870, 14,300 in 1900, 14,300 in 1930 and 13,900 in 1950.
For more figures concerning population of fishermen see the statistical
section below.
169

Up to about 1850 the fishing was performed by small boats and
simple tools such as fish-spear, hand line, and long line (backefiske), but
in the second half of the century new equipment was tested. First the
purse seine and then in the early twentieth century, the Danish seine and
the trawl. The introduction of bigger vessels and steam-power made
fishermen on the Swedish west coast able to go out on the high seas and
to fish for other species than herring. For a long time, however, herring
dominated the catches. The catches in Bohuslän in 1918 can be used as
an example; they amounted to 94 million kg, of which herring accounted
for 70 million kg, mackerel 7.5, haddock 5.1, cod 3.3, whiting 2.0, ling
1.7, saithe 1.2 and sprat 1.1 million kg.
This survey deals with the period 1650-1950. The postwar period
witnessed a host of new problems, for instance new limits for territorial
waters, catch quotas and market fluctuations, issues which are best dealt
with in a separate paper.
West Coast Fisheries in the Literature
Literature, especially scientific literature, concerning fisheries both on
and from the Swedish west coast is rather limited. The works presented
in this section are selected, some of them as examples of contemporary
writing, others as modern scientific works with very good
bibliographies. In a further section other sources, including official
printing and statistical material will be considered.
Government encouraged fishing in the North Sea, on the English
and Scottish banks, around Iceland and even off Greenland to some
degree even during the eighteenth century. The so-called
Fiskerisocieteten in Stockholm was granted privileges in 1745 for
fishing and whaling on the high seas, i.e. the North Sea and Greenland
waters (Privilegium den 12 aug. 1745 på Sill- och Torsk-Fiskeri, samt
hwalfiske- och Skäl-fång för Handelsmännerne Abraham och Jacob
Arfwedson & Compagnie) and so was the Greenland Company in
Gothenburg. These enterprises were, however, of minor value during the
eighteenth and part of the nineteenth centuries. From c1850 there was an
obvious interest in high seas fishing. Two special companies were
founded in 1858 for promoting this kind of fishing and more modern
methods, for instance salting the catches at sea—dry salting.
However, not until around 1900 was there a real breakthrough of a
modern high seas fishing. In the literature listed below this development
and these kind of fisheries are described and evaluated.
170

From the older, printed and non-printed material the following
examples are worthy of note:
Trangrums-Acten (concerning problems with waste products in
train-oil production) (Stockholm, 1784)
S. af Forselles, Berättelser om bohuslänska sillfiskerierna av år
1792 (Fiske 2, RA, National Archives) och år 1796. (MS. X 984:1-2,
KB, Royal Library)
P. Bagge, Om sillens infångande, 1773 (Fiske 2, RA), and
Rörande det ifrågawarande projektet at inrätta ett bolag til bestyrande
af sillfiske i hafvet. o. 1800-1810 (Statistiska samlingar, fasc. 1, RA)
Handlingar och protokoller rörande Kongl. Maj:ts i nåder
förordnade beredning öfwer sillfiskeri-hanteringens närmare
reglerande 1788 (Göteborg, 1789)
P. Dubb, Anteckningar om sillfisket i Bohuslän. VAH 1817
P. König, Om trankokningen i Bohuslän jemte beskrivning på ett
trankokeri. VAH (Documents of the Swedish Scientific Academy) 1817
P.A. Granberg, Staden Göteborgs historia och beskrivning, 1-2
(Göteborg, 1814-15)
As mentioned before there are few modern historical works concerning
fishing on the Swedish west-coast. Half a dozen works from various
disciplines are quite enough to illustrate the situation and outline the
development of the fisheries. With a few exceptions the authors strongly
focus on the great herring fishery of 1747-1808.
J. Sjöstrand, Anteckningar rörande den bohuslänska
sillfiskeperioden 1747-1808 (Göteborg, 1917). Sjöstrand describes this
period and the development of the fishing from an
economic-geographical perspective, just as
L. Dalén, Den bohuslänska fiskelägesbygden (The Bohuslän
Fishing Villages) (Göteborg, 1941). Geographic and demographical
aspects are treated in full. Dalén is very good in mapping the fishing
villages, and the book has a good section on modern conditions up to
c1930.
O. Hasslöf, Svenska västkustfiskarna. Studier i en yrkesgrupps
näringsliv och sociala kultur (Stockholm, 1949). Hasslöf is an
ethnologist and has a social and cultural interest in the fishing population
in Bohuslän.
171

V. Haneson & K. Rencke, Bohusfisket. Göteborgs
jubileumspublikationer 19 (Göteborg 1923) contains a short historical
survey from the foundation of Gothenburg including legal and
govermnental matters relating to fishing. Coverage of the period after
1809 is thin and of little interest. Much of the book is a technical
description of equipment, boats and processing. This section is very
richly illustrated. In another context the west-coast fisheries are
observed, namely in a very broad description of agricultural workers in
Sweden,
G. Utterström, Jordbrukets arbetare. levnadsvillkor och arbetsliv
på landsbygden från frihetstiden till mitten av 1800-talet 1-2
(Stockholm, 1947). Less than fifty pages are devoted to fishing, but the
notes on sources and literature are excellent. See also G. Utterström,
‘Migratory Labour and the Herring Fisheries of Western Sweden in the
18th century’. Scandinavian Economic History Review 1959.
In 1963 a history of Bohuslän was published. In a broad sense it is a
political history, but one of the authors is an economic historian and he
has written a part about the herring-fishery: L. Nilsson, ‘Det stora
sillfisket 1752-1808’, Bohusläns historia (Uppsala 1963). In this book
there are also short sections by Å. Holmberg and S. Boberg concerning
fishing before 1752 and between 1808 and c1960.
One aspect of herring fishing is the production of train-oil. All the
works presented above discuss that topic, but one author who
concentrates on it can be mentioned: A. Lindroth, ‘Om trankokerierna i
Göteborgs och Bohus län under sillfiskeperioden 1747-1809’. Bohusläns
fornminnes- och hembygdsförbunds årsbok. Vikarvet 1933.
Other Sources and Statistical Material
Source materials concerning fishing during earlier periods are very often
connected with trade. From Kommerskollegium (the Swedish National
Board of Trade) there are statistical series for exports and imports,
Årsberättelser för utrikeshandeln, serie 2 (RA), but also other material
Ämnesserier, Fiske (RA). In Göteborgs landsarkiv (the Provincial
Record Office) there is similar material Göteborgs och Bohus läns
länsstyrelse (County Administrative Board), Handlingar ordnade efter
ämne: Fiske (GLA). At least one of the old trading houses has material
on fishing: Ekman & Co’s arkiv, Handlingar rörande sillsalterierna,
Diverse räkenskaper rörande silllsalterierna (GLA). Another
collection of important material in the Swedish Riksarkivet RA
172

(National Archives) is the so called Kommittéarkiv for both earlier and
modern times, for instance Äldre kommittéarkiv: 502, Kommissionen i
Göteborg ang sillsalterier och trankokerier (salting houses and train-oil
factories) and 503, Kommitterade "till beredande av ett bolag för
sillfiskets idkande på djupet" (herring fishing in the deep seas).
Figures on domestic consumption for earlier periods are almost
always estimates. Demographic material can give information about the
fishing population. For instance, the Swedish Tabellverket gives yearly
data on individuals and occupations from c1750 for the parishes, for the
counties and for the whole nation.
From the older sources statistical data has been collected and
published in printed form. Most valuable are the volumes of Historisk
statistik för Sverige (Historical statistics for Sweden), Del 1. Befolkning
1720-1967 (Population), Del 2. Väderlek, lantmäteri, jordbruk,
skogsbruk, fiske t.o.m. 1955 (Climate, land surveying, agriculture,
forestry, fisheries -1955, Del 3. Utrikeshandel 1732-1970 (Foreign
trade 1732-1970) and Statistiska översiktstabeller (Statistical survey).
Exclusively for Gothenburg statistics on trade and shipping is found in I.
Lind, Göteborgs handel och sjöfart 1637-1920. Göteborgs
jubiléumspublikationer X. Göteborg 1923.
Primary statistical material is found in several series: for the
nineteenth century Commerce collegii underdåniga berättelse om
Sveriges utrikes handel och sjöfart 1828-1857 (Foreign trade and
shipping), Bidrag till Sveriges officiella statistik: A. Befolkning
(Population), E. Inrikes sjöfart och handel 1858-1910 (Domestic trade
and shipping), F. Utrikes handel och sjöfart 1858-1910 (Foreign trade
and shipping).
For the twentieth century statistical material is collected in Sveriges
officiella statistik SOS (Official statistics of Sweden): Befolkning
(Population), Handel 1911- (Foreign trade), Fiske 1914-1969
(Fisheries), Fiskestatistisk årsbok 1971- 1982 (Yearbook of Fishery
Statistics), after that on fisheries Statistiska meddelanden , J Jordbruk,
skogsbruk och fiske (Statistical Reports, J Agriculture, Forestry and
Fishery).
Information on the fisheries can also be extracted from associations
and unions, for instance Göteborg och Bohusläns havsfiskeförening
(published yearbooks from 1900) and Sveriges Fiskares Riksförbund. In
this context yet another book can be mentioned, I. Gerhard,
173

Västkustfisket. Dess organisationer och ekonomi (organization and
economy) (Göteborg, 1960).
Concluding Remarks on Literature and Sources
The references above to literature and sources are examples from a wide
range of both primary and secondary material. A more complete register
is available in printed form as a result of the work done within the
research project ‘Sydsvenska kustmiljöer’ in the Department of
Ethnology and Economic History, University of Lund: T.
Hedlund-Nyström, Svenskt havsfiske. En bibliografi, (Swedish Salt
Water Fishery. A Bibliography) I, II (Lund, 1982). The collection is
national, but all titles are labelled with a county mark—O for the county
of Göteborg and Bohuslän. The bibliography includes material up to
c1980.
Finally, one modern study is worth mentioning because of its
topic—Swedish whaling. K. Awebro, En lång väg till Arktis - forskning
kring svensk valfångst, a paper presented at a seminar ‘Nye studier i
Svalbards historie’ on June 17 1994, the University of Trondheim,
Centre for Environment and Development. Unit - SMU. Rapport nr 2/95.
Proposals for further research
There is not a comprehensive ‘History of Swedish Fisheries’ nor even a
history of the fisheries on the west coast of Sweden. The eighteenth
century herring fishery has had its interpreters, but still there is a lot to
do. How was the catching organized? What was the real character of the
units in work? How were the labour force in the salting houses and
train-oil factories recruited and paid? Who were the merchants who
organized and financed production and trade? Where did the money
come from?
For more modern periods there are wide fields for research.
Important themes are: studies of catches, boats and equipments over
time, effects of regulations of fishing waters and size of catches, access
to capital, governmental control, regulation and support of the fishing
industry, the causes and consequences of west coast fishermen going into
the Baltic, the market for fish—domestic and international, Preserving
the products—the modern factories and canneries, studies of consumer
habits, etc.
174

Statistics - some examples
Table I. Export of salted herring 1755-1805 (barrels)
Year Göteborg Marstrand Kungälv Uddevalla Strömstad Whole county
1755 404 811 - 229 93 1 537
1760 40 795 1 170 - 1 680 284 43 317
1765 99 709 21 012 5 326 16 205 882 143 034
1770 73 677 15 649 2 282 15 518 27 107 153
1775 75 508 31 457 1 115 14 334 976 123 390
1780 77 906 20 162 2 710 14 395 4 132 119 305
1785 117 227 30 159 14 003 25 744 1 922 189 055
1790 164 781 71 590 9 021 26 917 - 272 309
1795 131 078 42 078 15 910 15 367 705 205 138
1801 191 461 45 619 5 197 16 392 1 840 260 509
1806 169 626 22 686 4 090 7 211 120 203 733
Exports in 1800 and 1805 were disturbed due to the political situation in Europe.
Source: Kommerskollegium, Årsberättelser för utrikeshandeln, serie 2 (RA).
Table II. Fisheries in Göteborg och Bohus län (county) 1915-1950
1915 1925 1935 1945 1950
Catches (millj ton) 72.3 41.6 65.2 91.5 125.2
% of national catches 70.3 57.8 61.0 60.0 67.1
Numbers of:
Fishermen 5 572 5 874 6 044 6 664 6 463
Seine 1 257 2 118 3 331 4 801 5 659
Net 19 526 36 656 22 755 35 531 26 613
Hoop net, fish trap 21 190 12 339 16 017 10 308 12 746
Decked boat with
motor 27 44 351 750 825
Decked boat without
motor 378 107 11 9 2
Open boat with
motor 27 44 351 750 825
Open boat without
motor 2 369 2 263 2 059 2 322 2 311
In the last example the most striking development is the increasing use of
motorized fishing-vessels and better equipment - the breakthrough for
the seine.
175

Table III. Numbers of fishermen (F) and individuals in spare-time
occupation (ST), Göteborgs och Bohus län (county) and Sweden
1915-1950
Year G o B Sweden G o B as % of
Sweden
F ST F ST F
1915 5 572 1 906 12 608 9 872 44
1920 5 781 1 531 13 403 10 053 43
1925 5 874 1 437 12 913 9 272 45
1930 5 774 1 217 12 923 9 214 45
1935 6 044 1 317 13 519 10 279 45
1940 5 806 1 119 13 306 9 608 44
1945 6 664 1 017 16 034 9 068 42
1950 6 463 1 094 13 809 8 317 47
Source: Tables II and III: Sveriges officiella statistik (SOS), Fiske
The stability through the years is the most characteristic feature. The
numbers are high even through the years of war.
The aim of these three examples is to show the potential of the statistical
material.
176

Catches and Manpower
in the Danish Fisheries,
c1200-1995
Poul Holm
Introduction
The history of Danish fisheries is little known, and text book
assumptions are rarely founded on research. 299 A prime objective of this
overview is to establish an analytical framework, involving the
quantitative assessment of variables such as catches and manpower, and
to a lesser extent demand and distribution. The paper does not treat
ecological parameters in any depth. Future research will require the
coordinated effort of historians and biologists, involving a critical
evalution of key source material. A secondary aim of the paper is to
relate the Danish evidence both to international developments in the
fishing industry and to general Danish social, economic and political
history. It is concluded that Danish medieval and early modern fisheries
were of crucial importance to the national economy and that Danish
historians have grossly underestimated the significance of this sector.
The eighteenth century witnessed a trough in the fisheries, but in the
period 1880-1950 Danish fisheries made an important contribution to
economic growth and technological innovation.
THE MEDIEVAL AND RENAISSANCE FISHERIES, 1200-1590
The Herring Fisheries in the Sound and the Baltic
The Sound fisheries were of great importance from the thirteenth to the
fifteenth century. There were numerous fishing booths by the beach
already in the twelfth century according to Saxo, 300 and archaeological
299 This essay does not delve into the historiography of the subject as the substance of
most previous research is so thin. On Danish historiography, see my review of Danish
maritime history to be published in Research in Maritime History 9 (1995).
300 Saxo Grammaticus, Gesta Danorum (c1200), chapter 15.
177

evidence suggests the early development of the fishery. 301 Arnold of
Lübeck (c1200) ascribed Denmark’s wealth to the herring. 302 By the
thirteenth century the fish market was an international fair, serving as an
exchange link for Baltic and West European commodities. Fish
continued to play an important role even as the significance of the
general fair diminished by the latter half of the fourteenth century. The
fishermen came not only from Scania and Zealand but from all the towns
‘inside the Scaw’, i.e. the Danish Baltic waters as distinct from the North
Sea coast of Jutland, ‘past the Scaw’. But there is evidence that German,
Dutch and English fishermen participated as well, certainly in the
fourteenth century. 303 A small resident population carried out fishing
through the year, but the season for the great herring shoals was more or
less consistent with the official Scanian market from 15 August to 9
October.
The fish trade was in the hands of Hanseatic merchants whose power
rested on their control of the essential salt supplies from the Lüneburg
salt mines. The importance of the Scanian fisheries to Lübeck is evident
from the fact that this trade counted for more than the rest of the town’s
trade to Scandinavia, and was six times the trade of the town with Bergen
(which supplied the town with cod). The Lübeck evidence makes it clear
that the herring fisheries were not only taking place in the Sound, but
were spread over the whole West Baltic area from the Sound to the island
of Bornholm. In 1368 Lübeck imported around 85,000 barrels from these
fisheries (one barrel containing approximately 900 herrings in salt brine),
and in 1398-1400 the town imported almost 70,000 barrels a year. 304
Curt Weibull linked the 1368 figure to another source, the pound toll,
which the Baltic Hanse towns paid towards their common defence. The
pound toll indicates that the total imports of herring to the Baltic towns
from the Scanian market was three times the amount of the Lübeck
imports, or perhaps around 250,000 barrels. To this amount should be
added the unknown exports to the North Sea Hanse towns, probably not
less than 50,000 barrels. 305 Total exports may therefore have been
301 Ersgård, Vår marknad i Skåne.
302 Arnold af Lybeks Slavekrønike, transl. P. Kierkegaard (Copenhagen, 1885) 92.
303 Hørby, ‘Øresundstolden’, 245-72. Ibid., ‘Skånemarkedet’, 68-77. Tuck, ‘Some
Evidence...’, 75-88.
304 Weibull, Lübeck och Skånemarknaden; Lechner, Die hansischen Pfundzollisten...
305 The Flemish port of Sluis handled an annual average of 20,280 barrels from 1374 to
178

300,000 barrels from the Sound and the Danish Baltic by the late
fourteenth century. 306
Catches seem to have been decreasing through the fifteenth century.
Certainly, the King’s revenues from the market (including jurisdictional
and other income) fell from around 3,500 Lübeck marks in the 1370s
(and possibly 5,000 around 1400) to 2,274 Danish marks in 1494. The
fourteenth-century revenues must have been one of the most important
sources of income of the Danish kings, 307 whereas the importance of the
market was very much reduced by the fifteenth century—considering
125 years of inflation and the lower value of the Danish against the
Lübeck mark. In 1494, Lübeck’s imports of herring from Denmark (not
only from the Sound and the Baltic) amounted to no more than 20,364
barrels, and that was even a high point as the years 1492 to 1495
averaged only 14,373 barrels. By then the Sound fisheries were
supplemented by catches in the Limfiord and in the North Sea, as will be
related below.
Lübeck’s import accounts of 1494 may be matched by the unique
accounts of the Danish bailiff at Falsterbo from the same year. These
indicate that 762 vessels were present at Falsterbo and Skanør, catching
around 60,000 barrels of herring. 308 From the German bailiff’s account
in the 1520s 309 we know that the average vessel had a crew of five men,
so there would have been perhaps 3,800 fishermen in 1494. In addition, a
number of other sites were in use. Unfortunately, we have no evidence of
the relative importance of other fishing settlements in the Sound and the
Baltic. Ole Ventegodt, working from Christensen’s estimate of a total
catch of 300,000 barrels a century earlier, calculates that there was a
total of around 17,000 fishermen. 310 In fact, we have no evidence as to
the size of other fishing settlements, and Ventegodt’s retrospective
1380. An equally important staple was at Damme (R. Degryse, ‘De Vlaamse westvart en
de Engelse represailles omstreeks 1378’. Handelingen der Maatschappij voor
Geschiedenis en Oudheidkunde te Gent 27 (1973) 202-6).
306 Weibull’s and Lechner’s calculations need a critical reexamination. For a short,
generally positive evaluation, see Christensen, ‘Danmark’.
307 Schäfer, Das Buch..., cxlii.
308 Schäfer, Das Buch... 109, 116.
309 Published in Schäfer, Das Buch...
310 Ventegodt, ‘Skånemarkedets sild’, 17.
179

calculation must be rejected. If any guess should be made as to the size of
the fisheries, we may as well assume that Lübeck’s imports relative to
other Baltic ports in 1494 were proportionate to those a hundred years
before. We might then calculate that minimum Danish exports would
have been only around 100,000 barrels a year, and the minimum total
herring fisher population around 6,000 men; the Sound fisheries would
have constituted only a part of these totals.
In the 1520s and 1530s, the Danish fisheries seem to have recovered
briefly. Weibull accepts the claim by the Lübeck bailiff that the
astounding number of 7,515 boats or 37,500 fishermen participated in
one year’s fishery in the 1520s. Another Lübeck bailiff claimed in 1537
that the output of the Falsterbo fisheries amounted to 96,000 barrels
while that of the Danish fisheries as a whole—from the Limfiord to
Bornholm—amounted to no less than 360,000 barrels. However, he had
an axe to grind as Lübeck was on the losing side of the Danish
Reformation struggles and he may have boosted catch figures in order to
picture Lübeck’s share of the trade as trifling. 311 Lacking specific
accounts we should not make too much of these claims; on the other hand
a fourfold increase in the fisheries is not inconsistent with the generally
fluctuating pattern of the herring fisheries. Interestingly, by this time the
Danish nobility invested heavily in the fisheries and began trading
independently. 312 Not only did they provide capital but also manpower
as their peasants participated in the fisheries. The Sound fisheries were
widespread, involving the entire South Zealand countryside in addition
to a number of East Danish towns. 313
The West Coast and Limfiord Herring Fisheries, 1300-1520
In a well-researched, popular book on medieval food, Erik Kjærsgaard
pointed to the richness of supplies of saltwater fish from other sources
than the Sound, but no-one has carried his research further to evaluate the
relative importance of the various fisheries. 314 However, there can be no
doubt that the fisheries from the west coast of Jutland and in the Limfiord
became increasingly important during the fifteenth century.
311 Schäfer, Das Buch... 126-7.
312 Erik Arup, Danmarks Historie II (Copenhagen, 1932) 417.
313 Stoklund, ‘Bonde og fisker’, 101-22.
314 Kjærsgaard, Mad og øl, 57-68.
180

The wealth of monasteries around the Limfiord was based on a
combination of rich pastures and good fishing. Likewise the town of
Ribe on the west coast prospered from the trades in livestock and fish.
Whereas the Jutland bullock trade has been keenly studied, very little is
known of the fisheries. Kjærsgaard believed that for the supply of fish to
the Danish population the Jutland fisheries were perhaps of as much
importance as the Sound fisheries, as the latter were controlled by
Hanseatic merchants who salted the herring to the best standards and
thus got very high prices on export markets. In contrast, the Jutland
fisheries were largely controlled by Danish merchants, and if quality was
lower so were the prices, thus making their fish affordable to the
domestic consumer. 315
We know that the exports of salted herring from the main commercial
town in the Limfiord, Aalborg, ranged between 5,000 and 50,000 barrels
per year in the eighteenth century (table 2 below). We have no
information on sixteenth-century production, but we do know that the
basic fishing technology was the same, and therefore output may well
have been at a similar or higher level. The Aalborg merchants succeeded
in securing the herring trade for themselves during the sixteenth century.
Membership lists of the parrot guild in Aalborg show an important
German contingent by 1500, but by the middle of the century the local
merchants were almost totally dominant. Royal privileges further
enhanced the role of local interests at the expense of foreign merchants
who were only allowed to trade on certain days and might not own
fishing gear themselves. If, by 1550, the Sound fisheries had declined,
the fiord fishery compensated part of the loss, certainly as far as domestic
consumption was concerned. 316
In southwest Jutland, fish merchants exported herring to King’s Lynn
in England by the early fourteenth century, but we do not know if this
was local produce or if the merchants were selling Sound products. 317
When the skippers of Ribe organised their guild in 1478, their fisheries
were conducted both locally and off the island of Heligoland. The
Heligoland fishery was for herring, and the island attracted many
315 Kjærsgaard, 61.
316 Rasmussen, Limfjordsfiskeriet før 1825, 33-45.
317 See papers by Per Kristian Madsen and Wendy Childs forthcoming in Ellen
Damgaard et al. (ed.), Facing the North Sea, II. West Jutland and the World. Lemvig,
April 1995 (Esbjerg, 1996).
181

fishermen from German and Danish coasts by the early fifteenth century.
In 1513 sources permit us to assess the numbers. There were 116 vessels
and 1,500 men, 400 of whom were Danes, mainly coming from the estate
of Riberhus. The Danish boats sailed the longer distance, which was
probably why they were the larger, averaging nine men while the average
German crew was six strong. Fishing culminated in 1520 with 2,580
participants. Soon after catches declined dramatically, and the fishermen
no longer came in large numbers. 318
The West Coast Cod, Haddock and Plaice Fisheries, 1450-1590
The Ribe skippers’ local resources off southwest Jutland were cod,
haddock and plaice, which were caught by handline and nets. The
fisheries were established already before the middle of the fourteenth
century, and when, sometime in the fifteenth century, the longline was
introduced they seem to have grown considerably. By 1585 the village of
Sønderside had the largest fishery of all Jutland according to the Dutch
cartographer Waghenaer (“is de grootste Visserye op gheheel
Judtlandt”). The local historian H. K. Kristensen has collected a lot of
evidence on this fishery; unfortunately, an unsystematic presentation of
the evidence and the lack of a comparative approach have meant that
historians have failed to grasp the importance of his findings. Ongoing
work by Bjørn Poulsen and the present writer will bring out the wider
significance of this fishery. 319
By 1581 there were 151 fishing boats according to the accounts of the
estate of Riberhus; the largest boats (‘everter’) had a crew of twelve,
while small boats probably had no more than five, six or seven men. If an
average crew consisted of eight men, 320 the total fishing population of
the estate of Riberhus would have been around 1,200 men. The fishing
season lasted from late February-early March through June and possibly
for one or two months in the autumn. Each fisherman would have needed
at least one helper on shore (a bait girl). In addition there would have
been fishmongers, innkeepers and other tradesmen. Further north, on the
estate of Bøvling, there may have been another 600 to 800 fishermen,
judging from the relative size of the dues to the King.
318 Kristensen, Gamle sydvestjyske fiskerlejer, 21.
319 Poulsen, Bondens penge. Holm, ‘South Scandinavian Fisheries’.
320 The average seems corroborated by the evidence presented by Kinch, Ribe Bys
Historie II, 863-4.
182

In order to assess the magnitude of the west coast fishery, we need,
however, direct evidence for the trade. In view of the poor state of
research, any assessment must be tentative. The best available data are
the Ribe harbour dues which state that a total of 1.2 million dried fish
were exported in 1602; eight years later the figure was as high as 1.8
million. By 1640 the figure seems much reduced, probably not exceeding
350,000 fish. 321 We have no evidence for the amount of fish sold from
other towns and harbours. There is, however, no doubt about the
importance of Ribe. The town normally provided four times as many
mariners for the Danish navy as did Varde and Ringkøbing together, and
if this is anything to go by, the figure for the seaward fish trade of all
three towns may have been around 2.2 million fish in 1610. Even worse
we have no figures for the fish traded overland. In the cattle trade we
know that well over half of the cattle went over land, but this was
destined for Hamburg and Amsterdam. The fish trade was much more
related to the domestic market; in addition to the royal dues, all the towns
of the Kingdom and Slesvig-Holsten probably got their fish over land. If
the importance of the landward route was double the seaward route, total
trade was 6.6 million fish in 1610. Prices paid by the lord lieutenant’s
bailiff to fish merchants indicate a level of seven daler per thousand
dried haddock and three daler for one thousand dried plaice. Prices for
salted fish were about fifty percent higher, and cod, ray and other fish
fetched much higher prices. 322 By this time the tax on fishing operations,
known as the Sand Toll, was dominated by plaice which constituted three
quarters, while haddock was only one quarter of the total. 323 If this ratio
reflected actual fishing practise—which it should do unless there was
widespread fraud—we may estimate an average price of four daler per
thousand fish. The total value of the West Coast fisheries was therefore
some 26,400 daler in 1610.
This figure is easily compared to the herring trade; the merchant’s
price of one barrel of herring was usually around one daler, and total
output of the West Coast fishery in 1610 may thus be expressed as well
above 25,000 barrels worth of herring. About 1560, when the West
321 Kinch, Ribe Bys Historie II, 832, 837.
322 Kristensen, Gamle sydvestjyske fiskerlejer, 173.
323 Kristensen, Gamle sydvestjyske fiskerlejer, 40.
183

Jutland fisheries were at their height, the total output of the west coast
fisheries may have been worth around 60,000 barrels of herrings.
However speculative these calculations are, they seem to correspond
well with the (no less speculative) figures for the Sound. As a means of
control, we may compare the productivity of the fisheries: in 1494, 3,800
fishermen caught 60,000 barrels of herring in the Sound, while 1,800
fishermen caught around 60,000 barrels worth off the county of
Riberhus. One fisherman in the Sound thus caught on average 15.8
barrels, while his West Jutland colleague caught 33 barrels; however, the
West Coast fishermen would have needed as many bait-girls onshore,
thus reducing their productivity, while the related onshore labour force in
the Sound was only 174 gill-girls. More work needs to be done on these
figures, but as they stand they point out some rough measures.
In addition there was a large-scale fishery from Skagen (the Scaw),
though, unfortunately, there is a total lack of research into the history of
this major town which was almost wholly dependent on the fish trade.
By the time of the Nordic Seven Years War (1563-70) we know that
the cod fisheries were actively stimulated throughout the Kingdom in
order to provide cheap and nourishing food for naval crews.
Archaeological and archival evidence of fishing settlements like
Sandhagen and Gilleleje show that they grew rapidly at this time in
response to increased demand. They were, however, relatively small
settlements of no more than a couple of hundred inhabitants.
The Båhuslen Fisheries, 1560-1590
There was one other main source of fish. Danish economic historians
often ignore the fact that Denmark and Norway were united under the
Crown, and Danish fishermen eagerly exploited the opportunity to work
in Norwegian waters. In the 1560s, fishermen from the town of
Helsingør (Elsinore) gathered at the traditional time of the Sound autumn
fisheries and set sail for Norway instead. Along with them came
fishermen from practically all other towns in East Denmark. Quite
possibly, the Sound fisheries by this time were so poor that the fishermen
sought new grounds.
When, from 1562, the Sound Toll Registers allow a quantification of
the goods being sent into the Baltic, they show clearances of 30,000
barrels of herring per year in the 1560s from Dutch ports. Evidently the
Dutch had by then taken over a market which had earlier been filled by
exports from the Sound. But soon the Dutch domination of the Baltic
184

herring trade was to be challenged. Their fisheries in the North Sea
faltered during the 1570s, and Dutch herring exports into the Baltic fell
to an average of 5,700 barrels per year. At this juncture Norwegian
exports took over the Baltic market. The Norwegian fishery was
prosecuted off the coast of Båhuslen, the area just north of present-day
Gothenburg, which was only later to become Swedish territory. The
herring shoals seem to have started to come close inshore in 1556, but
only in 1560 was the first Lübeck tradesman recorded in the Sound Toll
Registers as returning from the area, probably having bought herring.
For the next two decades, Båhuslen was the main provider of herring
for the Baltic market. In the 1560s Båhuslen clearances were less than a
third of the Dutch (8,400 barrels per year), but in the 1570s Båhuslen
exported 34,800 barrels, six times the Dutch figure, which was by then
heavily reduced by war and piracy in the North Sea. The Dutch traders
tried to compensate for the loss of the North Sea fisheries by calling at
Båhuslen to fill their empty holds. In the 1580s, Båhuslen exported
39,180 barrels, while the Dutch were slowly improving their North Sea
fisheries, which supplied 13,080 barrels cleared from Dutch ports. 324
Exports peaked in 1585 at 75,600 barrels.
The actual fishery took place from a number of more or less
permanent settlements in the Båhuslen archipelago, which attracted
thousands of people from inland; the Danish merchants also brought
their own fishermen. A taxlist of 1589 shows that merchants from towns
like Fredrikstad, Aalborg, Flensborg, Sønderborg and Copenhagen
owned booths in almost every major fishing settlement. Other booths
were owned by local merchants from Marstrand, and also merchants
from Oslo and Tønsberg to the north, Lödöse and Varberg to the east
and Helsingør, Kalundborg, Odense, Kerteminde and Skælskør to the
south. 325 Even from Ribe, fishermen went all the way round the Scaw to
participate in the Norwegian fisheries. 326 The Crown provided naval
vessels to protect fishermen and merchants travelling from Denmark to
Norway during the Nordic Seven Years War (1563-70), and so
demonstrated the importance attached to the new fisheries. 327 While
324 Calculated from Nina Ellinger Bang, Tabeller over Skibsfart og Varetransport
gennem Øresund 1497-1660, II:A (Copenhagen, 1922).
325 Pettersson, Den svenska skagerrakkustens fiskebebyggelse, 115-16.
326 Kinch, Ribe Bys Historie II, 870-1.
327 Kancelliets Brevbøger 1564 6/9, 13/10, 18/11.
185

dried cod and haddock from the Jutland west coast was reserved for the
navy as cheap and durable food, the herring fisheries were granted a
general export licence during the war to provide the Kingdom with
much-needed foreign currency. 328
The Fresh-Water Fisheries
Traditionally, historians have neglected evidence for a widespread
medieval Danish fresh-water fishery associated with monastic and
manorial demand for a sophisticated supply of protein. There is no
Danish analysis to match Christopher Dyer’s study of medieval English
fresh-water fisheries, 329 but it seems likely that similar conditions
prevailed. In the sixteenth century there is recurrent evidence of the
building of fresh-water ponds, and indeed they seem to have been in use
certainly around Copenhagen until the early nineteenth century. The
ponds provided fresh, but expensive, fish for the dinner-tables of the
wealthy.
Summary
Danish medieval sources bring out the overwhelming importance of the
Sound fisheries, which were undoubtedly the largest fishing operation in
Europe during the late middle ages. Future research, however, should
throw more light on the fresh-water fisheries. As regards the salt-water
fisheries the sources do not permit us to assess the extent of the fisheries
outside the Sound. By the early sixteenth century the evidence for the
Jutland fisheries improves while the Sound fisheries become obscure in
the latter half of the century.
The Sound fishery culminated around 1400 with as much as 300,000
barrels and declined severely through the fifteenth century. By 1500 total
Danish herring exports, including the Limfiord, were only 100,000
barrels. The Sound fishery seems to have reached another high level in
the 1520s and 1530s and then to have contracted. Crude calculations
indicate that the total exports from the three fisheries off Båhuslen, West
Jutland and in the Limfiord together accounted for perhaps 60,000
barrels each in the 1580s, or a total of 180,000 barrels; in addition, the
328 Kancelliets Brevbøger 1563 5/4, 9/8, 16/10; 1564 3/9.
329 ‘The consumption of fresh-water fish in medieval England’. Medieval Fish,
Fisheries and Fishponds in England, ed. M. Aston, I (BAR British Series 182) (Oxford,
1988) 27-38). The only Danish treatment of the subject is Kjærsgaard’s Mad og øl.
186

fisheries off the Scaw and other smaller fisheries in the Baltic produced
unknown quantities. While the Sound fishery was probably less
productive by the late sixteenth century, the total output of the Danish
fisheries had perhaps stabilised. The fisheries had dispersed away from
the Sound, and the decline of one fishery might be compensated by
growth in another.
The Hanseatic merchants had tight control over the medieval Sound
fisheries, but they lost their grip on this important sector of the economy
in the sixteenth century. Their demise was probably triggered by the fact
that they lost the power struggle in the Danish reformation wars. In
addition, other sources of salt were opened up by the growing trade with
France and Spain. Danish provincial merchants both in the Sound and in
Jutland prospered in the mid-sixteenth century by combining the cattle
and fish trades. Indeed it seems that the relative importance of the fish
sector has been grossly underestimated in previous research which has
been almost exclusively preoccupied with the cattle trade.
THE DECLINE OF THE DANISH FISHERIES, 1550-1650
We have no precise information on the size of the Sound fishery proper
after 1540, but the general impression from the sources on Lübeck’s
trade is that the herring was caught in much smaller quantities. This was
only the beginning of a serious decline in the fisheries, both in the short
and the long terms. In the 1590s, average exports from Båhuslen dropped
suddenly to a mere one hundred lasts per year, never to recover. The
herring trade through the Sound immediately returned into the hands of
the Dutch, who had by now reorganised their trade and were able to flood
the Baltic markets with herring through the next century. We know that
one of the fishing hamlets in North Zealand, Gilleleje, experienced a
severe decline in tax revenues from fishing boats. 330 The villagers who
were professional fishermen paid an average of 340 shillings in the
decade 1585-94 (when conceivably they participated in the Båhuslen
fishery); in 1610-19 they paid an average of only 35 shillings, rising
again to 218 shillings in 1620-26 (these dues may reflect a temporary rise
in the Sound fishery); but after that revenues averaged no more than
between 20 and 60 shillings throughout the seventeenth century.
In West Jutland, the available data indicate a long-term decline. The
data come from the revenues of the King’s sand toll which was paid in
330 Frandsen & Jarrum, ‘Sæsonfiskelejer, åresild...’, 105-39.
187

haddock and flatfish (flounder). The average due was 1,000 fish of prime
quality per boat; the toll thus reflected fishing effort and not actual
catches. Table 1 lists the revenue of the sand toll of Riberhus in selected
years 1563-1643. I have translated the toll into an expression of fishing
effort by rating the worth of one haddock as that of two plaice. This ratio
corresponds roughly with the nutritional value of the two species, and
with the value relation given above (7 and 3 daler for haddock and plaice
respectively).
Table 1.
Revenue of the Sand Toll, Riberhus, 1563-1655
Year haddock plaice calculated
‘standard’ fish
1562-63* 64500 104400 116700
1581-82‡ 58890 49500 83640
1585† 41400 54266 68533
1598† 20622 73757 57500
1612† 17370 73291 54016
1622† 15564 88026 59577
1626-27‡ 17460 45852 40386
1630-31* 7512 21500 18262
1631-32* 6456 24870 18891
1635† 4824 5094 7371
1642-43‡ 8640 19920 18600
1645† 16524 16368 24708
1655† 10050 12250 16175
* Data kindly provided by Erik A. Jarrum.
† Data from H. K. Kristensen, Gamle sydvestjyske fiskerlejer (Varde, 1965)
‡ Data from Ole Degn, Rig og fattig i Ribe, I (Aarhus, 1980)
The flood of 1634 literally washed parts of the big fishing village of
Sønderside into the sea, and furthered the decline of the site. But decline
was already well under way by the time of the catastrophe.
There are many more cases. Archaeological evidence tells a story of
economic decline and vanishing villages. The village of Sandhagen,
188

which had been founded on a forbidding promontory at the island of
Langeland in the 1560s to provide cod for the King’s navy and others
willing to pay, went into decline soon after 1600 and the last inhabitant
left it sometime around 1620. Albuen on Lolland (part of the Great Belt
herring fishery) was abandoned around the same time. 331 In the
Limfiord, we do not have comparable sixteenth century evidence to
match the very good sources for the seventeenth century. When we do
get information, it suggests that meagre years early in the century were
followed by extremely good fishing seasons from 1610 to 1620. A slump
then occurred between 1630 and 1650 before a period of some stability,
at average yields, which lasted on for the rest of the century. There seems
to be no doubt that what had been a thriving fishing economy in the early
seventeenth century was rapidly shrinking.
There is probably no single explanation for the overall contraction of
Danish fisheries in the latter half of the sixteenth and early part of the
seventeenth century. Rather we should look for a combination of factors,
for both acute and chronic causes as well as ecological and economic
forces.
The sudden and almost complete cessation of the Norwegian fisheries
by 1590 implies that there was a biological explanation. Possibly the
herring shoals preferred spawning grounds outside the reach of the
inshore fishermen. If, because of a slight change in currents or salt
concentration, spawning suddenly took place in the middle of the
Skagerrak rather than in the sheltered archipelago of Båhuslen, the
Danish and Norwegian fishermen may have found it impossible to catch
the herring. Contrary to the shore-bound Danish fishermen, the Dutch
herring drifters had developed a special technology which enabled them
to conduct the required open-sea operations. The problem for the Danes
and the Norwegians was that they lacked both the capital and the skills to
acquire these vessels which would have enabled them to pursue the fish
at sea.
In the Limfiord, ecological factors played a decisive role. The barrier
between the fiord and the North Sea in the west was breached by a flood
in 1624, and the stock of herring which was accustomed to the bracken
water died when the salt water came in. Only a decade later, the dune
barrier was built up by the natural sand drift along the North Sea coast,
and the herring stock regained strength.
331 Berg et al., Sandhagen.
189

Whereas herring is a notoriously volatile resource, cod and haddock
are much more stable. Nevertheless, by the turn of the century, these
fisheries were in serious decline and remained at a low level after 1620.
The decline was not abrupt but in the long term the revenues were halved
between 1562/3 and c1600, and cut to one third again by 1630. This trend
does not correspond with any simple explanation. After all, the Dutch
fisheries in the North Sea were thriving while the West Jutland fisheries
in the same sea were abandoned. The long-term pattern was also
mirrored in the Baltic cod fisheries and in the fact that none of the Danish
herring fisheries ever recovered.
Both ecological and economic factors may explain the long-term
stagnation. The cool and stormy weather prevailing in the period
1500-1850, 332 may conceivably have altered the marine habitat and
caused a long-term decline in inshore fisheries. However, there is no
study to substantiate this possibility, and as the evidence stands there is
no immediate correlation to be found.
Turning to economic explanations, problems of prices, capital and
demand seem relevant. We know that after a peak around 1450, fish
prices fell through the sixteenth century relative to agricultural prices.
Arnved Nedkvitne has published three series of data relating the
purchasing power of dried cod to grain on the Dutch, English and
Norwegian markets, which throw light on the decline. 333 Whereas one
kilogramme of dried fish would have bought fourteen kg of wheat on the
London market around 1400, at the end of the sixteenth century it bought
only six kg. Similar evidence from Holland shows that dried cod lost
almost half its purchasing power relative to rye during the sixteenth
century, and on the Bergen market the purchasing power was more than
halved between 1400 and 1500 and halved again in the next hundred
years. A similar development concerning herring may be calculated from
the German evidence presented by Bauernfeind; between 1450 and 1550
herring lost half of its value relative to rye at the Nuremburg market, and
continued declining in the seventeenth century, except for some very
332 The period is known as the ‘Little Ice Age’ (see Encyclopedia Britannica (1994
CD-ROM edition) for an updated discussion). The worst weather seems to have
occurred in the latter part of the seventeenth century. An international climatological
project will produce new evidence on these phenomena in the next few years
(information from the Danish Meteorological Institute).
333 Arnved Nedkvitne, “Mens Bønderne seilte og Jægterne for.” Nordnorsk og vestnorsk
kystøkonomi 1500-1730 (Oslo, 1988).
190

good years around 1617-22. 334 Evidence from the neighbouring North
European countries concerning both cod and herring thus shows a
significant drop in the price of fish relative to agricultural products from
the late medieval to the early modern ages. In the Netherlands, the
relative price fall was counterbalanced by expanding deep-sea catches
from larger and more productive ships. In Denmark, fishermen were
apparently unable to afford larger ships and were pushed out of the
fishing sector by poor prices.
On the capital side, we know that the noblemen withdrew their
maritime investments to concentrate on agriculture and stockraising. 335
They also began a political battle to restrict the freedom of their peasants
to fish and trade; while the King occasionally supported the freedom of
the peasants to leave their soil, the towns supported the noblemen. In
South Zealand, the towns suffered because of the decline in the fish
trade; in Stege, the citizens had their taxes redeemed in 1582, while their
dues to the Crown were almost halved “because the fishery is so poor”. 336
The town wanted to reduce peasant sailing in order to keep the transport
of goods for themselves. The combined efforts of nobles and towns
succeeded by a series of royal commands. 337 The prohibitions meant,
however, that the peasants lost interest in keeping a boat altogether; they
not only stopped trading but also fishing. Before 1600 they had been
effectively bound to the land, and a strictly agricultural system had
developed. The late-sixteenth century development of domain manors
needed lots of manpower, and could not tolerate a haphazard loss of the
workforce for two or three months in the harvesting period. If, or when,
the herring returned in great numbers, there was only a small group of
professional fishermen to catch it. The custom of recruiting crews from
the surrounding agricultural areas had stopped, and economic interest
had turned effectively away from the sea.
Finally, we should consider the change in consumption habits which
took place after the Reformation when ‘catholic practices’ such as the
334 W. Bauernfeind, Materielle Grundstrukturen im Spätmittelalter und der Frühen
Neuzeit: Preisentwicklung und Agrarkonjunktur am Nürnberger Getreidemarkt von
1339 bis 1670 (Neustadt/Aisch, BRD: Schmidt Gmbh, 1993).
335 Ladewig Petersen, Danmarks historie 2:2, 409.
336 Stoklund, ‘Bonde og fisker’, 107.
337 F. Martensen-Larsen, Hav, fjord og handel. En studie i handelsveje i Nordjylland i
tiden indtil 1850 (Herning, 1986) 151 note 10.
191

eating of fish at stipulated times were given up. When fasting regulations
were abolished, the wealthy turned to a meat diet even on traditional ‘fish
days’. This is a general factor which helps to explain the development of
North Atlantic fisheries. Of course, demand remained for the provision
of cheap protein for the labouring poor, especially the expanding
numbers of seafarers who needed nutritious and well-preserved food for
long voyages, but the demand for well-preserved, high-quality fish
contracted. Unfortunately, very little work has been done on Danish food
consumption patterns; the indication is, however, that the change in diet
did not follow immediately upon the reformation but rather occurred
during the first half of the seventeenth century. 338
The fact that Danish fisheries crumbled while the Dutch succeeded
reminds us that the Danes concentrated on inshore, lightly salted
products (and in the case of the Sound for the top end of the market),
while the Dutch went deep-sea for large quantities of heavily-salted fish.
The superiority of the Dutch made them corner the remaining up-market
in good-quality herring. The result of Dutch dominance was the
abandonment of the Danish-Norwegian coasts by people in their
thousands, and the loss of a valuable export to the Danish-Norwegian
realm. The Dutch had returned to supply the Baltic and in the face of
their plentiful, high-quality supplies, the Danish-Norwegian fishing
industry succumbed. Dutch fisheries peaked in the first half of the
seventeenth century when 5-600 busses, each of 50 to 60 tons burthen,
worked with a total labour force of 7,000 fishermen, brought home a
total of 20,000 lasts or 240,000 barrels per year. 339
To sum up, by the beginning of the seventeenth century, Danish
fisheries were in serious decline and remained depressed after 1620. The
decline may have been triggered by ecological changes, but economic
factors must explain the long-term stagnation. The underlying factor
throughout Northern Europe was the change in consumption habits when
‘catholic practices’ such as the eating of fish at stipulated times were
given up and the wealthy turned to meat courses. But the fact that the
Danish fisheries crumbled may be explained by powerful Dutch
competition. Most seriously, merchants and noblemen withdrew capital
338 Lilli Friis, ‘Æde og drikke’, 419-23.
339 See Jaap Bruijn’s paper in this volume. Also Jan de Vries & Ad van der Woude,
Nederland 1500-1815. De eerste ronde van moderne economische groei (Amsterdam,
1995) 301-2.
192

from the fish trade to concentrate on agricultural products, thus causing a
structural barrier to inhibit future fishing. 340 Again this is a field in need
of further research.
TWO CENTURIES OF STAGNATION, 1650-1850
There is even less historical analysis of the Danish fisheries in the next
two centuries, although the source material is better. The royal cadasters
of 1664 and 1688 do contain evidence on the fisheries, but these sources
have not been systematically tapped. In the eighteenth century, various
Financial Committees collected information on the fisheries, but there
has been no systematic attempt to use this material. 341 Further, the
Copenhagen prices for foodstuffs, which are published in a readily
accessible form, contain invaluable evidence for fish prices from the
1720s onwards. 342 In addition we can draw on customs accounts which,
though very incomplete, offer interesting glimpses into the fish trade.
The only evidence for sustained high catches is from the Limfiord
where exports reached high points in the 1650s and 1750s of around
50,000 barrels. In most years, exports were very much lower (table 2).
The Limfiord herring was important to the Danish economy, more
extensive even than the West Norwegian herring exports which reached
a high of 18,000 barrels in 1642. 343 More than half the exports went to
Norway in the seventeenth century. 344 The stock of herring in the
Limfiord seems to have followed 15-20 year cycles. After the good years
at the beginning of the century, by 1626 there were 72 deserted houses in
the main fishing town of Nibe out of a total of 200 houses. In the 1640s
340 This is a line of thinking reflected in the writings of Lybecker, the most knowledgable
Danish analyst of the fishing industry in the eighteenth century. In a report to Chancellor
Oeder in 1771 (see the following footnote) he observed that the lack of fishermen was a
structural impediment to the resurgence of the fisheries, as a few fishermen would have
difficulty in locating the shoals and therefore did not benefit from the lack of
competition. Likewise modern fishing practices favour the collaborative efforts of
fishermen rather than the individualist who fishes in the dark.
341 For the purpose of this paper I have had access to Holger Rasmussen’s transcript of
the reports to secretary of state G. F. C. Oeder in 1771, (Danish National Archives, R.K.
C.A.a.V) deposited with the Fiskeri- og Søfartsmuseet, Esbjerg.
342 Friis & Glamann, A History of Prices and Wages.
343 K. Lunden, Fisket og norsk økonomi på 1500- og 1600-tallet. Heimen 17 (1976)
147-8.
344 Poulsen, Aalborg Bys Historie III, 251
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the King’s salter was able to buy large amounts of herring, and probably
the fishery was thriving, but around 1655 the market was depressed
again. 345 In addition to the main export from Aalborg the direct sales
from small towns and villages like Nibe, Mou and Hals possibly meant
that the Limfiord in the best years around 1650 had a total export of
60,000 barrels.
Table 2. Exports from Aalborg of barrels of
spring herring (recorded years, 1652-1769)
1652 54,900 1706 47,072
1662 6,480 1754 17,696
1667 2,800 1755 36,176
1670 8,586 1756 12,992
1671 8,954 1757 21,584
1672 11,013
1673 18,843 1769 5,696
1674 15,497
1675 19,904
1676 18,556
1677 12,523
1678 14,216
Source: Poulsen, Aalborg Bys Historie III and Lybecker, Forsøg til nogle...
From 1690, the fisheries picked up again. 346 In 1706 48% of a total of
53,000 barrels of salted herring went to the domestic market, only 9% to
345 Poulsen, Aalborg Bys Historie, 248-49.
346 E. Ladewig Petersen, Dansk social historie III, 150-4.
194

Norway and 43% abroad, mainly to Lübeck and Gothenburg. Later,
when the Swedish government imposed a tax of 4 rix-dollars per
barrel, 347 the Swedish trade suffered. Dried herring, about 1,800 barrels,
went exclusively for the domestic market, while uncured fresh herring
was sold exclusively to Sweden. The latter trade was very small, only
amounting to 153 rix-dollars or about 120 barrels. Nevertheless, the trade
became the object of considerable friction. 348 The buyers of uncured
herring arrived in ballast in March every year from south Halland and
north Scania. The customs accounts for 1732-34 show that the boats
were a very conspicuous element in the harbour, even though they
accounted for no more than 8-9 % of total exporting tonnage. As the
boats were quite small, every sixth arrival was Swedish. 349 The Aalborg
merchants tried to prohibit the trade in an effort to force the Swedes to
buy cured fish. When the Swedish herring fishery off the coast of
Bohuslän (formerly Båhuslen) developed after 1756, the Aalborg trade
stopped. 350 Even worse, the Limfiord herring catches dropped, so that by
the last quarter of the eighteenth century Danish writers much deplored
the state of the Danish herring fisheries. They could only watch with
envy as the herring fisheries of Bohuslän experienced an unprecedented
boom.
The other Danish fisheries of the period are hardly worth mentioning.
The once thriving fishing town of Skagen reached its low water mark
with a much reduced population living in absolute poverty. The West
Jutland fisheries now exported little to Hamburg and North Germany,
and the few hundred fishermen fished mainly for barter with the
surrounding countryside. 351 Fisheries in North Zealand were not much
better; the fishermen complained bitterly of Swedish competition when
the Bohuslän fisheries began, and certainly the number of boats in
Gilleleje declined from eighteen to seven between 1760 and 1785. The
reports to Chancellor Oeder in 1771 bristle with suggestions as to how to
counter Swedish competition, the main obstacle to progress in the
fisheries. Only in 1774 did the government issue a protectionist measure
347 Chr. M. Olrik, Afhandling om Aalborgs Handel (Copenhagen, 1773) 156.
348 Olrik, Afhandling, 237.
349 A. Monrad Møller, Fra galeoth til galease (Esbjerg, 1981) 105, 116.
350 C. Klitgaard, Aalborg Købmænd gennem 500 Aar (Aalborg, 1931) 113-14.
351 Holm, Hjerting.
195

against the Swedish imports with the declaration of 14 March that salted
and dried fish should normally be imported from Norway only. The
privilege had immediate effect, and Gothenburg’s accounts for 1776
show no exports to Denmark; its salted herring went first and foremost to
England, Germany and Russia. But the privilege did not affect the trade
in uncured herring. In 1778 the Swedish authorities assessed Bohuslän’s
export to Denmark and Norway at 30,000 barrels. 352 The trade only
stopped when the Swedish King banned the export of uncured
herring—probably in an effort to secure herring for the curers. 353 The
problems of the Swedish uncured trade were parallel to the former trade
from Aalborg—the small fish merchants stood to gain by it, while the
owners of the salt works lost supplies.
The price series from the Copenhagen fish market (table 3, fig. 1)
shows that herring became cheaper as compared to the price of bread
through the eighteenth century, thus worsening the purchasing power of
fishermen relative to peasants, provided there was no change in the social
organisation of the market (and we have no reason to believe there was).
The spring herring came from the Limfiord, while the autumn herring
most probably came from the Sound and North Zealand fisheries. The
only notable exception to the decline occurred in the 1740s. The
fishermen must then have experienced a time of rare and welcome
prosperity—and we seem to find reminiscences of the good times in the
reports to chancellor Oeder some thirty years later, which generally
lament the present and long for the good old days; they also specifically
record data which seem to corroborate a decline within the past
generation.
The latter half of the eighteenth century saw the most drastic decline
in the fisherman’s lot. This was a time when mercantile shipping
flourished, and lots of new jobs opened up for the able-bodied seaman in
world-wide trades. While no firm documentation is provided, we have no
reason to disbelieve early-nineteenth century statements that the fisheries
provided the sailors for the growing merchant marine and conversely that
the fisheries were a shrinking business by that time. Only in the last
352 O. Hasslöf, Västkustfiskarna (Göteborg, 1949) 170.
353 Lybecker, Forsøg til nogle Betragtninger over Fiskene og Fiskerierne i
Almindelighed, samt til en physisk - historisk - oeconomisk - og politisk Afhandling om
Silde-Fiskerierne i Særdeleshed og fornemmelig det, som drives i Limfiorden, etc.
(København, 1792) 303.
196

decade of the century did fishermen experience some progress in
purchasing power relative to bread prices.
Table 3. Prices and Price Relations, Herring and Bread.
Copenhagen, 1721-1800. Skilling per skippund
bread autumn
herring
fish/bread
ratio
spring
herring
fish/breadratio
1721-30 260 568 218 320 123
1731-40 272 554 204 301 110
1741-50 148 638 432 374 253
1751-60 251 530 210 261 104
1761-70 234 554 237 301 129
1771-80 413 570 138 294 71
1781-90 615 672 109 377 61
1791-1800 401 713 177 462 115
Source: Calculations based on tables by Friis & Glamann, A History of Prices.
197

Fig. 1
The reports to chancellor Oeder were collected within a few months
during the summer of 1771 and are of very varying quality. The main
problem with Oeder’s questionnaire was that the questions were
unspecific and the answers therefore too loose and often unquantified.
However, question no. 9 ‘How many fishermen are there?’ got
reasonably good answers. In the bigger fishing ports the numbers seem to
be based on well-informed observations, whereas the numbers of
agricultural workers who perhaps fished for two or three months are
necessarily given in vague terms such as ‘a few’, ‘a handful’. If we
content ourselves with the numbers of what seem to be full-time or more
than half-time fishermen we get a fairly accurate impression of the
industry (table 4).
Table 4. The Male Fisher Population of Denmark
1771, and the Number of Fisher Families 1873
Dioceses Fishermen,
1773
per cent of
total
Fisher
families
1873
per cent of
total
Aalborg 2108 46.8 3632 31.9
Viborg 225 5 609 5.4
Århus 61 1.4 652 5.7
Ribe 839 18.6 1272 11.2
Sjælland 784 17.4 2838 25
Bornholm 300 6.7 607 5.3
Lolland-Fal
ster
37 0.8 523 4.6
Fyn 154 3.4 1235 10.9
Total 4508 11368
Source: ‘Indberetninger til Finansråd Oeder, 1771’. Danish
National Archives, R.K. C.A.a. For 1873 V. Falbe-Hansen
& Scharling, Danmarks Statistik, I, 361.
The table shows that North Jutland (the dioceses of Aalborg and Viborg)
had half the total fisher population of Denmark by 1771. Unfortunately,
the sources do not distinguish between the Limfiord fishermen and those
fishing from the open coast (the figures for the Thy and Kær-Hvetbo
198

districts are rounded sums). However, it does appear that the number of
participants in the herring fisheries at the core of the fiord (Nibe-Sebber)
was no more than a few hundred and therefore the majority of fishermen
were located on the open coast (between the western mouth of the
Limfiord and the Skaw). The largest Danish fishing settlement was
Skagen which had about 400 persons participating in the fisheries plus
children. On the coast of Thy there were also several hundred fishermen,
and we know that cod fishing was increasing from this part of the coast
(possibly the only place in Denmark to experience a real expansion in
fisheries in the latter half of the eighteenth century). The other regions of
importance were West Jutland (Ribe) and (North) Zealand. 354
While the Danish government had little or no interest in the
development of the home fisheries, it took some far-reaching initiatives
towards the fisheries in Norway and in the North Atlantic dependencies
of Iceland and Greenland. A few Danish fishermen were involved in
these operations and much of the capital came from merchants and
noblemen based in Copenhagen and Altona. However, the longterm
effects on the Danish fisheries proper were negligible. 355
THE ORGANISATION OF A DANISH FISH MARKET
AND THE GROWTH OF BALTIC POUND NETTING
In the next hundred years there was some growth in the fisheries. Table 4
indicates the regional number of fisher families in 1873 as recorded in
the first systematic effort to describe the fishing industry statistically (as
a preparatory to the 1888 Fisheries Law). In 1771 the male fisher
population had accounted for around 2% of adult males; by 1873 the
figure had increased slightly to around 2.5%. Shipping had continued to
absorb an increasing part of the maritime population. More importantly,
the regional distribution of the fisheries had changed markedly. North
Jutland was still in the lead, but now accounted for only a third of the
total fishing population. West Jutland was similarly declining. No doubt
the reason was that in spite of a few remarkable attempts at modernising
the fisheries on a foreign pattern, there had been little change in fishing
technology, which was still based on long-lining and ground-seining for
cod and plaice. Surprisingly, the growth areas were to be found in the
Baltic areas of the Kingdom, in Fyn (Funen), South Zealand and
354 Holm, Kystfolk.
355 Poul Holm, ‘European and Native Ways’.
199

Lolland-Falster. In 1771, fishing in these areas had been negligible, but
in 1873 every fourth fisher family was located by these shores. The main
fishing tackle of these fishermen was the pound net, used for plaice and
cod.
We know the broad outlines of the success of the pound net. In the
1790s and early 1800s private sponsors and state officials had
encouraged a number of Zealand fishermen to adopt the herring pound
net as used in the Limfiord, and they seem to have won some support.
Then by 1825 the Limfiord fisheries experienced an ecological disaster
when the sand barrier to the west once again succumbed to a North Sea
storm, and the incoming salt water killed the stock of fiord herring. In
the 1830s and 1840s there was a veritable diaspora of Limfiord
fishermen who brought their nets to all the inner nooks of the Kattegat
and the Baltic. They were the ones mainly responsible for the success of
the pound net when they discovered that the technology might also, with
slight modifications, be used for catching cod and plaice. However, the
success would never have occurred unless a new market organisation had
developed.
Already by 1750, Bornholm fishmongers were carrying live cod in
special well-boats to the Copenhagen fish market to obtain good prices.
After 1814, they began buying live fish from North Jutland to
supplement their own catches, but they soon discovered that the pound
netters were able to serve them. From around 1840, South Funen
skippers also participated in this trade which may be considered the first
truly national fish marketing organisation. The live transportation of the
fish secured the best prices for the fishermen, and thus was the first step
taken in the modernisation of the fisheries. For the first time in centuries,
fishermen were earning good money and a century of expansion of
Danish fishing could begin.
THE BREAKTHROUGH OF THE DANISH SEINE FISHERY, 1850-1950
In 1848, farmer-fisherman Jens Laursen Væver first deployed the anchor
seine from a boat. Using his method, fishermen in the Limfiord
recovered from the loss of the fresh-water herring stock when they
discovered a plentiful stock of plaice had settled in the by now salty
water of the fiord. Government officials were concerned that the gear
was too efficient and restricted its use by the first fisheries act passed by
Danish parliament in 1857. By 1870 most officials agreed that the culling
of stocks increased the productivity of the sea, and in the next two
200

decades the anchor seine was allowed and spread along the Danish coast,
first in the Kattegat; by 1887 the gear was introduced in the North Sea
town of Esbjerg. From 1880, government loans helped finance the
building of numerous sailing vessels of 20-40 tons which were ideally
suited to the inner waters of Denmark. 356
When the railway system linked up with the new fish auction
established in Hamburg in 1887, the framework for the Danish fish trade
had been established. The west coast fishermen soon invested in
sea-going seiners which became the hall-mark of late nineteenth- and
twentieth-century Danish fishing. Already by 1900, Esbjerg boasted 71
seiners and pionereed the adaptation of the hot-bulb engine to fishing
craft. The first motor was installed in 1896, and in the next five years
most Danish North Sea vessels turned from sail to motor. 357
The development of the Danish fisheries differed markedly from the
British which was characterised by steam-powered steel trawlers. The
capital required to build a trawler was so high that almost all Britsh
vessels were owned by limited liability joint stock companies, while the
Danish wooden cutter was obtainable for many young fishermen who
became independent skippers even in their twenties. Earnings in the
Danish fishing industry were higher than in most other markets for
semi-skilled labour. 358 Around 1900, a large-scale project to imitate the
British-style fisheries in the North Atlantic failed when the owners found
that they were not able to pay a competitive wage relative to the home
fisheries. 359 In the next fifty years the mainstream of the fishing industry
therefore was made up of small and medium-sized wooden seiners
owned by single skippers. Sales were handled through a fine mesh of fish
auctions and fishmongers and exports were efficiently organised using
first railways and by the 1930s lorries to take the fish to the German
market and elsewhere. Most fish was sold fresh. From 1900 to 1950 total
full-time employment in the fishing fleet grew from 11,233 to 14,260
men. 360
356 Poul Holm, Kystfolk.
357 There is a vast literature on this subject. For an introduction, see Alan Hjorth
Rasmussen, Vejen til Nordsøen...
358 Hahn-Pedersen & Holm, ‘The Danish Maritime Labour Market’.
359 Holm, Technology Transfer and Social Setting’, 113-57.
360 Fiskeri-beretning for Året 1950 (Copenhagen, 1951) 78.
201

TRAWLING, 1950-1995
After the Second World War, the Danish fish-processing industry took
shape. A filleting industry developed in most harbours, serving the new
market for refrigerated food. Until the 1970s, the industry relied upon
home producers, but in the 1980s the fish processing industry has
increasingly relied upon European and even third world suppliers. In the
1990s, most of the small and medium-sized concerns have succumbed to
the competition of large companies, and a growing proportion of the
Danish fish market is served by imports from European plants. The
traditional seiners have fared badly in this process. Since 1970, most of
the wooden seiners have been scrapped and the future for the few
remaining seems bleak. Small trawlers and netters and very large
purse-seine netters dominate the catches of fresh fish today.
In the 1960s catches grew from 0.7 to 1.4 million tons, but in the
1980s and the first half of the 1990s catches have stagnated at around 1.8
million tons of fish. The catches seem to have reached a biological
maximum, and future growth in the sector will be related not to more but
to higher-quality catches.
The expanding element of the Danish fisheries through the last half
century was to be found in the fish-meal and fish-oil industry. Introduced
around 1950 to the harbour of Esbjerg, the industry grew incessantly
until the mid-1970s. While the fishermen at first converted their old
wooden seiners to trawling, the building of steel-trawlers began in 1957
and in the 1960s the import of large German trawlers transformed the
harbours by exerting a demand for deep docks. In the next decade,
fishermen ordered many more new home-built trawlers, only to be struck
by the repercussions of the oil crisis which made the medium-sized
150-250 GRT vessels uneconomical. In addition, catch statistics
revealed signs of over-capacity in the fleet. In the 1980s a few
supertrawlers of 400-700 GRT were built, but under the auspices of the
European Common Fisheries Policy most money directed to the fishing
industry went into scrapping even relatively new trawlers in order to
reduce catching capacity. The fish-meal sector remained confident,
mainly due to the conglomeration of three plants in Esbjerg which now
make up the largest plant of its kind in the world. 361
361 While there is a large body of biological and economic studies of recent fisheries
issues, there are few historical analyses. For an overview of the field, see Poul Holm
(ed.), Fiskere og Farvande.
202

By 1995, the fishing industry seems to be at the end of the decline.
The hope is that reduction will slow down, and a new equilibrium will be
established between catch capacity and fish resources. Employment on
board has been drastically reduced. In 1995, it is estimated that there are
fewer than 5,000 professional fishermen, or no more than 1 per thousand
of the total population. They have overcome the acute structural
problems of the 1980s, but while reduced there seems to be no new
formula to carry the industry into the next millennium. The major change
over the past two decades is that the traditionally liberal fisheries have
turned into a highly regulated and politically sensitive industry.
CONCLUSION
In the development of Danish fisheries, we have discerned five main
stages. In the medieval period, the drift net for catching herring was the
main fishing tackle; the Hanseatic organisation of the fish trade meant
that the quality of the fish cure was consistent and secured a high-priced
market throughout Europe for the Sound herring; fishermen in their
thousands from all over Denmark took part in the fishery. By the end of
the Middle Ages, Danish merchants and gentry had taken over parts of
the trade, and the royal policy of confronting Hanseatic interests was
relatively successful; Danish merchants played an important part in the
development of the new fisheries off West Jutland, in the Limfiord and
off Båhuslen.
Secondly, by the 1620s, the Danish fisheries entered a phase of
drastic decline, not to rise again for the next two-and-a-half centuries.
The decline is not fully explained in this paper, but several possible
causes are discussed. An ecological explanation may be relevant, but at
the current state of research cannot be properly assessed. Economic
factors are better known; they include Dutch competition and a shift of
Danish economic interests away from a maritime to a manorial economy
following a relative price decline for fish. The main fishery to survive the
crisis of the seventeenth century was the Limfiord herring fishery.
However, by the middle of the eighteenth century even this fishery was
severely challenged by the herring industry of the by now Swedish
Bohuslän, and protective trade measures were not enough to reinvigorate
the fisheries. By the second half of the eighteenth century, fishermen
were considered mainly as a labour reserve for the shipping industry and
as the merchant marine needed more and more men, the fisheries
declined.
203

After 1820, a third phase of real economic growth began, related to
the introduction of the pound net for a new fishery in the West Baltic for
cod and plaice and the establishment of sailing fish merchants who
brought live fish directly from the fisherman to the new urban
middle-class which developed a taste for fresh fish and were willing to
pay for good quality.
By 1870, the national fish market came into existence. All that was
left was to utilise the new railway system which brought good
communications even to the west coast of Jutland within the next decade.
When the railway system linked up with the new fish auction established
in Hamburg in 1887, the framework for the Danish fish trade had been
established. The west coast fisherman soon invested in sea-going seiners
which became the hallmark of late-nineteenth and twentieth-century
Danish fishing. By 1950, Danish seiners dominated the North Sea, and
skipper ownership stood out in contrast to the highly-centralised British
ownership structure.
In the past fifty years, Danish fisheries have experienced the full force
of a global fish market. In the process, thousands of jobs have been lost,
skipper ownership, while still significant, is much reduced compared to
company ownership, and many fishing communities have turned their
backs to the sea as industrial jobs on land have attracted young men who
would traditionally have gone to sea.
Selected Sources and Literature
Statistics for catch and manpower in the Danish fisheries are available in
the annual Fiskeri-Beretning (Copenhagen, 1889-1977). The statistics
have not been published since 1978, but comprehensive data on a wide
range of parameters are available upon requests from the Danish
Ministry for Agriculture and Fisheries. V. Falbe-Hansen and W.
Scharling, Danmarks Statistik I (Copenhagen, 1885) 358-71 summarize
the data collected by various commissions in the 1870s and 1880s. A. J.
Smidth, At vove for at vinde (Grenaa, 1987) is an edition of the first
fisheries consultant’s extensive travel notes 1859-63. There is a wealth
of archival material in the deposits of the various committees on fishery
affairs in the State Department of Finance from the early eighteenth
century onwards. This material is as yet unsorted, but will soon become
available in an online electronic catalogue, which should be of great
potential use to all areas within the Dano-Norwegian Realm. Maibritt
Bager’s ongoing study and proposed edition of the reports to secretary of
204

state G.F.C. Oeder will eventually provide a first national overview of
the state of the fisheries around 1770. Prior to 1700, data will have to be
gleaned from disparate sources, in particular customs and excise
accounts. The copy-books of the State Department of the Kingdom of
Denmark are a particularly valuable source, published as Kancelliets
Brevbøger vedrørende Danmarks indre Forhold, ed. C. F. Bricka et al.
(Copenhagen, 1885ff.) The series runs into numerous volumes covering
the years from 1551 onwards, the most recent for the year 1648. For the
medieval Sound fisheries the publications by Weibull and Lechner
referred to below provide the standard editions of the Lübeck accounts,
and Schäfer provides the accounts of the German commissioner on the
Scanian market.
H. Berg, L. Bender Jørgensen & O. Mortensøn, Sandhagen. Et
langelandsk fiskerleje fra renaissancen (Rudkøbing, 1981)
A. E. Christensen, ‘Danmark’. Det nordiske syn på forbindelsen mellem
Hansestæderne og Norden (Aarhus 1972)
Lars Ersgård, Vår marknad i Skåne (Lund, 1989)
Søren Frandsen & Erik A. Jarrum, ‘Sæsonfiskelejer, åresild og
helårsfiskerlejer ved Sjællands nordkyst’. Gilleleje Museum 29
(1992) 105-39
Astrid Friis & Kristof Glamann, A History of Prices and Wages in
Denmark, 1660-1800. 1 (Copenhagen, 1958)
Lilli Friis, Æde og drikke. Dagligliv i Danmark, ed. A. Steensberg
(Copenhagen, 1969) 419-23
Morten Hahn-Pedersen & Poul Holm, ‘The Danish Maritime Labour
Market, 1880-1900’. Research in Maritime History 7 (1994), 141-66
Alan Hjorth Rasmussen, Vejen til Nordsøen... Det søgående
snurrevodfiskeris gennembrud i Nordsøen og Skagerrak 1884-1903
(Hirtshals, 1984)
Poul Holm, Kystfolk. Kontakter over Kattegat og Skagerrak, 1550-1914
(Esbjerg, 1991)
Poul Holm, Hjerting, et maritimt lokalsamfund midt i verden (Esbjerg,
1992)
Poul Holm (ed.), Fiskere og Farvande—tværsnit af moderne dansk
fiskeri (Esbjerg, 1994)
Poul Holm, ‘Technology Transfer and Social Setting. The Experience
of Danish Steam Trawlers in the North Sea and off Iceland,
1879-1903’. Northern Seas Yearbook 1994 (Esbjerg, 1994) 113-57
205

Poul Holm, ‘European and Native Ways. Fishing, Whaling and Sealing
in the Danish North Atlantic Empire, c. 1750-1807’. Northern Seas
Yearbook 1995 (Esbjerg, 1995)
Poul Holm, ‘South Scandinavian Fisheries in the Sixteenth Century—the
Dutch Connection’. R. Dettingmeijer, L. Heerma van Voss & J.
Roding eds., The North Sea and Culture 1550-1800 (Verloren,
Hilversum 1996)
Kai Hørby, Øresundstolden og den skånske skibstold.
Middelalderstudier, ed. Tage E. Christiansen et al. (Copenhagen,
1966) 245-272
Kai Hørby, ‘Skånemarkedet’. Kulturhistorisk Leksikon for Nordisk
Middelalder 16, 68-77
J. Kinch, Ribe Bys Historie og Beskrivelse I-II (Odder, 1884)
Erik Kjærsgaard, Mad og øl i Danmarks middelalder (Copenhagen,
1978)
H. K. Kristensen, Gamle sydvestjyske fiskerlejer Varde, 1965)
E. Ladewig Petersen, Dansk social historie III (Viborg, 1980)
G. Lechner, Die hansischen Pfundzollisten des Jahres 1368 (Lübeck,
1935)
J. Pettersson, Den svenska skagerrakkustens fiskebebyggelse (Lund,
1953)
Bjørn Poulsen, Bondens penge (Viborg, 1988)
G. Poulsen, Aalborg Bys Historie III (Aalborg, 1988)
Holger Rasmussen, Limfjordsfiskeriet før 1825. Sædvane og
centraldirigering (Copenhagen, 1968)
D. Schäfer, Das Buch des lübeckischen Vogts auf Schonen (Halle, 1887)
Bjarne Stoklund, ‘Bonde og fisker. Lidt om det middelalderlige
sildefiskeri og dets udøvere’. Handels- og Søfartsmuseets Årbog
1959
Anthony Tuck, ‘Some Evidence for Anglo-Scandinavian relations at the
End of the Fourteenth Century’, Mediaeval Scandinavia 5 (1972)
75-88
Ole Ventegodt, ‘Skånemarkedets sild’. Maritim kontakt 14 (1990)
C. Weibull, Lübeck och Skånemarknaden (Lund, 1922)
206

Contributors
Bertil Andersson, PhD, is Senior Lecturer in the Department of
Economic History, Göteborg University. His main research interest is
urban history. He has written several books and articles on economic and
social conditions in Göteborg, mainly during the seventeenth and
eighteenth centuries.
Dorethe Bloch is Head of the Faroese Museum of Natural History and its
Zoological Department. She lectures in zoology at the University of the
Faroe Islands. She was awarded a PhD in zooecology by the University
of Lund, Sweden, in 1994. She is the author or co-author of several
books.
Jaap R. Bruijn is Professor of Maritime History at the University of
Leiden, the Netherlands. He has published on the history of the Dutch
navy, privateering, the whaling industry, the East India Company and on
seamen.
Pål Christensen is Associate Professor at the Norwegian College of
Fishery Science, University of Tromsø. He is the author of several books
and articles on the history of the Norwegian fishing industry and on
twentieth-century local history in northern Norway.
Poul Holm is Professor of Nordic Maritime History at the Centre for
Maritime and Regional History, Esbjerg, Denmark. His main research
interests are North Sea/Baltic maritime history from the medieval to the
modern age and North Atlantic fisheries in the early modern period.
Alf R. Nielssen is Associate Professor of History at the University of
Tromsø. Most of his publications concern the coastal settlement history
of northern Norway, especially from the late medieval period to the
seventeenth century.
Robb Robinson was awarded a PhD by the University of Hull in 1985.
He is the author of two books and several articles on the British and
207

European fishing industries. From a Hull trawling family, he currently
works as principal lecturer at Hull College.
David J. Starkey was awarded a PhD by the University of Exeter in 1985.
He has written widely on Britain’s shipping, trading, shipbuilding and
privateering interests in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. He is
employed as Wilson Family Lecturer in Maritime History at the
University of Hull.
Axel Kjær Sørensen is Associate Professor of History at the University of
Aarhus. He has published a book and several articles on the history of
modern Greenland, in addition to articles on historical statistics.
Jón Th. Thór is Head of the Icelandic Centre for Fisheries History
Research. He is the author of several books and articles on Icelandic
local history and the history of the Icelandic fishing industry. He also
lectures at the University of Iceland.
Vagn Wåhlin is docent (reader) in Nordic Cultural History, Aarhus
University, and affiliated to its Center for Nordatlantiske Studier. He is
the editor and author of several books and many articles on Danish and
North Atlantic cultural and social history.
208

Statistical data on Dutch
fishery: an overview
by Dr. Jan P. van de Voort (Vlaardingen)
This overview is based on two sources:
– The library of the Dutch Fishery Museum, Westhavenkade 53, 3131 AG
Vlaardingen
– A.C. de Vooys en J.M.G. Kleinpenning, Bronnen voor het regionale onderzoek in
Nederland (Groningen, Wolters, 1963), 134-148. The chapter on ‘Visserij’ (Fishery)
contains a detailed description of the most important statistical sources on Dutch
fishery (North Sea, Zuiderzee, Waddenzee, Zeeuwse Stromen, inland fishery
01 Verslag over de zeevisscherijen, uitgebragt door de Commissie
benoemd bij K.B. van 9 Febr. 1854, no. 57 (‘s-Gravenhage, 1854)
1750-1794: the number of herring busses per municipality for the salt
herring fishery.
1753-1756: idem for the ‘steur’herring fishery (pinks and
‘bomschuiten’).
1823-1853: idem for Scheveningen, Katwijk en Noordwijk and the
landings of ‘steur’herring.
1824-1848: idem for Katwijk and the number of ‘steur’herrings
catched.
1834-1853: landings of ‘pan’herring in Monnickedam.
1847-1853: idem for anchovy
02 Verslag (1857-1864: omtrent den staat der; 1865-1866: omtrent den
toestand van de; van 1867 af: van den staat der Nederlandsche)
Zeevisscherijen, 1857-1910 (‘s-Gravenhage, College voor de
Zeevisscherijen, 1857-1911)
Statistical data for all branches of fishery (herring fishery, hook line
fishery, trawl fishery, Zuiderzee fishery, coastal fishery, inland
fishery. In many cases specification of type of vessels.
Verslag 1857-1910: number of vessels, catch and landings of fish,
and data on the crew per municipality (‘gemeente’).
Verslag 1891-1910: number of fishing companies and their number
of vessels per fishing place (‘rederijplaats’).
Verslag 1894-1910: domiciles of the crew of fishing vessels of
Vlaardingen.
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Verslag 1907, 1909 and 1910: situation (economic and social) of
fishermen in the fishing places (descriptive).
Verslag 1889-1910: number of pupils per fishery school; since 1907
the number of examinees and passes
03 Mededeelingen over visscherij. Maandblad met gebruikmaking van
officiële bescheiden, uitgegeven door H.C. Redeke 1 (1894-22 (1915))
Monthly fish landings and prices per fishing port of the North Sea
coast, Zuyder Zee, Wadden Zee, Scheldt delta and rivers
04 Jaarverslag der Visscherijinspectie betreffende den Dienst der
Inspectie, de werking van het toezicht en den staat der verschillende
takken van visscherij, 1911-1920 (= Mededeelingen en verslagen van de
Visscherijinspectie, different numbers, ‘s-Gravenhage 1912-1921
Verslag 1911-1920: number of vessels and capacity registered by
type of vessel and per municipality. Number of fisherman per type of
fishing vessel and per fishing place and domicily. Number of fishing
companies per fishing place. For most years the results of the fishing
ports and fish markets of IJmuiden, Vlaardingen, Scheveningen,
Katwijk en Maassluis. Fish catch and landings per municipality
specified for the different fisheries. Number of pupils per fishery
school, number of examinees and passes
05 Verslag over de visscherij gedurende het jaar 1921-1938 (=
Verslagen en mededeelingen van de afdeeling Visscherijen, different
numbers; 1921: departement van Landbouw, Nijverheid en Handel,
1922-1930: departement van Binnenlandsche Zaken en Landbouw,
1931: departement van Binnenlandsche Zaken en Arbeid, 1932-1933 en
1937-1938: departement van Economische Zaken en 1934-1936:
departement van Landbouw en Visscherij, ‘s-Gravenhage 1922-1939).
From 1932 the statistical tables were published separately as ‘Jaarcijfers’
(see nr. 05)
Number and capacity in tons of registered fishing vessels, specified
per type. Fish catch and landings (per species and total) per fishing
port (quantity and value). Number of pupils per fishery school,
number of examinees and passes
06 Jaarcijfers over de visserij gedurende het jaar 1932-1939, 1946-1988
(= Verslagen en Mededeelingen van de afdeeling, vanaf 1946 Directie
van de (Viss(ch)erijen, different numbers; 1932: departement van
210

Economische Zaken en Arbeid, 1933-1934: departement van
Economische Zaken, 1935-1936: departement van Landbouw en
Visscherij, 1937-1939: departement van Economische Zaken,
1946-1960: ministerie van Landbouw, Visserij en Voedselvoorziening,
‘s-Gravenhage 1933-1961; ministerie van Landbouw en Visserij)
Number and capacity in tons of registered fishing vessels, specified
per type, since 1946 per municipality. Fish catch and landings (per
species and total) per fishing port (quantity and value)
07 Naamlijst der Nederlandsche reederijen en haringscheepen en van de
sloepen en stoomtrawlers welke de visscherij op de Noordzee uitoefenen.
Jubileumuitgave (Vlaardingen, Dorsman en Odé, 1913)
Statistics on various types of fishing vessels and ports 1750-1912 and
names of fishing companies (first year - last year)
08 Uitkomsten der Bedrijfstelling 1930. Zeevisscherij (C.B.S., Statistiek
van Nederland, ‘s-Gravenhage 1931)
Per August 15th, 1930, for 15 municipalities the number of fishing
companies and its personel. Number of different types of fishing
vessels. Age of fishing vessels
09 Statistiek van de visserij 1950-1961 (Utrecht 1951-1956, Zeist
1957-1962)
Fish landings for 8-16 places
10 Statistische gegevens over de Nederlandsche visserij, 1930-1948
(C.B.S., ‘s-Gravenhage 1949)
For IJmuiden, Scheveningen and Vlaardingen the number and
capacity in tons of the different types of fishing vessels in 1930, 1935,
1939, 1947 and 1948
11 De voorziening met arbeidskrachten in de visserij 1948-1950 (C.B.S.,
Utrecht 1952)
Statistical data on fishermen
12 Arbeidskrachten in de visserij, 1950-1960 (C.B.S., Zeist 1962)
Statistical data on fishermen
211

13 A. Beaujon, Overzicht der geschiedenis van de Nederlandsche
zeevisscherijen (Leiden, 1885)
Statistical data on whale fishery (1670-1795), herring fishery
(1750-1794, 1814-1854)), hookline fishery (1751-1790, 1844-1853),
trawl fishery of Katwijk (1821-1850) (vessels, lasts of herring,
number of whales), export of fish (1857-1883)
14 H.A.H. Kranenburg, De zeevisscherij van Holland in den tijd der
Republiek (Amsterdam, 1946)
Thesis Rotterdam. Number of herring busses per year per fishing
place, 1600-1795. Idem fishing hookers of Vlaardingen en Maassluis
1771-1795
15 J.P. van de Voort, N.V. Onderlinge Verzekeringsmaatschappij
‘Vlaardingen’ 1900-1975 (Vlaardingen 1975)
Number of fishing vessels, assured value, premium, losses, per year,
1900-1925
16 H.A.H. Boelmans Kranenburg and J.P. van de Voort, Een zee te
hoog: scheepsrampen bij de Nederlandse zeevisserij 1860-1976
(Bussum 1979)
Statistical data on lost fishermen (3245) and vessels (917) per year,
1860-1976
17 A.P. van Vliet, Vissers en kapers: de zeevisserij vanuit het
Maasmondgebied en de Duinkerker kapers (ca. 1580-1648)
(‘s-Gravenhage 1994). Thesis Leiden
Number of herring busses and lasts of herring per year per fishing
place (Brielle, Delfshaven, Maassluis, Rotterdam, Schiedam,
Vlaardingen), 1580-1648. Herring and fish prices, 1580-1648.
Statistical data on lost fishermen and vessels, 1585-1647
212