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

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.
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