Stories
Bæring Cecilsson´s dream from 1946 and salvation from danger at sea. M/b Þorsteinn brought from Reykjavík:
I went to Hraunsfjörður, stayed ove night there, and was there for my first and last time. When I was asleep I dreamt that there was a woman in my room, she was around 50 years old, very handsome, dark haired and average in heigth. She says to me: "You will be perished if you decide to go on this trip", but I was on my way to Reykjavík to be a mechanic on a fishing boat and bring it to Grundarfjörður, where it would have it´s home base. This message from the dream woman was far from encouraging, but I say to the woman: „ You will have no saying on this and I will not be perished“. The dream woman repeated the same message all of the night, and around 06pm I woke up and could see the woman walk out of the room. She left the door half open, but I had closed the door before going to sleep.
This morning I got a ride with a jeep up to Kerlingarskarð, to get a fare with a bus that came from Stykkishólmur and was on it´s way to Reykjavík. When I arrived to Reykjavík I had to wait for 5 hours while a heavy storm was going down. Around midnight the weather suddenly becomes calm. I went back to the engine room, started the engine, and we set off in calm weather. Then the sky got brighter with no clouds, but it didn´t last long. Around 03am I went to the stern of the boat and took a nap for 2 hours. As I was walking the deck I saw 3 snowflakes falling to the deck. When I looked to the north I saw a dark wall by the horizon. When I had only been for 10 minutes in my bunker I heard a wince in the mast. The weather was from the north and it was quite dark and the wind was quite extreme. Never the less we kept going although we barely saw the tip of the stern and only a small compass to navigate from. The boat was only 18 tons with a crew of 6 men.
At 08pm in the morning the sea waves were really high and steep and they struck the stern harshly, so we turned to the starboard to get the boat to sail faster. As often before on this route I was down in the engine room, and was pouring lubricant from the lubrication jug to the lubrication chest, when I hear a voice calling: "Do not clutch the engine from the drive". I didn´t see any person, so I continued pouring the lubricant. As I was almost finishing that, another voice says: "Check the clutch". So when I came from the engine room I instructed my colleagues not to use the clutch, no matter what, and if they had to reduce the speed close to stopping, they must set the propeller blades to a steep angle.
On we kept and arrived on calm waters but the surface was sizzling white. This refered to us being close to the shore, so we measured the depth with a lead plumb in a rope, and we measured 5 fathoms and no sight of land at 11am, but then when we measured 3 fathoms we saw sand ashore. The propeller was stopped and we casted anchor.
We thought that by then that we were in pretty good situation and contacted Reykjavík radio tower to let people know our whereabout and get messages to our families that we were safe and that we would be home the day after. Then a boat from Ólafsvík calls Reykjavík radio tower saying that a boat has gone down out off the reefs. They saw that a boat had stuck down the waves and that seawater had entered into it so the engine stopped. 6 men were shoving seawater with buckets from the fish hold, then the engine had started and the boat stuck down again.
Then snow hail had blocked the vision and the boat was not seen again, but they said that they recognised the boat and it had been for several years in Ólafsvík. This all made sense. We were 6 men onboard the boat that was close to the shore off Snæfellsjökull and it would be the same boat as the one the men from Ólafsvík saw going down off a reef.
At this time I stopped the engine and started dismantling the clutch. It was absolutely clear from my observations of the clutch that the propeller should under no circumstances have been clutched from the engine. The voices told me this, and otherwise we might not have survived.
Seal hunting with bare hands by Kollur:
One sunny day my brothers Bæring and Soffanías caught sight of a seal on the rock (reef) Kollur. Then me, my other siblings and our mother were at home by our house watching. Bæring and Soffanías had agreed on trying to catch that seal. They had theyr swin suits on and headed to Kollur. Soffanías approaches the seal by the land side trying to catch it´s attention while Bæring wades out off the rock.
The seal looks at Soffanías and watches him. When Bæring reaches the seal from behind, the seal notices him and makes an attempt to get away. The seal hits Bæring´s feet. Bæring had a stick in his hands and he swiftly knocks the seal down. Actually Bæring told the story later on that he had knocked the seal out with his "bare hands", but some spicy tales are just a part of stories, and add a weebit to it. The seal catch was a well accepted food delivery. It´s skin was sold, but it was very valuable at that time.
Business trip and hazard at sea:
My brother Soffanías and Bæring once as often before went for a business trip on theyr boat Óðinn (Odin) to Stykkishólmur to buy some supplies. Magnús the farmer in Kirkjufell and his daughter Elsa caught a fare with them, as Magnús was going to buy some wooden fence poles and bags of cement.
When coming back from the journey and they had almost reached the rocks off Búðir the wind was blowing heavily from south and the wave surf was much.
A seasurf wave broke over the boat and almost filled it. The engine stopped, but those petrol engines did not withstand splashes well. They had a mast and sail on board, and hoisted the sail quickly. Seawater was shoved out in a hurry, but the boat´s board deck was rather low. When the sail was parlly up the boat managed to sail from the wind from shore.
In order to try salvage, some of the cement bags were thrown in the sea to make the boat lighter. Magnús from Kirkjufell was was not at all pleased with this as he saw only the loss of valuables. After a short sail from the south wind there comes a strong gust of wind, followed by a breaking seasurf wave. Then the farmer from Kirkjufell says: „Lower the sails - lower the sails", but my brother Bæring reacted quickly and hoisted the sail to the top.
This made the boat tear itself up from the breaking surf. This swift and correct reaction without doubt saved everyone's lives on board the boat. After this they sailed across the fjord, with the south wind in theyr back, until they landed by Eyrarfjall.
When they were just outside the farm Akurtraðir, they saw land ahead, and at that moment Bæring was able to get the engine running again. Then the boat could be sailed by motor power to the shore by Akurtraðir.
My grandfather Runólfur came to Búðir to let us know that everyone was sound and safe. The day after when the weather was better they sailed to Búðir. Later on my brothers got another engine for the boat. This was a norwegian engine of the type Drott. This was a diesel engine with glow plugs and was a lot more reliable.
Whale hunting with a musket and an iron cylinder ("Tolli"):
It was around 1910 that a large whale was spotted in the fjord Grundarfjörður, and it had been there for some time. Sailors were anxious for the whale, and it often followed the fishing boats when they were sailing out the fjord.
My grandfather Sigurbjörn Helgason had a large musket and intended to use it to shoot the whale.
He loaded the weapon with a detonator and a large amount of powder. This was topped by shoving an 6-8 inch long and 12mm wide iron cylinder in the barrel. This cylinder came from a boat's deck where it served the purpose of holding the oar, and the oar was hooked on the cylinder. In our language it was called "Tolli".
Then my grandfather had some men row the boat out to the fjord in search for the whale. He stood in the stern holding the musket, waiting for the whale to come to the surface. After some search the whale came storming towards the boat. My grandfather stood steady in the stern, aimed and shot at the whale up close. With this enormous powder load the blow from the musket was so much that my grandfather was thrown to the boat's bow and was somewhat injured. He was unable to work for 5 days after this ordeal.
The whale dived after the shot and no sign was found of it, until on the fourth day after this. Then a whale was found drifted on the shore by the farm Hamrar at the inlet of the fjord. A drifted whale was at that time considered to be one of the biggest struck of luck for people.
My grandfather was certain in his heart that this was the whale he shot, but no proof of that was at first. Many people rushed to the site to cut the whale and harvest this precious catch, but when the harvesting was finished, the cylinder ("Tolli") was found in the whale's heart.
At that moment it was known as a fact that my grandfather Sigurbjörn had shot the whale and much was spoken about this heroic act. Numerous families had substantial food for a long time. We Icelanders call an unexpected catch or something unexpected coming to you to be a "Drifted-whale luck" ("Hvalreki").
