While Iceland is not known for getting involved in wars, the country found itself in a territorial battle with Britain. The disputes are called the Cod Wars and they lasted for almost 20 years.
First, It Was Denmark vs Britain
The seas surrounding Iceland are rich with marine life, especially fish. British fishermen had been capturing cod in Icelandic waters since the 15th century. In the early 16th century, it became common to see many of their boats off the coast of the island. While Icelandic people did capture fish back then, fishing was not a major industry in the country until the 20th century.
Before there was a dispute between Iceland and Britain, there was conflict between Denmark and the British. The Danish were worried about how close British boats were fishing near Icelandic shores in the late 1800s. As I have mentioned in previous episodes, Iceland was ruled by Denmark until 1945. Denmark also governs the Faroe Islands. The invention of steam powered boats allowed for fishermen to travel to much farther distances. This meant that the amount of British vessels around the Icelandic shore started to rapidly increase.
As a response, the Danish government claimed a fishing limit of 50 nautical miles (93 km) around Icelandic shore in 1893. The British government did not recognize the claim set by the Danish government because they felt it would damage British fishing industry. British fishing boats continued to violate the claim by the Danish government. In retaliation, Danish gunboats would fine British trawlers that they found fishing illegally within the off limits area. The Royal Navy was deployed in 1896 and 1897 to make a show of naval force, but that only increased the tension between the nations.
A Major Incident Between the Danish & the British
One major incident, sparked the countries to finally come to an agreement. Caspian, a British steam trawler was fishing off the coast of the Faroe islands in April 1899. A Danish gunboat attempted to arrest the boat for fishing within the off limits area. When the gunboat saw that the trawler refused to stop, they first fired blank shells at the boat, but later used live ammunition. The Danish did eventually capture the Caspian but there is a bit more drama to the whole incident.
Charles Henry Johnson, the Captain of the Caspian, had a little trick up his sleeve. Before he left to board the Danish gunboat, he ordered his mate to make a dash for it after he had safely made it to the other boat. Once Johnson was aboard the gunboat, the Caspian took off at full speed. The Danish fired on the boat but was not able to stop it from getting away. When the Caspian arrived in Grimsby, England, it was heavily damaged. Johnson was tied to the mast on the boat. Later, he was tried in a court on the Faroe Islands. He was convicted of illegal fishing and attempted assault, and was jailed for 30 days.
Due to this incident, the Danish and British formed the Anglo-Danish Territorial Waters agreement in 1901. It set 3 nautical mile (6 km) territorial limits for Iceland for 50 years. While it was narrowly followed, it was an important precedent. The First World War ended the dispute for a while and decreased the fishing activity around Icelandic shores.
Iceland & The United Kingdom Start to Dispute
In 1949, Iceland started the process of repealing the Anglo-Danish Territorial Waters agreement set by Denmark & Britain in 1901. Before deciding on how many nautical miles off of their shores are off limits for British ships, they waited to hear the results from the UK-Norway Fisheries case in the International Court of Justice.
It seems that the United Kingdom had disputes with a couple of Nordic countries when it came to fishing near their shores. The ruling from the International Court of Justice was in Norway’s favor. Icelanders felt that increasing their limit from 3 nm to 4nm were justified because they were in line with what Norway was claiming. The extension of their fishing limits were declared by the Icelandic government on May 15, 1952.
Not surprisingly, the United Kingdom was not happy about this. The two countries found themselves in a dispute about this from May of 1952 until November of 1956. During this time, the British trawling industry imposed a landing ban on Icelandic ships in British ports. This was a huge blow to the fishing industry in Iceland because the United Kingdom was the country’s largest export market for fish.
How The Cold War Helped Iceland
Interestingly, the Cold War ended up helping Iceland after the British imposed their land ban. The Soviet Union was seeking to gain influence in Iceland, so they started buying Icelandic fish. The United States feared that the Soviets would gain too much influence in Iceland, so they starting buy fish as well. Additionally, the United States convinced Italy and Spain to do the same.
The land ban by the British now had less of an impact on the Icelandic fishing industry. The British government eventually ended up agreeing to the 4 nm limit set by Iceland in 1956. Some scholars feel that the 4 year dispute is the first of the Cod Wars between Iceland and the United Kingdom. However, that is not widely agreed upon, so I am not counting it as one of the Cod Wars. I do think it is a victory for Iceland that is an important element when talking about the historic events that come next.
The Start of the Cod Wars
In 1958, several nations at the first International Conference on the Law of the Sea hosted by the United Nations, wanted to extend their territorial limits to 12 nm or 22 km. However, no conclusions were reached at that conference. After that, the Icelandic government took it upon themselves to create a new limit law. They extended their limit from 4 nm to 12 nm at midnight on September 1st, 1958. All of the members of NATO were in opposition to the extension.
The British made it known that their boats would fish near Iceland under the protection of their warships. They specifically planned to do this near the West fjords, north of Horn and in the south of Iceland. This was an expensive endeavor. It was estimated that the British Naval ships had used nearly a half million pounds of oil in about a month. Surprisingly, 53 British warships had been deployed to protect ships off the coast of Iceland. Being the tiny nation that it is, Iceland could only deploy seven vessels and a flying boat to help it enforce the new limits that it had claimed.
Icelandic people protested in front of the British embassy in the country. As a counter protest, the British Ambassador played bagpipe music and military marches on his gramophone.
The Fighting Begins
Ægir, an Icelandic Coast Guard vessel, tried to take a British fishing trawler off the West fjords on September 4th. However, the HMS Russell, a vessel that is part of the British Navy, intervened. The two boats collided! The following October, the María Júlía, an Icelandic Coast Guard ship, fired three shots at a British trawler named Kingston Emerald.
The trawler ended up retreating out to the high seas. On November 12, Þór, another Icelandic Coast Guard ship, attempted to stop Hackness, a British fishing boat, for not stowing its nets legally. Hackness didn’t stop until it was fired upon by Þór. This altercation heated up when the HMS Russell showed up to protect Hackness.
The captain of the HMS Russell ordered the Icelandic vessel to leave Hackness alone. He claimed the shipping vessel was not within the 4 nm limit recognized by the British government. The captain of Þór refused to back down and ordered his men to approach Hackness with their gun manned. In response, the captain of the HMS Russell threatened to sink the Icelandic vessel if it shot at Hackness. Eventually, more British ships arrived and Hackness retreated.
Iceland’s Political Leverage
Even though, Icelanders didn’t have a lot of military power to fight the British, they did have political leverage. In response to the events I just mentioned, the Icelandic government threatened to withdraw from NATO and expel U.S. forces from Iceland if this dispute was not brought to an end with a satisfactory conclusion. NATO then became engaging in informal and formal mediations to end the dispute. After the United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea between 1960 and 1961, Iceland and Britain came to an agreement.
The Icelandic fishing limits were extended to 12 nm. However, the British would have rights to fish just outside of 6 nm for three years in certain seasons and zones. The Icelandic parliament, Alþingi, approved the agreement on March 11th, 1961. The agreement also stated that any future disputes between these two countries regarding fishery zones would be sent to the International Court of Justice in the Hague. You would think that this would be the end of the Cod Wars. Unfortunately, that is not the case.
The 2nd Cod War
After a little more than a decade since the first Cod War, which was from 1958 – 1961, Iceland and Britain continued their dispute in 1972. This time it was due to Iceland extending its fishing limits to 50 nm (93 km). The Icelandic government’s reasons for extending the limits were to conserve fish stocks and to increase their share of the total catches. Originally, they had considered increasing the limit to 200 nm but it would have been more difficult for them to patrol.
The British were not a fan of this and opposed it for two reasons. First, they wanted to be able to have the best possible catch quota for British fishermen in contested waters. Second, recognition of this extension would set a precedent for other extensions.
All of the other Western European states and the Warsaw Pact opposed the extension. After meeting with African states in 1971, they supported Iceland’s decision because the Prime Minister of Iceland argued that they were fighting against colonialism and imperialism. On September 1st, 1972, Iceland started to enforce the new 50 nm limit. Many British and West German fishing trawlers violated the limit. You might recall that the agreement from the 1st Cod War stipulated that any future disputes between Iceland and the United Kingdom should go to the International Court of Justice. Well, the new leftist coalition government in Iceland said that they should not be bound to an agreement made by the previous center right government.
Iceland Starts Cutting Fishing Nets
Ægir, an Icelandic Coast Guard vessel, chased 16 foreign fishing trawlers outside of the 50 nm zone the very next day. Instead of relying on shooting at fishing boats, this time around the Icelandic Coast Guard vessels starting cutting fishing nets. From September 5th, 1972 until August 29th, 1973, Icelandic ships cut around 20 fishing nets of British and German fishing boats
Of course the British Royal Navy showed up but that wasn’t until May of 1973. The Icelandic government was so upset about the presence of the Royal Navy that they considered appealing to the United Nations. There was even a demand by Ólafur Johannesson, the Prime Minister of Iceland at the time, for the United States to send jets to bomb the British military vessels. In May, there were big protests in Reykjavík and all of the windows in the British embassy were broken
Besides cutting nets, Icelandic vessels were colliding with British ones. This happened several times during the second cod war. Unfortunately, one fatality on the Icelandic side came from a collision. Halldór Hallfreðsson, an engineer on the Icelandic Coast Guard vessel, was using his welding equipment to make a hull repair after a collision with a British frigate. The compartment filled up with sea water and he died by electrocution
NATO had been no help to Iceland during this conflict and Iceland was on the verge of leaving. On September 16th, 1973, Joseph Luns, Secretary-General of NATO, came to Iceland to talk with Icelandic ministers. After many talks, British warships went back home on October 3rd.
On November 8th, 1973 an agreement was signed. It stated that British fishing activities were restricted to certain areas within the 50 nm limit and their annual catch of fish could not be more than 130,000 tons.
The 3rd Cod War
Unfortunately, peace didn’t last long between Iceland and the United Kingdom. Well, not as long as it did between the first and second cod wars. Several nations at the third United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea supported a 100 nm limit to territorial waters. Well, the Icelandic government took it a step further by announcing that they planned to extend the limit to 200 nm on July 15, 1975.
This is the last of the Cod Wars and it was quite intense. Many incidents of ramming and cutting fishing nets happened over the seven month dispute. The most serious happened on December 11th, 1975. Þór, an Icelandic Coast Guard vessel, found three British ships within the 200 nm exclusion zone.
They were Lloydsman, a tugboat that was three times the size of Þór, Star Aquarius, an oil rig supply vessel for British ships, and her sister ship, Star Polaris. They were sheltering themselves from gale force winds about 12 nm from Iceland’s shore. When the captain of Þór ordered the boats to leave, it seemed as if they would comply. However, the Star Aquaris allegedly hit Þór as the Icelandic ship tried to overtake her. When Þór tried to increase speed, it was hit by Lloydsman. The Icelandic ship suffered a considerable amount of damage.
When the Star Aquarius came back around, Þór first fired a blank shot. That didn’t stop the British boat from hitting Þór a second time. Þór then shot a live round that hit the bow of the Star Aquarius. After that, the British boats retreated. The British claim that the Icelanders were trying to board one of the boats, so they hit Þór. Niels Sigurdsson, the Icelandic Ambassador in London at the time, claims that Þór had been acting in self defense after being rammed by British boats.
More British Military Vessels Show Up
The United Kingdom’s response to this incident was to deploy a large fleet of warships to Iceland. Overall, the British sent a total of 22 frigates, 7 supply ships, 9 tugboats, and 3 support boats to protect it’s fishing trawlers.
The Icelandic government attempted to increase its ability to defend its territory by trying to get acquire a U.S. Asheville class gunboat but Henry Kissinger said no. Later, they tried to get a Soviet Mirka class warship but that didn’t happen either.
As I had mentioned earlier, there was one fatality on the Icelandic side during the 2nd Cod War. During the 3rd Cod War in February 1976, the British Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food claimed that a fisherman from Grimsby was hit by a thick rope or hawser while an Icelandic vessel was cutting its nets. The minister said he suffered serious injuries and later died. However, this doesn’t seem to be corroborated by any historical resources. Only one official fatality was confirmed during these disputes. There had been a total of 55 ship ramming incidents during the third cod war.
Serious international intervention happened only after Iceland had threatened to close the NATO base in Keflavík. If that happened, NATO’s ability to deny the Soviet Union access to the Atlantic Ocean would have been severely weakened. In the end, the British government conceded. Its fisherman boats would stay outside of the 200 nm limit for the time being.
One More Ramming & The Final Agreement
The British said they would stay outside of the 200 nm limit. However, on May 6, 1976, there was one last incident between the Icelandic Coast Guard and the British Royal Navy. Týr, an Icelandic ship, was cutting the net of the Carlisle when the HMS Falmouth, a British frigate, rammed Týr. The Icelandic ship almost capsized, but it was able to finish cutting the nets before it was rammed again. Týr was heavily damaged and had less fire power than the British ship, but its crew manned the guns. The dispute didn’t go much further but it was certainly an epic and scary battle.
Finally, an agreement was reached between the U.K. and Iceland in a NATO mediated session on June 1st, 1976. Iceland agreed to allow 24 British fishing ships to be within the 200 nm limit. However, they could only fish a total of 30,000 tons
Iceland’s strategic location, political leverage, and grit enabled this small nation to defend itself against one of the top nations in the world. Even though, the British fishing industry was severely impacted by the results of the cod wars, there doesn’t seem to be an overwhelming sense of negative feelings between the nations today. However, if there is a football match between the countries, or a more minor fishing dispute, the Cod Wars are inevitably mentioned.
Random Fact of the Episode
At the end of the 2nd Cod War, British fishing trawlers played Rule Britannia over their radios. They also played the Party’s Over by Willie Nelson when they had to leave the limit that Iceland had imposed.
Icelandic Word of the Episode
Þorskastríðin – Cod Wars
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