Í Hellisfirði

Hellisfjörður is a depopulated - the last permanent inhabitants left in 1952 - fjord in the Eastfjords of Iceland, but contains some interesting bits of history. In 1901 the Norwegian company Brödrene Bull set up a whaling operation at Sveinsstaðaeyri (where the small pier is), which operated for 12 years, until the Icelandic parliament, Althing, outlawed whaling in 1913. During this time 1243 whales were processed at this site; yes, the accounting was precise. The main benefit from the whales was the blubber, used for street lighting of cities in Europe and other purposes, but the Bull brothers also set up machinery to process the meat and bones. However, this machinery arrived late, so the company resorted to storing the fat-stripped carcasses in the fjord, tethered to land by ropes, while the meat-and-bones operation was being prepared. A visitor to Hellisfjörður in 1901 describes a vision of about a hundred floating giant carcasses peppering the coast, emitting a terrible stench. Some rusty kettles and cog wheels in the grass are all what remains of this amazing history.