Icel. Trawlers, war declaration etc (fwd)
January 2nd, 2009 From
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>Date: Wed, 18 Jun 1997 20:33:11 -0500 (CDT)
>From: “Louis R. Coatney”
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>To: mahan@microwrks.com
>Subject: Re: Icel. Trawlers, war declaration etc (fwd)
>Precendence: bulk
>Sender: mahan-owner@microworks.net
>
>
>My mail is down, for the time being. I can send but not receive.
> ‘Thought you folks might enjoy the following. 🙂
>
>Lou Coatney
>
>———- Forwarded message ———-
>Date: Thu, 13 Jan 1994 23:25:27 GMT
>From: Gudmundur H
>Subject: Re: Icel. Trawlers, war declaration etc
>
> > Gudmundur,
> > Thank you for filling us in on Icelandic losses. You have
> > much to offer WWII-L, I think.
> > Please do tell us about the mysterious loss of 2 Icelandic
> > trawlers. We are always keen on what our Perfidious Albionese
> > brethren have been up to. Wasn’t there a more recent confronta-
> > tion at sea, as well? How does Iceland go about declaring war?
> > (… other than by gathering down on the strand by the drakke
> > and clapping your swords on your shields, of course.)
> >
> > Lou Coatney, Western Illinois University Library
>
> Lou,
> I am still looking into the fates of those trawlers that went
>down with all hands during the war (I dont want to say something that I
>cannot stand by as I was told that there were SHARP people on this list
>:) but they both were on a journey to Britain to sell their fish
>(Icelandic trawlers made over 2000 journeys during the war to the UK).
>These fish transports were vital to the UK as their own fishing fleets
>had largely been drafted into the RN for varius duties.
> The only think that I can think of about those “more recent
>confrontation” is the two “cod wars” that we won against the British in
>1972 and 1976 🙂 We had only 4 mini-gunboats that were frequently struck
>by Britsh frigates and tug boats (manned by harbour criminals). The
>Britsh lost due to our resistance and also due to heavy international
>pressure from both the NATO and the UN. They suffered amazing damage as
>one frigate was heavily damaged after trying to sink our Tyr (commanded
>by our best captain) and another frigate was also much damaged.
> I dont think that Iceland has any declaration of war statement
>as we dont have any army, no air force and just 2 active gunboats (with
>WWI danish guns). We have a contract with the US that says that if we
>are attacked then Uncle Sam will come to our aid (I think we are the
>only country that has this kind of deal with the US, it was signed in
>1948 I think and is for 99 years).
> BTW, We dropped our Shields and Swords in the 14th century
>mostly and then the Wiking tradition died and the Danish came and
>stepped all over us.
> Gudmundur H