for fishing around Iceland were built in Holland, Great
Britain and Germany in the 1920s, and these vessels were the
first in the Danish fishing fleet to be powered by diesel en-
gines. Only in the 1950s was there a breakthrough in favour
of steel. At first, Danish shipbuilders imported steel hulls
from Holland and equipped the fishing boats in the Danish
yards. Then the first Danish-built steel fishing boat for the
Danish fleet saw the light of day in Esbjerg in 1958. Dur-
ing the 1960s, fishing boats were increasingly constructed
in steel, and during the 1970s the building of wooden ships
was finally abandoned. The reluctance to abandon wooden
ships can be explained by the structure of the Danish sea
fisheries, by the not so obvious advantage of using the
new technology, and perhaps some degree of conservatism
among the fishermen, and the transition was perhaps pro-
longed by World War II. The Danish fishing fleet in the first
half of the twentieth century consisted of small individually
owned Danish seine fishing vessels, and the fisheries were in
Denmark’s coastal waters. This was unlike the British model
copied by other northern European countries, with large
steam trawlers fishing in the North Sea. There was no need
for the larger vessels in the Danish fleet until the North Sea
fisheries were in focus, and because of a revival of the seine
fisheries, this only happened after World War II. The small
wooden ship had a reputation for being more resistant to the
impact of waves and rough seas, and the steel ship only be-
came a profitable investment at a larger size than the Danish
seine fishing vessels (more than about 70 GRT).
At the turn of the century, the leading sites in Denmark
for building wooden cutters were the fishing ports of Frede-
rikshavn and Esbjerg. Except for an early production in
Frederikshavn of steel trawlers exported to South America,
the first Danish steel cutters were built in Esbjerg in 1958.
Esbjerg had become the largest fishing port in Denmark at
the beginning of the century, and this created a basis for ship-
yards for repairs and new buildings. The port never gained
a large steel shipyard, but it continuously had a competi-
tive structure of 5-8 smaller yards. A typical example was
Esbjerg Shipyard and Machine Shop (later Esmadan), initi-
ated as a wooden shipyard in 1949 at the site where another
shipyard had existed since 1900. The shipyards in Esbjerg
were all located by, and used, the state slipways in Esbjerg,
and when the slipways were moved in the 1930s and again
in the 1960s because of port enlargements, the shipyards
followed. Esbjerg Shipyard began building steel vessels in
1968-69 but continued a parallel production of wooden ves-
sels, delivering two of each a year. But steel ships are big
investments, and problems with payment from costumers
sometimes caused the yard some difficulties. The yard was
liquidated and reconstructed both in 1973 and in 1977, but it
never survived the last blow and was finally closed in 1980.
One reason was that as part of a new strategy, the shipyard
was engaged with a shipping company that ordered several
new ships, and when the company collapsed and stopped
payments, the yard found itself in serious trouble. Another
problem was that leading persons in the companies involved
were guilty of fraud and were prosecuted accordingly.
The crisis in Danish fisheries in the 1980s, which resulted
in the beginning of the disappearance of the fishing fleet
from the former largest fishing port in Denmark, removed
the basis for the shipyards and they eventually closed one by
one. The last new building yard closed down in 2002, and
the last surviving building activities are now for offshore
activities – Esbjerg Oilfield Services (EOS) – at the plant of
the former Esbjerg Shipyard.
Nybygningen GURLI fra S.I. Kjeldsens Skibsbyggeri fremvises på
beddingen i den gamle fiskerihavn ca. 1941.
49
