Frosty reception for Britain that kicked off the Cod War
WHEN they dumped England out of this summer’s European Championship, Iceland were the talk of the football world.
But do you remember when they went to war with Britain?
It was on September 1, 1958, that the Cod War began, the date when a series of confrontations over fishing rights between the UK and Iceland came to a head.
It was all about the North Atlantic and how far either side could go to catch fish.
At one point, Iceland even threatened to quit NATO if they didn’t get their way.
In the end, they agreed a 200-nautical-mile Icelandic exclusive fishery zone, a deal that was hugely damaging for Britain.
Thousands of British fishery workers lost their jobs, with rich fishing areas being handed to their Icelandic counterparts.
It was a British reporter who came up with the Cod War title and, for some, the only wonder was that this hadn’t come to a head much earlier.
British fishermen, after all, had been fishing in international waters near Iceland from around 1400, and the first signs that other nations wouldn’t just put up with it came as far back as 1415.
Back then, it was Norway who got decidedly irritated, mainly at the fact that English fishermen traded with Iceland despite an agreement that only Norway could do so.
Between then and 1976, there would be 10 separate Cod Wars.
Perhaps Roy Hodgson’s lads should have smelled trouble when they played in France in June?
There was nothing humorous or light-hearted about it, though – blanks and live rounds would be fired, “enemy” nets would be cut and the Hague’s International Court of Justice was involved, as were 40 Royal Navy ships, thousands of sailors and Icelandic gunboats.
West German trawlers were later embroiled, too, fishing in some of the same places our lads were.
In 1972, after an Icelandic patrol ship cut a German vessel’s trawling wire, it struck a German and left him with a fractured skull.
However, by early ’73, all this manoeuvring had to be delayed while the inhabitants of one island were evacuated and rescued following a volcanic eruption. But after that was over, they were soon at each other’s throats again.
The Greenland, Iceland, United Kingdom Gap played a big part as that was the piece of ocean that had to be watched constantly.
It was vital the UK didn’t get it wrong, as Iceland leaving NATO could have caused a massive headache. Rights were finally recognised in 1982 and the dispute was brought to a close.
Iceland leaving NATO would have caused a massive headache