Stavanger Museums Årbok,. Årg. 103(1993), s. 61-74

• Main Authors: Jaak Sammet, Es Tonian Herring Expeditions
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: Norway; Iceland
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.691.4196; http://www.museumstavanger.no/Portals/48/biblioteket/1993+Estonian+herring+expeditions+1932-1937.pdf

o n 9 June 1932, in the evening, a large crowd of people had gathered in the harbour of Tallinn to watch thedeparture of the steamship "Eestirand". This was noordinary event, since the voyage just starting gave rise to the birth of the Estonian Fishery Expedition. What made this voyage so exceptional? Although sea fishery had been a longstanding branch of activity of the Estonians, the crafts hitherto used were no larger than motorboats. Trawl fishing had not been practiced. Viewed on this background, the imprtance of this venture was for the Estonians much greater than a similar event, for example, for the Swedish fishery. For a very long time salt herring had made up the major part of fish imported (in 1931- 94 per cent). During the pre-war independence years of Estonia, salt herring had been imported mainly from England, in a much lesser extent and irregularly from Norway, the Netherlands, and so forth. The great economic crisis had only slightly affected the prices of salt herring on the home market as compared with the decrease in meat prices. In Estonia there remained a constant demand for salt herring. At the same time the cost of ships in Europe had dropped, because of the very low freight conditions in general. Under those circumstances a group of business- and seamen decided to tty their capability of competing in the hemng fishery on the offshore fishing grounds of Iceland.