Gullborg, which sits in front of the museum, was a fortunate ship. It is an oak ship built in Nyborg Shipyard in Denmark in 1946. Binni í Gröf and his family operated the vessel from the Westman Islands from 1955 to 2000. The city of Reykjavík bought Gullborg in 2008, renovated it, and is now part of the museum.

The blue sea

The Reykjavík Maritime Museum opened in June 2005, in the former building of the fish factory BÚR (Bæjarútgerðar Reykjavíkur) in Örfirisey, by Reykjavík Harbor. The museum is now part of the Reykjavík City Museum. The permanent exhibition, Fish & folk – 150 years of fisheries, shows the heartbeat of Iceland today. The fishing industry generated export earnings in the first half of the last century, which created the modern society that Iceland is today. It now accounts for about a third of the country’s export earnings. The other two-thirds are tourism and sales of clean energy to aluminium plants.

Reykjavík 14/11/2021 13:31 – A7C: FE 2.5 / 40mm G
Photo and text: Páll Stefánsson