Fisheries and Landless Workers

In the mid-18th century a few dozen fishing boats operated from Reykjavík, most of them two-man vessels. Their fishing gear was almost exclusively hand-lines. Most of the fish was dried to make stockfish. After 1800, larger vessels became the rule, and the bulk of the fleet was four- to six-man boats.

On the hills around central Reykjavík, and along the sea shore, hamlets of turf houses grew up, where landless labourers lived. They made a living from fishing and casual labour. They were originally known as tomthúsmenn (empty-house men) because they kept no livestock, and hence their buildings were "empty". Until 1872, the landless workers elected only one of the town's six councillors, although they were the largest social group in the community. By 1820, saltfish had become Reykjavík's principal export commodity; this stimulated urban development, as the process of salting was far more labour-intensive that stockfish drying. Most saltfish work ashore was carried out by women.

Real advances in the Reykjavík fisheries did not begin until after 1865. Boat builders on Engey island, just offshore from Reykjavík, invented a new hull design which made for more efficient and profitable fishing. The period from 1865 to 1890 saw the Reykjavík fishery flourish.

Three landless workers, led by Geir Zoëga, joined forces to buy the first decked vessel in Reykjavík in 1866. This was a small single-mast yacht, Fanny. In the following years, more decked vessels were added to the Reykjavík fishing fleet, but most were small. Their operations were risky and the enterprise did not prosper.

The heyday of the sailing ship in Reykjavík began in 1889 when Geir Zoëga purchased the cutter Margrét, Iceland's first large decked vessel. By that time training for seamen had begun, and the Seamen's College was founded in1891. In 1901, 53 decked vessels operated from Reykjavík and Seltjarnarnes, mostly large cutters; their catches accounted for more than half the total catches of decked vessels in Iceland. The catch went to make saltfish, which was salted and dried in the open air on patches of land around the town.