It has been announced over the weekend that the Coast Guard Patrol ship Ægir will be sold after 50 years of service, mbl reports.
The ship, which lies in dock at Skarfabakki, was built in Denmark in 1968 and played a major role in the last two Cod Wars against the United Kingdom. Ægir then went on to save countless ships and lives over the next decades. However, the ship has not been used in recent years and so the decision has been made to sell it.
Halldór B. Nellett, captain of the Coast Guard, first started working on Ægir in 1972, when he was 16 years old and says that it’s a great shame that more use hasn’t been made of the vessel. “This is a magnificent ship,” Halldór says, “One of the best I’ve been on. It is sad to see how this good ship has fared. In recent years a lot has been cut, and it’s frightening how little endurance the patrol ships have.”
Halldór expressed disappointment in the government for not stepping in and helping the Coast Guard. ”Despite all the good things the ship has done, the government has not wanted to step in. Now we only have one patrol ship at sea. It is of consequence for a nation that has everything to do with fishing to not have more rescue capacity than that. The minimum is to have two ships at sea. We have two good ships, but this is about crews”, he continues, saying that Iceland is long over due a new patrol ship.
The sale of the vessel is being advertised on the Ríkiskaup website, requesting ideas for how to utilise the ships and the probable sales value.
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