Eventually, a breakthrough was reached when it was agreed British trawlers could fish within certain specified areas in the fifty-mile zone, as long as Britain took no more than 130,000 tons of cod per year. Forester’s owners paid £2,300 and a further £26,500 for the release of the trawler. Forester was eventually boarded and towed to an Icelandic port where it was impounded and the skipped was jailed for thirty days. At least two shells hit causing damage to the ship. The British vessel was pursued for over one hundred miles and then shelled with non-explosive ammunition by the Icelandic vessel. Forester, one of the biggest trawlers in the British commercial fleet, was spotted fishing within the twelve-mile limit by the Icelandic patrol boat V/S ÞórI.

But worse was to come in July of the following year. The trawler then followed the Icelander’s instructions to leave the EEZ. Crew from the Icelandic vessel then appeared on deck and began firing rifles at the Brucella, damaging her bridge and lifeboats. The Second Cod WarĪ serious incident took place in March 1973 when the British trawler Brucella refused to follow directions of the patrol boat Arvakurto leave the EEZ.

There was also an agreement that future conflicts would be settled at the International Court of Justice to avoid further conflict. Eventually, Britain accepted that it had no right to stop Iceland extending the EEZ to twelve miles and backed down. A number of incidents took place including Icelandic patrol boats firing across the bows of British trawlers in an effort to force them to leave the new zone, and Britain threatening to sink any Icelandic vessels that attacked British trawlers. This was seen as a David versus Goliath conflict, as Britain had, at that time, the second most powerful navy in the world (after the USA), while Iceland had little more than patrol boats and militarised coast guard vessels to protect itself. The situation escalated when Britain sent warships to protect its trawlers fishing in the disputed areas. Britain was not happy and chose to ignore this new limit and continued to fish up to the original four-mile limit. Iceland – worried that foreign vessels were overexploiting their fisheries – brought in a new law that extended their EEZ to twelve miles. British trawlers could therefore fish very close to Iceland and take advantage of the fertile fishing grounds that surrounded the country. In the late 1950s a country’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) – the area of sea that a country controlled and could fish in exclusively – only extended four miles out to sea from a country’s coastline. The first Cod War took place in autumn 1958 and was caused by a dispute over who could fish in the seas surrounding Iceland. The Royal Navy’s 2,500 ton Leander-class frigate HMS Scylla collides with the Icelandic vessel ICGV Odinn in the third and final Cod War.

God of war abandon ship