Funningsfjørður ( da, Fundingsfjord) is a village located at the end of a

fjord In physical geography, a fjord or fiord () is a long, narrow inlet with steep sides or cliffs, created by a glacier. Fjords exist on the coasts of Alaska, Antarctica, British Columbia, Chile, Denmark, Germany, Greenland, the Faroe Islands, Ice ...

of the same name ('fjørður' is the Faroese word for 'fjord'). It was founded in 1812 and has since 2005 been part of the municipality of

Runavík Runavík is a comparatively urbanised village in Runavík Municipality, Faroe Islands. It lies on the south half of the isle of Eysturoy. Port Founded in 1916, Runavík has an important port, originally used predominantly by fishing boats but n ...

Whaling station

In 1901, the Norwegian Conrad Evensen bought the old whaling boat ''Emma'' from a company in the

Finnmark Finnmark (; se, Finnmárku ; fkv, Finmarku; fi, Ruija ; russian: Финнмарк) was a county in the northern part of Norway, and it is scheduled to become a county again in 2024. On 1 January 2020, Finnmark was merged with the neighbouri ...

in northern Norway, and founded the whaling station in Funningsfjørður, also with the name Emma. The first year the station produced 1160 barrels of

whale oil Whale oil is oil obtained from the blubber of whales. Whale oil from the bowhead whale was sometimes known as train oil, which comes from the Dutch word ''traan'' ("tears, tear" or "drop"). Sperm oil, a special kind of oil obtained from the ...

. The company only had one boat from 1901 to 1909, though in 1905 Emma was whaling from a station in

Iceland Iceland ( is, Ísland; ) is a Nordic island country in the North Atlantic Ocean and in the Arctic Ocean. Iceland is the most sparsely populated country in Europe. Iceland's capital and largest city is Reykjavík, which (along with its s ...

. In 1909 the company bought a new whaling boat called ''Funding'', named after the village

Funningur Funningur is a village on the Faroe Islands. It is located on the northwest coast of Eysturoy (). It was the only village in the municipality called ''Funnings kommuna'', which on 1 January 2009 became part of Runavíkar kommuna. To the west of ...

which had lent its name to the fjord which in turn lent its name to the village. 1909 was the best year for whaling in Faroese whaling history, with 13,850 barrels of whale oil produced in total. In 1912 the station expanded with a

bone meal Bone meal is a mixture of finely and coarsely ground animal bones and slaughter-house waste products. It is used as a dietary supplement to supply calcium (Ca) and phosphorus (P) to monogastric livestock in the form of hydroxiapathite. As a slow-r ...

factory, and this increased earnings somewhat, especially because Emma was the only company who whaled "norðanfjørðs" – north of the Skopunarfjord – in 1913 and 1915, meaning north of

Suðuroy Suðuroy (literally South Island, da, Suderø) is the southernmost of the Faroe Islands. The island covers 163.7 square kilometres (63.2 sq mi). In 2018 the population was 4,601. Suðuroy region (sýsla) comprises this island and Lítla ...

and

Sandoy Sandoy ("Sand Island") is the first of the five southern islands that make up the Faroe chain, the fifth biggest of all the Faroe Islands, an autonomous region of the Kingdom of Denmark. It also refers to the region that includes this island alon ...

. 1915 was the best year for Emma, with 3000 barrels of whale oil, and 3000 200lb bags of bone meal. The onset of

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, however meant that there was never activity at the station again. In 1956, one of the boiler tanks from the station was taken down and used as filler for the construction of the wharf in the village, which was being built at the time. On September 15th, 2018, the last substantial remnant of the whaling station (the remains of a boiler) was disposed of, as part of an international environmental clean-up event. The Faroese branch of the project, "Rudda Føroyar" (Clean up the Faroe Islands), led the event.

References

External links

Faroeislands.dk: Funningsfjordur
Images and description of all cities on the Faroe Islands. Funningsfjørður, Faroe Islands.JPG, Funningsfjørður Faroe Islands, Eysturoy, Funningsfjørður (06), harbor scene.jpg, Harbor Faroe Islands, Eysturoy, Funningsfjørður (02), waterfront scene.jpg, Waterfront scene Faroe Islands, Eysturoy, Funningsfjørður (05), the village.jpg, The village Populated places in the Faroe Islands Populated places established in 1812 Fjords of the Faroe Islands Whaling stations of the Faroe Islands Whaling in the Faroe Islands {{fjord-stub

Whaling station

See also

References

External links