Funningsfjørður () is a village in

Faroe Islands The Faroe Islands ( ) (alt. the Faroes) are an archipelago in the North Atlantic Ocean and an autonomous territory of the Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark. Located between Iceland, Norway, and the United Kingdom, the islands have a populat ...

, located at the end of a

fjord In physical geography, a fjord (also spelled fiord in New Zealand English; ) is a long, narrow sea inlet with steep sides or cliffs, created by a glacier. Fjords exist on the coasts of Antarctica, the Arctic, and surrounding landmasses of the n ...

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.

Whaling station

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

Finnmark Finnmark (; ; ; ; ) is a counties of Norway, county in northern Norway. By land, it borders Troms county to the west, Finland's Lapland (Finland), Lapland region to the south, and Russia's Murmansk Oblast to the east, and by water, the Norweg ...

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. Oil from the bowhead whale was sometimes known as train-oil, which comes from the Dutch word ''traan'' ("tear drop"). Sperm oil, a special kind of oil used in the cavities of sperm whales, ...

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

Iceland Iceland is a Nordic countries, Nordic island country between the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic and Arctic Oceans, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge between North America and Europe. It is culturally and politically linked with Europe and is the regi ...

. In 1909 the company bought a new whaling boat called ''Funding'', named after the village Funningur 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 (or bonemeal) 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 and phosphorus to monogastric livestock in the form of hydroxyapatite. As a slo ...

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 (pronounced: �suːwʊrɔior �suːri ‘South Island’, ) 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) comprise ...

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 Regions of the Faroe Islands, region ...

. 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 or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

, 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 15, 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