Gävle fishermen

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Distribution of fishing villages in Norrland

Gävlefischer ( Swedish gävlefiskarna ) were fishermen from the Swedish town of Gävle who fished for herring along the coast of Norrland between the 15th and 19th centuries . From 1557 to 1776 they had a monopoly issued by the king on all fishing on this approximately 2000 km long coastline. In addition to their residences in Gävle, the Gävle fishermen maintained fishing villages along the coast from which they operated the fishing. Every year the fishing families sailed to their village in the spring, fished there over the summer and sold the salted herring produced in autumn on markets in central Sweden. Mainly because of the competition from other fishermen, the decline of long-distance journeys began at the end of the 16th century. Erik August Grellson and Erik Wilhelm Högberg made the last trip to Trysunda in 1899 .

history

Beginnings

At the beginning of the 15th century, fishermen from towns in central Sweden, especially from Gävle , began to take longer trips along the coast of Norrland to fish for herring. Innovations in the processing of the caught fish, the most important of which was salting , made long-distance journeys possible. Until the 14th century, people ate Baltic herring fresh or dried; It was only when Lübeck merchants began to export salt from the Lüneburg saltworks to the low-salt Scandinavia that fishing there gained in importance. The Hanseatic League sold salt herring as a fasting food throughout Europe .

Gävle is located at the mouth of the Gavleån in the Gulf of Bothnia and was originally a small fishing village , which in 1446 the city ​​rights of King Christopher III. received. Initially, the Gävler fishermen competed with those from southern cities for the best fishing spots. In 1557 they received from King Gustav Wasa the sole right to fish along the coast of Norrland and paid every tenth ton of salted herring as a tax to the Crown. In 1559 there were 149 fishermen in various fishing villages, mainly fishing on the Ångermanland coast . Their total catch that year was 340 barrels of herrings.

Competition from other fishermen and decline

At the end of the 16th and beginning of the 17th centuries, new towns were founded north of Gävle, whose inhabitants tried to displace the Gävle fishermen from their fishing grounds. During the clashes, there were several small fights between the competitors. In 1623 the Crown gave the town of Sundsvall some of the best fishing grounds in Medelpad . The Gävle fishermen were allowed to continue to use the harbors in return for a lease payment. The fishing village of Ulvöhamn was the most important base for the Gävle fishermen and an important connection point between Stockholm and northern Sweden. There was an actually forbidden lively trade with the local farmers, who mainly bought salt. At the instigation of the citizens of Härnösand , who wanted to conduct the lucrative trade with the farmers themselves, the state prohibited it in 1646. However, fishermen and farmers circumvented the ban. In 1668 the citizens of Härnösand reached King Karl XI. an order that forced the Gävle fishermen to come to Härnösand in spring and autumn and be visited there. This prevented them from carrying other products than the salt required for salting in the spring and the corresponding quantities of salted herring in the autumn. The fishermen, for their part, complained to the king about the time-consuming controls. As a solution, from 1675 the inspectors had to drive from Härnösand to the fishing villages to visit the fishermen there. The illegal trade ended - partly because of the high fines for violating the law - around the year 1700. In 1701 the fishermen from Gävle stopped their long-distance trips to Medelpad, as the number of competing fishermen from Sundsvall rose steadily. Some of the Gävle fishermen now fished from other fishing villages further north, some of them settled in Medelpad. Their number sank to 71 by 1737, they visited fewer fishing villages and these were further north than at the beginning of the 17th century.

In 1766 the king abolished the water shelf and gave the landowners their fishing rights back; as a result, the Gävle fishermen lost their prerogative to fish in the whole of Norrland. They had to lease their old fishing villages, and the fishing trips continued for a good 100 years. In October 1802 one of the greatest accidents in the history of Gävle fishermen happened when three fishermen and their families were caught in a storm on their way back to Gävle and their boat overturned off the coast of Åland . All seventeen inmates drowned.

Grellson family in Trysunda, 1895

The decline in fishing trips had many causes, one of the main reasons being increased competition from other fishermen. Many of the Gävle fishermen originally came from Ångermanland, their ancestors had moved to Gävle and became members of the citizenship there. Now more and more fishermen decided to settle down, often in their old fishing villages. The reasons were the desire for better houses and the construction of railway lines from the west coast of Sweden to the east coast. Up until now the Gävle fishermen had sold their salted herring there, fresh fish could be transported in large quantities by rail and sold cheaper than salted herring. The Gävle economy was also increasingly geared towards trade, together with the beginning of industrialization , a large number of workers were needed there. The last Gävlefischer at the end of the 19th century were Erik August Grellson's family and Erik Wilhelm Högberg. You last sailed to Trysunda in 1899 . Högberg took a steamboat to Skeppsmalen every spring until 1914 , fished there over the summer and drove back home to Gävle in autumn. When he died on Christmas 1914, the Gävlefischer tradition ended for good.

Trip in spring

The fishing trips started around the turn of April / May when the sea ice began to melt. The whole family and servants came to the fishing village , sometimes several families went in one boat. Most of what they needed over the summer the people took with them: household utensils, food (including live animals), salt to salt and goods to trade with the local population. The fishermen brought their nets with them from Gävle, and they left other tools in the fishing village over the winter. The barrels for the salted herring were not brought along, but made anew every summer. The trip, which is up to 350 kilometers long, usually lasted one to two weeks, but according to tradition, individual fishermen are said to have covered the distance in 48 hours with favorable winds.

Fishing villages

Trysunda, one of the oldest fishing villages of the Gävle fishermen.
List of fishing villages
Fishing village Parish Landskap
Långsand Älvkarleby Uppland
Lime Gävle Gästrikland
Bonan Gävle Gästrikland
Utvalnäs Gävle Gästrikland
Eggegrund Gävle Gästrikland
Lövgrund Gävle Gästrikland
Vitgrund Gävle Gästrikland
Edsköklabb Hille Gästrikland
Iggön Hille Gästrikland
Saljemar Hille Gästrikland
Gåsholma Hamrånge Gästrikland
Axmarby Hamrånge Gästrikland
Kusokalv Hamrånge Gästrikland
Rävskär Hamrånge Gästrikland
Kalvhararna Soderhamn Hälsingland
Trollharen Skog Hälsingland
Kultebo Söderala Hälsingland
Storjungfrun Soderhamn Hälsingland
Maråker Söderala Hälsingland
Grimshararna Soderhamn Hälsingland
Skaton Soderhamn Hälsingland
Stålnäs Norrala Hälsingland
Prästgrundet Soderhamn Hälsingland
Southeast Norrala Hälsingland
Sillören Norrala Hälsingland
Skärså Norrala Hälsingland
Karskar Closer Hälsingland
Ravelsnäs Closer Hälsingland
Bergön Closer Hälsingland
Sörön Closer Hälsingland
Fells Closer Hälsingland
Vätnäs udde Closer Hälsingland
Agon Ago Hälsingland
Kråkön Ago Hälsingland
Bergön Rogsta Hälsingland
Olmen Hudiksvall Hälsingland
Hölick Rogsta Hälsingland
Kuggörarna Rogsta Hälsingland
Arnö Rogsta Hälsingland
Bålsön Rogsta Hälsingland
Dråsviken Rogsta Hälsingland
Lakbäcken Rogsta Hälsingland
Rönnskär Rogsta Hälsingland
Stensjö Rogsta Hälsingland
Stock images Rogsta Hälsingland
Sågtäkten Rogsta Hälsingland
Rönnskär Harmånger Hälsingland
Lönnånger Jättendal Hälsingland
Jättholmarna Jättendal Hälsingland
Vitöarna Jättendal Hälsingland
hardness Jättendal Hälsingland
Sörfjärden Gnarp Hälsingland
Vattingen Gnarp Hälsingland
Sladdhamn Gnarp Hälsingland
Baking sand Gnarp Hälsingland
Fågelharen Gnarp Hälsingland
Ravelsnäs Gnarp Hälsingland
Skatan Nyurunda Medelpad
Brämökalv Nyurunda Medelpad
Brämön Nyurunda Medelpad
Loerudden Nyurunda Medelpad
Spikhamn Alno Medelpad
Röhamn Alno Medelpad
Åstaholmsudden Tyndero Medelpad
Storhamn Tyndero Medelpad
Skeppshamn Tyndero Medelpad
Balsviken Häggdånger Ångermanland
Svenskär Häggdånger Ångermanland
Hemsö Hemsö Ångermanland
Storon Nora Ångermanland
Berghamn Nora Ångermanland
Sörällsviken Nordingrå Ångermanland
Barsta Nordingrå Ångermanland
Låssman Nordingrå Ångermanland
Bonhamn Nordingrå Ångermanland
Rävsön Nordingrå Ångermanland
Gnäggen Natra Ångermanland
Norrfallsviken Nordingrå Ångermanland
Marviksgrunnan Natra Ångermanland
Ulvöhamn Natra Ångermanland
Sandviken Natra Ångermanland
Trysunda Natra Ångermanland
Grisslan Själevad Ångermanland
Skeppsmalen Grundsunda Ångermanland
Skagen Grundsunda Ångermanland
Långholmarna Grundsunda Ångermanland
Grano Grundsunda Ångermanland

The families took goats and sheep with them to their fishing villages, and rarely pigs and cows. Goats were important as milk suppliers for the Gävle fishermen, and many families owned several of them. Goats could be transported more easily than cows and were better suited to the barren conditions on the islands. Pigs could eat themselves fat on the fish waste, but this made their meat taste slightly tatty .

The fishing families initially lived in simple log houses with one room and a fireplace made of natural stone . The equipment was limited to bed, table and chairs. The fishermen pulled their boats ashore after each voyage. Later houses had several rooms and were made of boards, but still very simply furnished. In a typical fishing village at the beginning of the 19th century there were sheds around a bay, on the beach next to it were the boats and above it the houses. Boathouses to protect against the weather were only built at the end of the 19th century or the old sheds were converted into them. The sheds, with the gables facing the water, were used by fishermen to store vats, barrels and tools. On the waterfront, the buildings had a pier for loading and unloading the boats. Originally houses and sheds were not painted, they only got their falun red color at the beginning of the 20th century .

Every year in spring, the fishermen in a village jointly decided on rules that applied to all residents. For example, they determined how the fishing should be carried out and how the poorest people in the village should be helped. As chairman of the fishermen, they elected an elder who was supported by several assessors . The Landshövding sworn in the body that had legal power. The most important function of the elder was to check that all fishermen followed the applicable social rules. He could punish violations such as minor thefts, fights or emptying another fisherman's nets with fines or pillory . In the case of gross violations, the fisherman concerned could be expelled from the fishing village, but most of the time such cases were negotiated in normal courts. With a reform to standardize the judicial system, the state abolished these village courts in 1852.

The Gävle fishermen built small chapels in the fishing villages . The oldest preserved is the Ulvö gamla chapel from 1622. The fishermen gathered every Sunday in the chapel for prayer and readings from the Bible. Since the nearest church was often far away, the parish priest came to the village only a few times a year. In addition to their function as a prayer room, the chapels also had a practical use: when there were no sheds in the fishing villages, they were used in winter as a storage place for the fishermen's tools.

There were a total of 87 fishing villages that the Gävle fishermen used from time to time. Most of the villages, 43, were in Hälsingland , on the coast between Söderhamn and Sundsvall. Around 1800 the fishing villages were mostly divided between Gästrikland and Ångermanland. The northernmost fishing villages mentioned by name were at the height of Örnsköldsvik . There were probably fishing grounds further north, and several fishing families in Gävle came from the Umeå area . The number of families in a village usually varied between three and ten. In the largest fishing village of the Gävle fishermen, Ulvöhamn, the maximum number in 1791 was 27 Gävle fishermen with their families. All 87 fishing villages that the Gävle fishermen have used over the years are listed on the right. The villages are arranged from south to north, the parish and the cape in which they are located are also indicated .

Fishing and conservation methods

Small groups of fishermen's sons and farmhands operated the fishing. In the summer, the fathers of the family took the family's big boat trading trips along the Baltic coast to Gdansk and Koenigsberg . From spring to mid-July, the fishermen in bays near the fishing village used around 15 meters wide and 90 meters long fine-mesh purse seine . With this fishing method, the fishermen were dependent on each other. A boat crew pulled the net halfway out into the water. When a school of herring swam into the bay, she would row around it and back ashore. The resulting loop was tightened by the fishermen until they could bring the catch ashore together. From mid-July to the end of September they fished in the open sea with normal, two- fathom wide nets. These were weighed down with stones, lowered to the sea floor and held upright by swimmers . The nets were laid out together in the evening, and the fishermen hauled them in between three and four o'clock at night. Small quantities of salmon and eel were also fished for personal use in order to enrich the otherwise somewhat monotonous menu.

Salted herring was prepared by men and women together; It began with gutting the caught herring, which was then soaked for a day in strong brine , which drew the blood from the fish meat and made it turn white. The next day, after the fish had drained off the brine in wooden baskets, they were placed in vats on top of each other and covered with salt. After about a week, the fish could be filled into barrels with brine. Another way to make the herring preserved, was produced by acidification Surströmming . After the herring had been eviscerated and washed, it was drained thoroughly. The herring mixed with salt then stood in barrels in the sun for several weeks, after which it was fermented and preserved. The fishermen earned a little extra income with the innards of the herring, which they soaked in brine for a day, then spread out on rocks to dry and sold to local farmers. They used the innards as fodder.

Sales and earnings

The fishermen sometimes sold the salted herring at local markets in summer and autumn before the families drove back to Gävle at the beginning of October. Ångermanland was home to the most important market in Nätra , to which the local population, business travelers and, in some cases , Sami came. The area around Nätra was known for its linen ; For the salted herring, the Gävlefischer got linen cloth, plus wood tar , various foods (including poultry) and, in earlier times, skins. The salt herring came from Gävle to Bergslagen and Dalarna . The markets in Älvkarleby , which take place every year on midsummer and in October, were important trading centers for the Gävle fishermen . They seldom sold herring to Stockholm in the south, and the fishermen there tolerated no competition. The Gävle fishermen had to use the income to finance a large part of their livelihood in winter and the trip next spring.

The catches of the fishermen varied greatly, which was due to the annual fluctuations in the herring stocks. For example, a total of 6,500 barrels of salted herring were produced in 1742, but only 2,700 in the following year. A few years later the amount had risen again to around 5,000 barrels, the number of fishermen remained largely constant during this time. The peak was reached in 1816 when 10,000 barrels of salted herring were produced annually. In 1839 the number had dropped back to 2048 barrels, the 117 active fishermen produced an average of 17.5 barrels. In 1844, 105 fishermen produced a total of 3346 barrels of salted herring, around 32 barrels per fisherman. 1850 was the last very productive year with an annual production of 5408 barrels and an average of 52.5 barrels with 103 active fishermen. After that, the quantities continued to decline, in 1890 there were only 339 barrels for every 64 fishermen, an average of 5 barrels per fisherman.

Due to the sharp fluctuations in income, most fishermen had to take out loans to bridge the bad years. In good years they had enough income to lead a medium-sized life, but they rarely paid off their debts and became more and more over-indebted. Based on the tax returns of the Gävlefischer in 1759 91.8 percent of them were classified as "poor" because of low catches. In 1765 the number of poor fishermen had dropped again to 12.5 percent. Even in good years the fishermen could not financially keep up with the richest citizens of the city, the merchants. Due to the constant ups and downs, very few were able to build up economic reserves in order not to have to take on debts in less productive years. At most a tenth of the fishermen were wealthier at the end of their lives than at the beginning, and at least a quarter were destitute. If a fisherman lost his galeate in a storm or ice drift, it was often the same as bankruptcy. The money for a new building was mostly not available and the family could no longer drive to their fishing grounds.

Boats

Anna in the port of Gävle, 1899

For their long-distance trips, the Gävlefischer used galeasses , open boats in clinker construction . Originally they were only equipped with a mainsail , but the rigging changed in the middle of the 18th century . The boats then had square sails on mainmast and mizzenmast , plus jib and jib . The size of the galeates fluctuated greatly, the richer fishermen could load up to 120  tons and carried out trade trips. On average, the boats were designed for around 30 to 50 tons, some of the galleries of poor fishermen could only be loaded with 15 tons. The last galeas used for long-distance journeys was Anna , which was built in the early 19th century. It belonged to Erik August Grellson and had a size of 44  register tons . After Grellson sailed to Trysunda for the last time in 1895, he sold the boat to a sawmill. After being converted into a Prahm , it ran aground in 1916 while transporting timber off Söderhamn and sank.

In the fishing villages the fishermen had smaller boats for daily fishing. The largest of these row boats were about 26  feet long and were used in purse seine fishing. To fish with normal nets, they used boats around 24 feet in length. Like the galeasses, the rowing boats were built in clinker construction and consisted of up to 14  transverse frames and four or five  planks . The boat builders used spruce wood as a material , sometimes with twisted wood for reinforcement.

Life in Gävle

Islands Lillån in 1875, old magazines are still standing on the left.

In Gävle the fishermen lived in the eastern part of the city, on the estuary of Gavleån called Östra Lillån and Islands Lillån . There were magazines and sheds by the river where the boats were moored. Above it were barns , granaries and outhouses , and right at the top were the two-story houses with the gables facing the street. The plots had an elongated shape, the house took up almost the entire width, and a path led to the open space in front of the farm buildings. In contrast to the simple dwellings in the fishing villages, the houses in Gävle were comfortable and spacious, some even luxuriously furnished.

The fishermen Gävles were organized in the fishermen's society from 1738. Until the middle of the 19th century, they were the largest group within the citizens of Gävle and, together with the craftsmen's guild, were able to determine who held the offices of the city. The community supported poor members and fishermen's widows with a joint fund. The fishing society had to be dissolved in 1865, as changed laws required a different legal form . The "fishing club" was created as its successor. The fishermen maintained close social contacts with one another, and most of them were related to one another. Foreign fishermen could more easily become members of the citizenry if they married fishermen's daughters or widows. Through the community in the fishing villages everyone knew each other well, sometimes the sons or daughters of one fisherman worked as servants or maids for another. Sometimes in autumn the Gävle fishermen took young men from the area around their village with them to Gävle. They studied at Uppsala University over the winter and went back to their families with the fishermen in the spring.

literature

  • Albert Eskeröd: Gävleborna's streaming fish . In: Ur Gävle stads historia. ed. v. Philibert Humbla, Gävle 1946, pp. 321-360.
  • Bo Hellman: Skeppsmalns fiskeläge - en gammal gävlebohamnn. Örnsköldsviks museums småskrift series no 2, Örnsköldsvik 1979. ISSN  0348-7245
  • Jan Moritz: Gävlefiskarna i Ångermanland. W-Sönst., Gävle 1992.
  • Johan Nordlander: Gävlebornas fiskefärder till Ångermanlands kust. In: Från Gästrikland - Gästriklands kulturhistoriska förenings meddelanden. Gästriklands kulturhistoriska förening, Gävle 1923, pp. 93-109. ISSN  0429-2820
  • Kjell EG Söderberg : Fiskarkulturen på Ulvön. Örnsköldsviks museums småskrift series nr 10, Örnsköldsvik 1982. ISBN 91-86138-20-0 , ISSN  0348-7245
  • Kjell EG Söderberg: Ulvö gamla kapell. Kulturnämnden i Örnsköldsviks kommun, Örnsköldsvik 1972.
  • Kjell EG Söderberg: Ulvöhamn - två pictures ur ett fiskeläges historia. Gothenburg 1995.
  • Per Vedin: Det forntida fisket vid norrlandskusten: Gävlebohamnar under gångna århundraden. Skolförlaget, Gävle 1930.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Jan Moritz: Gävlefiskarna i Ångermanland. 1992, p. 1.
  2. ^ Kjell EG Söderberg: Ulvöhamn - två pictures ur ett fiskeläges historia. 1995, pp. 27-29.
  3. ^ Kjell EG Söderberg: Ulvöhamn - två pictures ur ett fiskeläges historia. 1995, p. 35.
  4. ^ Kjell EG Söderberg: Ulvö gamla kapell. 1972, p. 1.
  5. Johan Nordlander: Gävle Bornas fiskefärder till Ångermanland kust. 1923, pp. 1-3.
  6. Johan Nordlander: Gävle Bornas fiskefärder till Ångermanland kust. 1923, p. 3.
  7. Per Vedin: Det forntida fisket vid norrlandskusten: Gävlebohamnar under gångna århundraden. 1930, p. 90.
  8. Johan Nordlander: Gävle Bornas fiskefärder till Ångermanland kust. 1923, pp. 8-13.
  9. Per Vedin: Det forntida fisket vid norrlandskusten: Gävlebohamnar under gångna århundraden. 1930, p. 91.
  10. Albert Eskeröd: Gävle Bornas strömmingsfiske. 1946, pp. 11-12.
  11. Albert Eskeröd: Gävle Bornas strömmingsfiske. 1946, p. 6.
  12. ^ Kjell EG Söderberg: Ulvö gamla kapell. 1972, p. 3.
  13. ^ Jan Moritz: Gävlefiskarna i Ångermanland. 1992, pp. 10-12.
  14. Per Vedin: Det forntida fisket vid norrlandskusten: Gävlebohamnar under gångna århundraden. 1930, pp. 17-20.
  15. Per Vedin: Det forntida fisket vid norrlandskusten: Gävlebohamnar under gångna århundraden. 1930, p. 21.
  16. ^ Kjell EG Söderberg: Ulvöhamn - två pictures ur ett fiskeläges historia. 1995, p. 71.
  17. Albert Eskeröd: Gävle Bornas strömmingsfiske. 1946, p. 21.
  18. ^ Jan Moritz: Gävlefiskarna i Ångermanland. 1992, p. 8.
  19. Kjell EC Söderberg: Fiskarkulturen på Ulvön. 1982, pp. 9-11.
  20. ^ Kjell EG Söderberg: Ulvöhamn - två pictures ur ett fiskeläges historia. 1995, pp. 47-55, 77.
  21. ^ Jan Moritz: Gävlefiskarna i Ångermanland. 1992, p. 4.
  22. ^ Kjell EG Söderberg: Ulvöhamn - två pictures ur ett fiskeläges historia. 1995, p. 82.
  23. Albert Eskeröd: Gävle Bornas strömmingsfiske. 1946, p. 20.
  24. a b c Albert Eskeröd: Gävlebornas strömmingsfiske. 1946, pp. 4, 7-10.
  25. Per Vedin: Det forntida fisket vid norrlandskusten: Gävlebohamnar under gångna århundraden. 1930, p. 121.
  26. Johan Nordlander: Gävle Bornas fiskefärder till Ångermanland kust. 1923, pp. 2-3.
  27. ^ Kjell EG Söderberg: Ulvöhamn - två pictures ur ett fiskeläges historia. 1995, p. 47.
  28. Per Vedin: Det forntida fisket vid norrlandskusten: Gävlebohamnar under gångna århundraden. 1930, p. 26.
  29. Kjell EC Söderberg: Fiskarkulturen på Ulvön. 1982, pp. 18-20.
  30. Albert Eskeröd: Gävle Bornas strömmingsfiske. 1946, p. 29.
  31. Kjell EC Söderberg: Fiskarkulturen på Ulvön. 1982, pp. 21-23.
  32. ^ Jan Moritz: Gävlefiskarna i Ångermanland. 1992, p. 6.
  33. Per Vedin: Det forntida fisket vid norrlandskusten: Gävlebohamnar under gångna århundraden. 1930, pp. 18, 22.
  34. Albert Eskeröd: Gävle Bornas strömmingsfiske. 1946, p. 16.
  35. ^ Jan Moritz: Gävlefiskarna i Ångermanland. 1992, p. 7.
  36. ^ Kjell EG Söderberg: Ulvöhamn - två pictures ur ett fiskeläges historia. 1995, p. 91.
  37. Albert Eskeröd: Gävle Bornas strömmingsfiske. 1946, pp. 14-16.
  38. ^ Kjell EG Söderberg: Ulvöhamn - två pictures ur ett fiskeläges historia. 1995, pp. 61, 92-93, 102-103.
  39. Albert Eskeröd: Gävle Bornas strömmingsfiske. 1946, pp. 24-26.
  40. Kjell EC Söderberg: Fiskarkulturen på Ulvön. 1982, p. 25.
  41. Albert Eskeröd: Gävle Bornas strömmingsfiske. 1946, pp. 30-32.
  42. Albert Eskeröd: Gävle Bornas strömmingsfiske. 1946, pp. 18-19.
  43. ^ Kjell EG Söderberg: Ulvöhamn - två pictures ur ett fiskeläges historia. 1995, p. 42.
  44. ^ Jan Moritz: Gävlefiskarna i Ångermanland. 1992, p. 14.
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