Guðlaugur Friðþórsson

Guðlaugur "Laugi" Friðþórsson ( transcribed Gudlaugur Fridthorsson ; born September 24, 1961 ) is an Icelandic fisherman who gained notoriety in 1984 when he survived the sinking of his fishing boat and survived conditions that are generally considered to be fatal. During the accident, he stayed in 5 ° C cold water for several hours, which he only survived due to a special fat structure and an iron will. Alluding to this, Guðlaugur is sometimes referred to as the seal man .

Ship sinking in 1984

Heimaey island aerial view

On March 11, 1984, Guðlaugur Friðþórsson was working on the fishing trawler Hellisey VE-503 when the trawler caught with the bottom trawl about seven kilometers off the island of Heimaey on the Westman Islands on an obstacle on the seabed and capsized. Of the five crew members, two died in the accident because they did not manage to leave the ship, which was floating keel up. Guðlaugur and two other men, including the captain Hjörtur Jónsson, were able to save themselves on the keel .

Since the capsizing took place without warning, the crew had not been able to send an emergency call, but after a certain time a response to the coast guard was due, the lack of which would also have led to the sending of help. The men also tried to detach the lifeboat attached to the capsized Hellisey, but failed because of the rusted attachments. When the ship sank under the men after 45 minutes, they decided to swim to land about 5 km away. The water temperature at this time was approx. 5 ° C, a little more than the air temperature of approx. 3 ° C. Under these conditions, the expected survival time is less than 30 minutes, since the human body loses heat about 25 times faster in water than in air. In addition, the men were already chilled and exhausted from their time on the keel.

After they left the ship, the first man died quickly. The captain Hjörtur Jónsson and Guðlaugur swam together for a while, then Hjörtur Jónsson also disappeared and Guðlaugur Friðþórsson was left alone. He took off his boots and oilskins and only swam in jeans, shirt and sweater. Guðlaugur later reported that he had spoken to seagulls during this time and that another boat passed less than 100 m away without it noticing his call. According to various sources, he swam between 3 and 6 hours before reaching Heimaey Island.

At this point, however , the cliffs were too steep to climb, so Gudlaugur returned to the sea to go ashore elsewhere. Here he climbed the cliffs and walked barefoot for several kilometers over sharp-edged lava fields to the next settlement, with numerous deep cuts on his feet. At around 7:00 am on the morning of March 12th, he knocked on the door of a villager who alerted the rescue workers.

After the accident, plagued by survival guilt , he continued to live on the Westman Islands and worked as a fisherman again from 1987. He also sat in the local parliament until September 2012.

Guðlaugur later married.

His amazing survival made him an Icelandic national hero who was memorialized in the Westman Islands. The clothes he wore, a plaid shirt and his jeans, are part of the exhibition in the Museum of the Westerman Islands.

Scientific research

At the time of his rescue, Guðlaugur's body temperature was less than 33 ° C (35 ° C in some sources), which usually leads to significant mental disabilities in the form of u. a. Confusion leads. Despite the hypothermia, Guðlaugur showed neither mental impairments nor severe frostbite and survived the accident almost unharmed.

The incident was investigated from 1985 onwards at the instigation of Jóhann Axelsson, Head of the Department of Physiology at the University of Iceland in Reykjavík , in London under the direction of William R. Keatinge at the London Hospital Medical College. Among other things, he was placed in pools with ice water together with Navy swimmers. Gudlaugur, who had not been trained in sports, endured the cold far better than the trained soldiers. It was found that Gudlaugur has a rare fat structure that is more reminiscent of seal fat , as its subcutaneous fat layer is unusually thick. Even with this unusual property, according to the scientists, Guðlaugur should not have survived so long in cold water. A good part of his survival, according to the scientists, is due to his mental strength and his refusal to die.

reception

The 2012 feature film, The Deep, directed by Baltasar Kormákur , deals with the misfortune experienced by Guðlaugur Friðþórsson.

Web links

• Alva Gehrmann: The Seal Man's Secret . In: Frankfurter Allgemeine, updated February 26, 2014. Accessed January 4, 2018

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Simon Edge: The strange story of the human seal (English), Express. 9 July 2013. Retrieved on 29 January 2018.
2. ↑ Sabine Barth: DuMont Travel Guide Island Travel Guide (=  DuMont Travel Guide ). 4th edition. DuMont Reise, 2016, ISBN 978-3-7701-7816-2 , p. 448 .

Note: Icelanders are referred to by their first name or first and last name, but not just their surname. Further information can be found under Icelandic personal name .