Trawler Gustav Meyer - The ship with two lives

This week, artifact of the week is a photograph, n. V.Sk-Atv-215 to be exact.

The photograph features the German fishing trawler Gustav Meyer PG 375, from Wesermunde. It ran aground at Meðallandssandur on February 19th, 1933. The Coast Guard ship Óðinn had impounded the ship for illegally entering Icelandic territorial waters. But the in the process, the ship ran aground, although it‘s 13 person crew was unharmed. Óðinn‘s crew did not manage to get it back afloat and it was deemed unsalvegable. Some thirty locals in nearby Skaftafell, headed by Bjarni Runólfsson from Hólmur, bought the ship for a mere 560ISK. With the assistane of Einar M. Einarsson, former captain of the Coast Guard ship Ægir, they managed to get the ship afloat once more. They succeeded on the second try on August 5th 1933. Einar, along with engineer Þorsteinn Árnason, and three men from Skaftafell, then sailed the ship to Reykjavík. There it was sold, and renamed Gullfoss RE 120. Gullfoss sank near Snæfellsnes in february 1941, and took its 19 person crew down with it.