Fifty years ago today the Nobiskrug shipyard at Rensburg in West Germany delivered the fishing vessel that today sails as Lundey NS. The ship was then christened Narfi RE-13, and was a side trawler, built for Akureyri skipper and owner Gudmundur Jörundsson.
Narfi’s first skipper was Thorsteinn Audunsson, who commanded the vessel for two years before his brothers Audunn and Gunnar each took a spell in the bridge. They skippered Narfi past 1970, according to Thorsteinn Audunsson’s son, Thorsteinn, who has followed the ship’s career closely – hardly surprising as he was born the day the Narfi was handed over in Germany.
‘Narfi was the largest trawler in Iceland when it joined the fleet, although that position wasn’t held for long as more and larger vessels were being built for Icelandic owners at that time,’ he said and explained that Narfi was a remarkable ship. The original intention had been to build Narfi with a stern ramp – in the days before trawling from the stern was widely accepted – and permission to build the ship with hits innovative feature was refused by the authorities. But Thorsteinn Thorsteinsson said that Narfi was unusual in having a part-shelterdeck and freezers on board. Fish were headed and frozen on board as well as stowed in ice in the traditional way.
Gudmundur Jörundsson had his way eventually and Narfi was converted into a stern trawler in 1974, and then into a purse seiner in 1978. Shortly afterwards the ship was sold to Hraðfrystihúss Eskifjarðar (Eskju) and renamed Jón Kjartansson SU-111. When a newer vessel arrived and took that name, the former Narfi was renamed Guðrún Thorkelsdóttir SU-211 after having been extensively rebuilt in 1998. This historic ship came to HB Grandi in 2007 and was named Lundey NS-14.
