After 25 years, one of Samherji’s most successful trawlers is set to leave the company and with it the Baldvin name that has certainly brought no shortage of good luck.
Built as Baldvin Thorsteinsson, the trawler came to Iceland on November 20th 1992, and was Samherji’s first new built vessel. It was built at Flekkefjord in Norway, a 66 metre factory trawler that was initially skippered by Thorsteinn Vilhelmsson. During the ten years that Baldvin Thorsteinsson was under the Samherji banner, it was subsequently skippered by Arngrímur Brynjólfsson, Guðmundur Jónsson and Hákon Thröstur Guðmundsson.
This highly successful trawler broke numerous records and in 1999 was the first Icelandic fishing vessel to hit a catch value of a billion ISK for the year.
In 2002 it was transferred to Samherji’s German subsidiary Deutsche Fischfang Union (DFFU) and became simply Baldvin, with the EA registration replaced by NC. Baldvin has fished for fifteen years for DFFU, most recently under skippers Sigurður Kristjánsson and Sigurður Hörður Kristjánsson. Baldvin’s final trips for DFFU were two successful trips for Greenland halibut in East Greenland.
Baldvin has been sold to Poland is being renamed Polonus.
‘The departure of Baldvin NC is a milestone in the history of Samherji, as for the first time in 25 years, there is no ship named Baldvin in our fleet,’ said Samherji CEO Thorsteinn Már Baldvinsson, adding that he hopes to add a new Baldvin to the fleet sooner or later.
‘This name has brought us good fortune all these years. I am also very proud of the the ship’s excellent condition after all these years. It is clear that the vessel’s crews have taken good care of the ship and also provides proof of high quality design and construction at the time of building,’ he commented.
He said that it was fitting to say farewell to the ship in typically pleasant Akureyri weather – the sun was shining brightly with a 20°C temperature last Sunday as staff from the local Slippurinn shipyard painted over its old name on the ship’s side, replacing it with the new one.
DFFU will have a new ship in its fleet at the end of the year when Berlin NC 105 replaces Baldvin NC.
