7. The Cod Wars
Some wars are fought over resources. Some are fought over more resources. Others still are fought over pride. And some wars, well… some wars are fought over Cod. Iceland and England have been fighting over fishing rights since the 1400s, but the first official “Cod War” began in 1958.
This was truly a battle between David and Goliath; Britain had their entire Royal Navy, and Iceland had six patrol boats and a single plane. The Icelandic navy put up a good fight however. No one was seriously hurt during the first war, but the British Navy wasted half a million dollars on fuelling their warships, resulting in Icelandic victory.
The second Cod war began, and things started to get real. The Icelandic Navy brought out its secret weapon: the “net cutter.” Using this weapon, the Icelandic Navy revolutionized Cod warfare forever, dragging the net cutter behind them and slicing through English fishermen’s nets with reckless abandon. The British responded to this by ramming the smaller Icelandic patrol boats, resulting in the first death of the Cod War- an Icelandic engineer.
The second Cod war ended in Icelandic Victory again, after both participants signed an agreement that banned the British from fishing in Icelandic waters. This peace lasted only a few precious years before war broke out once again. The third and final Cod War was the worst. The Icelandic patrol boats began firing live rounds at its adversaries, ramming boats, and injuring the British Fishermen. Eventually, after suffering millions of dollars worth of damage to their Navy, the British backed off and decided messing with the Icelanders wasn’t worth it.
Discussion about this post