Thorsminde fishing town

One of the large fishing towns along the west coast of Jutland is found at Thorsminde. The small town has one of the largest collections of fishing boats in Denmark. The town is located at the only connection between Nissum Fjord and the North Sea. The connection between the two bodies of water is regulated by a lock. And right at the lock there is some strong current which seems to be very attractive for fish – and the locals know this is the place to go and catch the dinner of the day – and a group of men and boys stand here catching many fish in the strong current.

The town is pretty small and everything is located close to the lock. On one side of the lock you find a large anchor and an old cannon. The anchor is from one of the biggest ever ship wreck disasters ever along the west coast of Jutland. During a storm in 1811 two British naval vessels got into troubles. The HMS St. George and HMS Defence ran on ground a few miles off the coast. The ships had 1,400 men onboard when they were stranded. The weather was too bad for any rescue mission to take place and the crew was left to their own device.

Only 17 men made it to shore alive the rest lost their life in the stormy waters in one of the biggest ever shipwreck disasters in the history of the world. One of the giant anchors from the HMS St. George is the one you can see at the center of Thorsminde.

The cannon on display were used in the 19^th century to warn the fishermen at sea if bad weather was approaching. The cannon were used in case of bad weather in darkness or fog when it was impossible to use the normal warning flags. The cannons was made obsolete in the 1930s when the fishing boat became bigger and equipped with a radio so they could get a warning direct by radio instead of having to rely on signals from the shore.

On the other side of the lock you find the fishing port of Thorsminde which is the beating industrial heart of the town. There is only a few fishing boats in the harbor when we visit – I guess many are out at sea securing the catch of the day. When they come back to port most of the fish will be sold at the local fishing auction – but there is a shop at the harbor as well where the visitors can go and buy a little bit of fresh fish for the dinner.

When we visited the town there was a little extra action going on since there was the annual preparation of the local lifeguards. They were doing some exercise in preparation of the summer season.