Anne Marie – En havets kvinne

As a 13-year-old, she began her career as a fisherwoman, and since then she has devoted her entire life to fishing. Anne Marie Eriksen from Olderfjord in Kvænangen rowed in an open boat, braving all weathers, summer and winter. She trained many a young lad in the fishing trade..

Anne Marie Eriksen (1881-1968), Olderfjord

Anne Marie was the youngest of the siblings, with a brother and several sisters. Their father fished and needed more help than his one son could provide. So Anne Marie was taken out to sea from when she was old enough to hold the oars. She mended and repaired nets, and from the age of 13, she went to sea as a fisherwoman.

When her father died, she took over the entire fish processing plant with the boat, nets, and all equipment.

Fit as a fiddle

Anne Marie was known for helping those«

Anne Marie was on the Fishermen's Roll, and she taught many young lads her fishing skills. Anne Marie, who lived

Before I get married, I'm going to buy myself a cow. I'm really craving one! I've had a cow before, and then I had sour cream porridge and cream and butter, and everything I needed for my sustenance. But that man – I look after him like a cow, both clothes and food. And if I haven't been able to look after him exactly as he likes, then I get a telling-off!

In 1961, Anne Marie was awarded the first Ulabrand statuette. Here she is being interviewed by Erik Bye:

«As strange as it may sound, I always caught fish when others didn't. «There goes Anne Marie rowing!» a fisherman might shout, and then the others would follow. Because I found my own fishing spots – where no one else was, that's where I set my nets. Once a fisherman from Kvænangen said somewhere: «Yes, you Anne Marie, you always catch fish, you find the fish, and the rest of us chase both you and the fish when we follow.»

Anne Marie Eriksen, Gustavus Eriksen, Henrik Eriksen. Photo from 1905. NTRM.

Anne Marie tells of when she caught a large halibut

- That was during the war. I only fished with five cod nets, I couldn't bear to fish anymore when the Germans were in the country, because I was so angry with them. I had a cow and a sheep, so I just fished and cooked the fish I caught for the cow and the sheep. Then I rowed one day and pulled the five nets, I was out in the fjord. When I grabbed the line and started pulling, the chain was so heavy. Then I thought it was some kind of minnow, like a shark or something, something I'd caught once before that had stuck. But then I went anyway, and when I looked down the line, I realised it was a huge halibut. That made me a bit nervous, because I didn't have a hatchet either. I thought, I'm not going to catch that one, I'm going to lose it, because I realised it was too big, far too big for me alone. I didn't have much strength on my own. Then I got her in the reef, and I got even more nervous, because I saw the halibut was about to go through the cod-end, just a mesh behind the highest rib. I held her under the gill, stuck my hand into the pile, and held her there. I couldn't get her into the boat, I had to get her into the boat, but I couldn't get her head up on the rail, the halibut net. Then I felt sorry for myself. It's such a lie, but it's as true as I'm standing here. So I say to God that now that you've given me this fish, you'll have to help me get into the boat, because it won't come with my strength. And then I tried again with the same hand, because I didn't have enough, I couldn't get a rope in the halibut, because I only had one hand. I held on to the other hand in the boat so that I couldn't help myself, because it was quite a struggle to get her into the little boat. Then I tried again. I immediately threw it into the boat, turned it forwards, and put it in the front compartment where it should be, so that the track isn't in the aft compartment either, right at the front. It covers the bottom of the entire boat. The halibut weighed 93 kilos gutted, but the men said it was probably 130 kilos round.