THE TOWN OF NARSAQ IN THE 19TH CENTURY: THE TRADING POST AND THE SEALER’S LIFE
Narsaq was founded as a trading post named “Nordprøven” in 1830. One reason for establishing a trading post here was that there were good building materials to be found in the area, namely in the numerous “gamle norske rudera”, i.e. the Norse ruins. Likewise, there was a natural port here, the water being so deep, that ships could anchor very closely to the shore. The trading post consisted of the buildings that today are housing Narsaq Museum.
Narsaq functioned as a trading station under the administration of the colony of Julianehåb (today’s Qaqortoq). Its function was to purchase goods from the local sealers, particularly blubber and skins, and to sell European goods to them, such as coffee, sugar, bread and grain.
Before the trading post was built, no Greenlandic settlements were to be found on the spot. The reason for this was that the cove at today’s “Old Harbour” froze over in winter, so that it was impossible to land there with kayaks during that period. Instead, the first sealers settled at Sarqanguaq, which means ‘the even area’. The location still carries this name – it is situated between the fish factory and the Atlantic quay.
The sealer’s settlements were small and widely dispersed in order to grant the largest possible hunting ground to each of them. The hunting itself was organised in a fixed annual rotation, briefly outlined in the following:
· January to March: Hunting of ringed seals as well as smaller numbers of harp seals and bearded seals. Great amounts of guillemots. Furthermore, fishing of halibuts and sharks from February on.
· April to August: Hooded seals and ringed seals. A number of eiders. Less fishing in general, but great amounts of capelin. In summer – after the capelin period, i.e. around the middle of June – the whole settlement moved to the coastal islands in order to hunt the large migrating seals, namely hooded seals and harp seals, whose skins were the best suitable for the covering of kayaks and umiaks. The meat from those large seals was dried as provisions for the winter season, whereas the blubber was gathered in “blubber bags”, fashioned from whole seal skins (i.e. a hollowed-out seal, whose skin itself thus became a bag).
· September to December: After returning from the summer camps at the coastal islands, hay and firewood had to be gathered – the latter for firing the iron ranges, which already at the end of the 19th century were widely used by the sealers. Fishing of great amounts of halibut and cod. Hunting of foxes, hares, ptarmigans, guillemots and small seals.
In the summer period, when everyone had left for the coastal islands for hunting, the settlements were nearly deserted. Only the old and the widows stayed here. Their duty was to dry the capelin for the winter season. Now and then, kayaks came in to them from the hunting sites with fresh meat and blubber.
The trading post of Narsaq was right from the beginning described as a sort of “pastoral idyll” – and not without reason. Its inhabitants kept cows, sheep and chickens – both for their own use and for trading. Some also cultivated gardens, especially potatoes and turnips were grown.
THE TOWN OF NARSAQ IN THE 20TH CENTURY: A GROWING TOWN
Sealing in the district of Narsaq was fair on the whole, but at the beginning of the 20th century it started giving out. To compensate this failure, the sealers now had to pass on to fishing, and consequently, the trading post started buying up fish.
A building for the processing of the fish was erected in 1914 on the site where today’s electricity works is situated. In the beginning, halibut was bought up; later the production was changed to codfish. The fish was cleaned and salted down in barrels for exportation.
The failure in sealing and the growing fish production in Narsaq caused people to move to the town from the surrounding settlements. It was not until the beginning of the 20th century that the population of Narsaq exceeded 100 persons (1855: 18 in Narsaq, 73 in the settlements; 1870: 25 in Narsaq; 1894: 83; 1919: 162). Around 1930 this number had increased to about 300.
In the 1950s the town expands rapidly: In 1952/53, South Greenland’s first modern shrimp and fish-processing factory is built in Narsaq. In connection with this factory, a lamb’s abattoir is established. People are now moving to the town in order to obtain employment, while at the same time the last remaining settlements are closed in order to secure labour for the factory.
In connection with the running of the factory, the electricity works and the waterworks are built. Kindergarten and school are established. New accommodations have to be built for the large numbers of newcomers, and this again creates employment – particularly for the newly arrived tradesmen. A process of urbanisation is started, which went on similarly in most of the other districts of Greenland, and thus forms a sample of the country’s modern history.
HISTORICAL SIGHTS IN THE TOWN
· The museum’s buildings at the old harbour at Louisevej, erected between 1830 and 1928.
· Henrik and Malene Lund’s House, Henrik Lundsvej B-430.
· The school chapel, which today houses office and meeting facilities of the Children’s and Cultural Management of Narsaq municipality. Originally erected at the old harbour in 1907 of building materials from the demolished missionary’s residence in Qaqortoq (Julianehåb) from 1835. Moved to its present location in 1920 (Kirkevej B-84).
· The church, erected in 1926-27 by master carpenter Pavia Høegh, Qaqortoq, after his own plan. Extended in 1981. The churchyard was established on the spot already around the year 1833. The wall originally surrounding it was built of stones from the Norse ruin that was situated on the same location. The present wall dates from 1953.
· The two stone-built houses B-440 and B-441 at Niels Bohrs Plads, erected in 1930, when stone building in South Greenland enjoyed a renaissance.
· The former residence of the trading post manager (today’s doctor’s residence), erected by Pavia Høegh in 1936 – the only building in town with a mansard roof (Josefsvej B-60).
A number of the town’s social and administrative buildings are in their own giving a picture of Narsaq’s development. Consider thus:
· The present police station at Niels Bohrs Plads, which functioned as municipal office between 1961 and 1975. After this period, the municipality moved from here into the newly erected administration building at Erik Egedes Plads. Note the dimensions of these two buildings, which were used for the same purpose.
· The school buildings: Originally, the teaching took place in the above-mentioned school chapel, which was moved from the old harbour to Kirkevej in 1920. In 1954, a new school building (Kirkevej B-146) was erected on the site; today it houses a workshop of the NIS project (a youth employment project). It was supplemented by two further school huts (B-265 and B-266), erected nearby in 1961. One of these two huts has been demolished again; the remaining one is likewise functioning as a workshop of the NIS project today. The present school was built in 1967, and was extended later on.
THE SETTLEMENTS AND VILLAGES
A number of small sites in Narsaq district have been inhabited at one time or another. Some of them have been abandoned again after only a short period of settlement; others were inhabited for quite a long time and with a fairly large population. There could be various reasons for abandoning a settlement: Some were abandoned because surviving in the area had become too difficult; others in favour of the opportunities a larger town had to offer. Still others were closed down by the authorities, especially during the 20th century – in those cases people had to leave the settlements more or less against their own will. In 1953/54 it was thus considered necessary to close down the large settlement Niaqornaq at the northern shore of Ndr. Sermilik Fjord – in order to secure labour for the newly established shrimp and fish-processing factory in Narsaq.
Today, there are only three inhabited sites left in the district: the two villages Igaliku and Qassiarsuk with their surrounding sheep-farmer’s hamlets, and South Greenland’s international airport, Narsarsuaq.
Igaliku
Exclusively taken into account the Greenlandic habitations in the district, Igaliku is the oldest of the presently inhabited villages. In 1782, the Norwegian-born merchant Anders Olsen (d. 1786) settled here as a cattle farmer together with his Greenlandic wife Tuperna (d. 1789) and their children. His descendants, who changed their family name into Egede, continued cattle breeding besides hunting and fishing. In the 20th century, this was supplemented with sheep-breeding, which today is the village’s most important branch of trade.
Since Anders Olsen’s days, the primary building materials in Igaliku were stones from the Norse ruins on the site.
Today’s village Igaliku is placed at the same spot, where the Norse Episcopal residence, Gardar, was situated during the middle ages. A number of ruins from the Norse period, including those of the cathedral, have been excavated and can be visited.
Qassiarsuk
The village was founded as a sheep farm, when Otto Frederiksen in 1924 pioneered as a sheep breeder and farmer here. His descendants continued as self-employed sheep breeders, and other families moved into the area eventually.
A branch of the Frederiksen clan likewise breeds sheep in Tasiusaq at Ndr. Sermilik Fjord.
Today’s village Qassiarsuk is situated at the same spot, where Erik the Red – the first Norseman in Greenland according to the Icelandic sagas – at the end of the 10th century founded his habitation Brattahlid. The Christian Norsemen erected a small wooden church on the spot, of which was built a reconstruction in 1999. Tjodhilde’s Church is expected to become a pilgrimage centre for Christians from all over the world in the future.
Narsarsuaq
Narsarsuaq is the youngest village in the district. It was founded as an American air base in 1941 – being the first of its kind in Greenland it received the code name ”Bluie West 1”. During the Second World War, ”Bluie West 1” was of strategical importance, functioning as an intermediate landing base for American aircrafts on their way to the European battlefields. Reports that also during the Korean War in 1950-53 wounded soldiers were treated at the base hospital on their way back home, were never officially confirmed or dismissed.
The Americans left Narsarsuaq in 1958, and both airfield and base facilities were closed down. Yet when the Danish passenger liner ”Hans Hedtoft” after an iceberg collision foundered at Cape Farewell in January the following year, the airfield was reopened: It should now function as a base for ice reconnaissance flights in the perilous waters around Greenland’s southernmost point. Then in the middle of the 1960s, Narsarsuaq was opened for civil air traffic also, since the growing number of passengers had made it necessary for South Greenland to have an airport of its own.
Today, the main occupation of Narsarsuaq’s residents still remains the daily running of the airport and its related facilities.