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Depicted is the 'Amandine' (only available in the Dutch and German language). The 'Amandine' (designated O 129 and built in 1960) is a medium-sized trawler. The ship is now moored in Ostend, Belgium as an interactive museum ship in a dry dock at the renovated Visserskaai (Fishermen Quay). The 'Amandine' was the last Belgian ship that had fishing rights on the fishing grounds around Iceland in the 1990s. On board one can learn now everything about Icelandic navigation and sea fishing.

Although I wasn't a fisherman during my maritime career, I know that the living and working conditions during the long journeys to the North were downright harsh and sometimes life-threatening for the fishermen. The small spaces, the stuffy air in the cabins, the ice-cold temperatures in the fish hold, the successive shifts of working and sleeping with little relaxation were part of their though job.