Rerun. ‘The Fish Feud!’ - as the tabloids originally termed the standoff between Britain and Iceland over fishing rights - had escalated into a fully-fledged ‘Cod War’ by 21st September, 1958, when the destroyer H.M.S. Diana requested medical assistance for a Marine suffering appendicitis.
The dispute arose when Iceland had unilaterally extended its fishing zone from 4 to 12 nautical miles. For centuries prior to this, boundaries were calculated via the ‘canon shot rule’ - i.e. the distance a canon could be fired from the shore.
In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly explain why Iceland was having a jingoistic moment; reveal how the Soviets intervened to disrupt Britain’s defense strategy; and explain how the humble battered sausage came to the rescue for the UK’s chip shops…
Further Reading:
• ‘Iceland v Britain: the cod wars begin’ (The Guardian, 1958): https://www.theguardian.com/business/from-the-archive-blog/2018/sep/07/first-cod-war-iceland-britain-fish-1958
• ‘How Iceland Beat the British in the Four Cod Wars’ (Atlas Obscura, 2018): https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/what-were-cod-wars
• ‘Storyville: Cod Wars’ (BBC, 2002): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FsOytZMRXo0
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The Retrospectors are Olly Mann, Rebecca Messina & Arion McNicoll, with Matt Hill.
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Today In History with The Retrospectors