Maritime Museum — Herring, Shipping and the Atlantic World
Listen at the stop, then read the transcript and follow the sources behind the story.
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Transcript
Before petroleum, Stavanger’s prosperity depended heavily on the sea. Herring fisheries expanded trade, shipowning and processing, while sailing vessels connected the city to North Sea and Atlantic markets. The maritime economy also carried people outward. When crisis hit in the late nineteenth century, more than ten thousand Stavanger residents emigrated to America according to Stavanger Museum’s city history. Shipping networks could therefore move both commodities and population. The harbour should be read as an economic system rather than scenery: catches arrived, vessels were fitted out, credit circulated, workers hired on, and emigrants left. Oil later changed the scale of Stavanger’s maritime economy, but not its dependence on the sea.