M/K Heland
Fishing Boat
M/K Heland
M/K Heland was built by Einar Helland at Vestnes in Møre og Romsdal in 1937 for Severin and Arne A. Roald and Olaf Røssvik. The boat had three functions. They fished using the boat all year round. During the wintertime, Heland went driftnet fishing for large winter herring.
After the herring came cod fishing and then came putting on the canon and the shark and small whale haNesting began in May and June. The whale harvesting was done in the North Sea and the Barents Sea by Jan Mayen and in the waters around Iceland. They subsequently fished halibut with long-line at Storegga in September and October.
The vessel was also used for tunny fishing and Greenland shark fishing.
The use of the boat followed a pattern that was common for most fishing boats from the 1930s up until the 1960s.
The cutters were numerous in the Sunnmøre fishing fleet up until 1960. They provided a livelihood for many and were an important part of daily and working life.
M/K Heland and the war
M/K Heland was one of the last vessels to join the shipping traffic to England. The Germans preferred to utilize the solid vessel to transport equipment for the reconstruction of a stronghold installation at Vigra. As a rule, the skipper Severin Roald was notified in advance, thus enabling him to waylay the passage.
In the autumn of 1941, he received an inquiry from a local resistance group as to whether he could take part in transporting agents and weapons between Shetland and Sunnmøre. Roald's reply was yes. In November 1941, Heland carried out a mission for the Milorg resistance group on Vigra, transporting agents and refugees to Shetland.
Having made two trips across the North Sea for the intelligence organization SOE and for Milorg at year-end 1941, the vessel made a new trip, this time with twenty three refugees on board. Heland set out from Vigra on 25 February 1942 and reached Lerwick in Shetland two days later. The vessel later made several trips between Shetland and Norway as part of the Shetland Bus operation but in 1943 it was stationed as a reserve boat in Scalloway.
Heland became one of the fishing vessel in the fleet of the Shetland Bus and carried out further trips to Norway.
Restoration
When newly built, Heland was fitted with a Håhjem engine, which was replaced with a 130 HP Heimdal engine in 1960, an engine still on board today. Modifications were made to the superstructure after the war. In 1971, Heland was decommissioned and acquired by Sunnmøre Museum that same year. The vessel is preserved as a representative of the fishing fleet from the 1930–1960 period and as a symbol of the Shetland Bus operation. Heland underwent restoration at the Hardanger Ship Preservation Centre from 1994 to 1998.
