Writer revisits 1894 death aboard Scottish trawler

An Icelandic historical novel revisits the death of a young engineer aboard a Scottish trawler in 1894, a case that began when his body was found in Seyðisfjörður five months later. Ásgeir Hvítaskáld, the pen name of writer Þórhallur Þórhallsson, discussed his new book with Morgunblaðið.

The Engineer from Aberdeen centres on events aboard the M.A. Dodds, which was cruising in Seyðisfjörður on May 5, 1894. Ásgeir said drunken revelry aboard the vessel could be heard from shore, but was not considered unusual at the time. The trawler then left, and local residents forgot about it until October 2.

That day, two Faroese fishermen were hauling in a fishing line at the mouth of the fjord when a badly decomposed body came up on a hook. It had been in the sea for five months, Ásgeir said.

The body was brought ashore and photographed at the direction of the local sheriff, Axel Tulinius. He suspected it was John Stephenson, a young engineer who had been reported missing from the M.A. Dodds when it returned to Aberdeen. Earlier that summer, Iceland’s governor, Magnús Stephensen, had received a request from police in Aberdeen to investigate.

The crew said Stephenson had fallen overboard in severe weather on the journey from Iceland. But one sailor, who was the engineer’s brother-in-law, told a different story: he said the crew had killed Stephenson while the trawler was still in Seyðisfjörður and thrown his body into the sea. A crew member who was suspected in the case was detained, and the request for an investigation was sent to Magnús through Danish authorities, as Iceland was then under Danish rule.

An autopsy was carried out in Seyðisfjörður. Ásgeir said he reviewed the autopsy reports and letters from the sheriff, now held at the National and University Library of Iceland, and drew on them for the novel. The examination found Stephenson was dead before he entered the water. There was also no blood in the heart chambers, indicating that he had bled to death beforehand.

By the time those findings emerged, the suspect had been released from custody. A complex case followed in Scotland, which Ásgeir discusses in the book.

Ásgeir said he first became fascinated by the case as a boy, after borrowing records of short stories read by Þórbergur Þórðarson from a library. After living in Denmark for many years, he moved to Egilsstaðir and began exploring nearby Seyðisfjörður, including Brimnes, where the crew had tried to call ashore. He also travelled to Aberdeen, visited Stephenson’s former home on Cotton Street and looked into life in the city in the 19th century.