Foreman Thuridur

Þuríður Einarsdóttir (Thurídur Einarsdottir), commonly known as Foreman Thurídur or Þuríður formaður, (1777 – 13 November 1863) was an Icelandic sea captain. Unusually for a woman, for over half a century she worked as an increasingly renowned fisherman, first as a deckhand then taking command of boats as "foreman", the term traditionally used for captain in Iceland. She is also known for helping to identify those behind the infamous in 1827.

Early life Born on the Stéttar (or Stéttir) farm near the village of Eyrarbakki in 1777, Þuríður Einarsdóttir was the daughter of Helga Bjarnadóttir and Einar Eiríksson, a farmer and a fisherman. She lived with her parents until she was 25. When she was 11, she started fishing on her father's boat in the spring.

Following her father's death in the early 1790s, she fished both in the spring and autumn with her brother Bjarni. Finally, when in her twenties, she became a fully competent seafarer, able to go out in winter too with Foreman Jón in Móhús. Typically, the foreman of a fishing boat commanded a crew of about 15. At the time, the boats had no sails, and were propelled with oars. While working, she dressed as a man. She recognized the pattern on a shoe dropped by one of the robbers, and the mark of an anvil on an iron rod found at the site as having been crafted in a smithy belonging to Jón Geirmundsson in Stéttar. He turned out to be one of the robbers. It is thought that she died of a heart attack.

Memorial In 1949, a replica of a turf-roofed fisherman's hut called Þuríðarbúð was erected in Stokkseyri in her memory. Close to the site of her own hut, it can be visited as a small museum.