Guðlaugur Friðþórsson

Aerial view of the Westman Isles (Vestmannaeyjar), looking north, with the Icelandic mainland in the background. Heimaey is the larger island in the centre.

Guðlaugur Friðþórsson is an Icelandic fisherman who in 1984 survived six hours in cold water after his vessel capsized. After swimming to land he then trekked for another three hours across lava fields to reach a town for help.

Sequence of events On 11 March 1984, Guðlaugur and four other fishermen were fishing off the coast of Heimaey near the Westman Islands when their boat capsized at about 10 p.m.

As the boat sank, Guðlaugur and two out of four other crewmen climbed on to the keel. After about 45 minutes, they swam towards the shore; two disappearing within 10 minutes. The only survivor of the crew of five, Guðlaugur swam for five to six hours in water the to the island, wearing a shirt, sweater and jeans, He claimed to have remained clear-headed throughout. In autumn 1985, Jóhann Axelsson, head of Department of Physiology at the University of Iceland in Reykjavík, who had included Guðlaugur in an ongoing study about hypothermia, took Guðlaugur to London to see William Keatinge of the Physiology Department of the London Hospital Medical College and an expert in hypothermia. Together, they demonstrated that the 23-year old, Icelander had phenomenal resistance to cold.