The self-styled “King of the Icelanders” as recalled and described by Doctor Thompson, Captain Ed Nelson, and in the Gimli Saga
(an extract reproduced Hnausa Reflections: A History of the Breiðavík District)
“Doc Thompson was our hero, and we shared him the surrounding area. He had a special relationship with the people of Hecla.” –a remarkable man who was a young boy growing up in Selkirk playing with his buddies on the dock of the bustling harbor when the then already legendary Stefan Sigurdsson was in his prime sweeping down the dock with a retinue, giving orders, and throwing pennies to the young boys, following in his wake.” (Vikings on Prairie Ocean)
“The major shipyards and boat builders were located in Selkirk and Captain Ed Nelson and his crew were among the best…The JR Spear began plying the waters of Lake Winnipeg in the summer of 1933, with Captain Ed Nelson at the wheel”. This legendary figure was a remarkable man who amongst other things contributed many amazing stories to the Winnipeg free Press in his later years. (Vikings on a Prairie Ocean)
“The Lady of the Lake “ was the mighty vessel that the Sigurdsson Brothers Hnausa launched in Selkirk in 1897. In 2000, in recognition of this family symbol to this day, a special room and state of the art theatre bearing this name was dedicated by the family in what is now the New Iceland Heritage Museum in Gimli and opened on October 22,2000 by the then Prime Minister Of Iceland , David Oddsson, on the 125th year since the Icelanders had first arrived on these shores.
On August 2, 2014 some of the members of the extended family descendant from Sigurdur Erlendsson, one of the earliest Icelandic pioneers who arrived in 1876 soon to make his home in Hecla, gathered in an informal reception in this room during Islendingadaggurin. Stefan Sigurdsson was Sigurdur’s oldest son. The reception was to celebrate together this family legacy, and to recognize the publication of Vikings on a Prairie Ocean ,The Saga of a Lake, a People, a Family and a Man by Stefan Glenn Sigurdson, the son of Stefan Sigurdson, who was the grandson of the his namesake the legendary Stefan Sigurdsson , the “self styled King of the Icelander’s, who like his father and grandfather had spent his life as part of the family fishing legacy of more than 100 years on Lake Winnipeg. The pictures that follow were taken that afternoon.