Asmund Hestø ordered a boat from the shipyard of Ole Fjær in Ramfjord, Nærøy. The boat was finished and delivered to Asmund in 1948, at the cost of 27 000 NOK, which at the time was a substantial amount of money. Tax and insurance documents show the value of the boat when acquired, and that there a few years later was a damage done to the boat.
Asmund used the boat fishing both locally and for the cod fisheries up north in Lofoten, often in the company of and with the help of his two oldest sons, Arvid and Åsmund.
The boat was not only used for fishing as the following picture shows. It is told that Åsmund was the captain on a trip with a class visiting the Gjæslingan lighthouse in 1954. The grandfather on Kjell Øiahals’ mother’s side was the guide showing the way, and the children in the picture, were 4th and 5th graders. Åsmund was 18 years old at the time.
The history of the boat after my grandfather Asmund sold it has been unraveled by local historians and men very interested in boat histories of Ytre Namdal. Thanks to Anton Ramfjord, Terje Fossaa and Terje Haugvik especially, the continued story of Bølgen came together.
My grandfather sold the boat to Leon Hellesø, a local of Vikna, and the boat changed its name to Aunskjær, and it got a new registration NT5V. This was in 1963 or 1964. Hellesø used the boat locally doing shrimp-fishing, and up north in Lofoten. It is told by Terje Haugvik that Hellesø was a skilled fisher and a nice man to work with. In the beginning when Leon Hellesø owned Bølgen/ Aunskjær there was a Brunvoll 28 HP engine onboard. In the winter of 1981 Leon visited a shipyard in Lyngsnes and got the engine changed into a 1978- Scania truck-engine rebuilt to be a marine engine.
In August of 1984 Hellesø sold Aunskjær to Vidar Johansen in Mevika, Gildeskål county. New registration number on the boat was N-73-G (Gildeskål). The boat was now sold for about 200 000 NOK. Vidar Johansen was originally from Snyen, a small island west of Bolga in Meløy county in the northern parts of Norway. Johansen continued using the boat for shrimp-fisheries, and he kept the boat well and modernized what he needed – changing the winching as the latest and biggest replacement.
In August of 1991, Vidar, along with a colleague, took Aunskjær/ Bølgen to its final resting place; a dumping field for boats in Gildeskål county. The place where Bølgen finally ended its days, stripped of all equipment except for the engine, was in the Fugløyfjord, west of the cairn of Femris. It was sunken at 100 meters depth.
The last picture of this story is the last known picture of Bølgen before it was condemned.
