It was the energetic Minister of the Interior J.B.S. Estrup, who guided the law on the construction of a harbour at Esbjerg through the Danish parliament. In spite of the fact that the kingdom of Denmark was in dire need of a west-facing export harbour after 1864, it was no simple task for the Conservative Minister of the Interior, who took a close interest in the upgrading of the Danish infrastructure. The inhabitants of west Jutland could not agree on whether the new harbour should be located in Ribe, Nordby, Hjerting, Ringkøbing or even Vigsø, and the cities’ big merchants – who had no interest in developing the region of West Jutland – played them off against each other. Estrup persisted, however, and with the slogan »harbour brings trade«, he attained on 24 April 1868 the royal assent to his Law on the Construction of a Harbour near Esbjerg.

Already in the 1880s work started on expanding the harbour, and in 1886-1889 the fishing port was built. Esbjerg harbour was originally conceived as a dock which was to export agricultural goods from the area of south-west Jutland to Great Britain, but other industries, including fishing, quickly spotted the opportunities afforded by the harbour. Since the 1880s cutters based in Esbjerg had been fishing for cod and haddock, but around the turn of the century the development of fishing in Esbjerg accelerated. The introduction of the anchor seine and the engine-powered cutter meant that fishermen could go after new catches such as plaice, and go to sea for a longer part of the year – revenues rose and the fishing industry grew. In 1901, therefore, a new fishing harbour was opened, which would house the new fleet which in the period 1889 to 1909 had grown from 20 to 100 cutters.

The favourable situation enjoyed by fishermen caused mixed feelings in Denmark. On the one hand, one could respect the fact that fishermen carried out their work under particularly dangerous circumstances, but on the other hand, one could not ignore that export to the occupying power was especially advantageous. In May 1943, therefore, the resistance movement wrote in the local newspaper Sydvestjylland (South West Jutland) that the fishermen ought to consider holding back a bit with their fishing. Later, however, the tone was not so friendly, and fishermen were threatened with the prospect of sabotage if they continued to earn money on their export. It never came to that, however, and the fishermen of Esbjerg got through the occupation unharmed. One fish exporter remarked later that one ought to “separate the wheat from the chaff”, or in other words, separate the “damage to the national cause from business competition.”

The 1960s were booming years for Esbjerg’s fishing for human consumption, and the harbour boasted around 50 fish processing businesses. In 1967 a new auction hall was opened in the fishing harbour, where the old slipway was replaced by modern landing cranes and ice separation equipment. The 1960s were the Golden Age of Esbjerg fishing and the size of the fleet eventually grew to be more than 600 cutters. Together with the industrial fisheries, consumer fishing now employed 3,800 people while a further 5,000 were employed in other businesses indirectly connected to the fishing industry. Fishing thus accounted for one third of Esbjerg’s working population.

In the 1960s Esbjerg harbour was once again on its feet as Denmark’s fourth largest with an annual turnover of over one million tonnes of freight. The decade was marked by a general modernisation of the old dockyard, in which investment was made in a new 35 tonne crane for heavy lifting and motorised conveyor belts. But the new breakthrough came with the introduction of freight containers which radically improved the efficiency of exports. From 1965-67 a container terminal was established at the port of Esbjerg. The project ended up costing DKK 100 million, of which a large portion was paid by DFDS, which also invested in two new so-called ‘Roll-on/Roll-off’ (Ro-Ro) transport ships, each with a capacity of 152 containers.

At the same time as fishing was going into decline, the offshore business, which would help to change Esbjerg harbour, was taking off. The once largest fishing harbour in Denmark was now becoming a home port for the Danish oil and gas industry. Maybe the fishing industry was now finished and done with, and many fishermen had returned to life on dry land, found new jobs or enjoyed their retirement, but others chose to seek employment in the new industries that were being established in the port. We can see one good example of this in Esbjerg Vagtskibsselskab A/S, or Esvagt for short. Three citizens of Esbjerg: fishing skipper Ole Andersen, captain of industry Henning Kruse and the chairman of Esbjerg Fishermen’s association, Kent Kirk, established a shipping company in 1981, with the purpose of ensuring security at sea for the new industry in the North Sea. Today Esvagt operates internationally and undertakes other tasks, such as servicing wind turbines. Their ships are known by their characteristic orange-red colour.