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The Icelandic Coast Guard is the service responsible for Iceland's coastal defense and maritime search and rescue. Origins of the Icelandic Coast Guard (Landhelgisgæsla Íslands or Landhelgisgæslan) can be traced to 1859, when the corvette Ørnen started patrolling Icelandic waters. And in 1906 the first purposely built guard-ship Islands Falk came to Iceland. Iceland's own defense of its territorial waters began around 1920 and the Icelandic Coast Guard was formally founded on July 1, 1926. The first cannon was put on the trawler Þór in 1924 and on June 23, 1926 the first ship built for the Coast Guard, named Óðinn, arrived in Iceland. Three years later, on the 14 July 1929 the coastal defence ship Ægir was added to the Coast Guard fleet.
The Icelandic Coast Guard played its largest role during the Cod Wars between 1972 and 1975, when the Coast Guard ships would cut the trawl wires of British and West German trawlers, in order to protect sealife from overfishing.
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