Kingdom and West Germany fished in the area for cod. In the late 1950s, Icelandic Coast Guard ships attempted to drive off fishing trawlers which led escalation and the intervention of the British Royal Navy. In 1961, the two sides made peace and allowed British ships in Icelandic waters at certain times of the year. Before this could be completely settled in international courts, a second confrontation began. Iceland expanded its EEZ again, this time to . ICG vessels were deployed to chase unlicensed fishing trawlers out of the new limit. On 2 September 1972, Ægir chased 16 trawlers out of the EEZ. This led to the Royal Navy creating a special patrol that would stay just outside of the new limit. While awaiting the court's decision, the ICG had armed all of its trawlers with net cutters. If a fishing trawler refused to leave the area, the ICG ships would come up astern of the fishing trawler at a right angle and using the net cutter, cut the fishing vessel's nets. The loss of the nets and the catch within was an expensive proposition for the fishermen, so they began to work together to prevent the ICG vessels from cutting their nets. Some of the fishing trawlers tried to prevent the ICG from cutting their nets by ramming the ICG ships. On 12 September Ægir cut the nets of the fishing trawlers Lucinda and Wyre Victory. On 23 January 1973 the volcano Eldfell on the island of Heimaey erupted and the ICG ships were withdrawn to aid in the rescue of the island's citizens. They returned on 5 May. In the meantime, the British had chartered two tugboats to help defend the fishing trawlers within Iceland's EEZ. In March Ægir fired upon the trawlers Brucella and St Leger in separate incidents. By 17 May, the ICG vessels had fired upon the trawlers 12 more times, which led them to demand Royal Navy assistance. The Royal Navy entered the area and the trawlers began to fish in boxes of four. On the morning of 26 May, Ægir, captained by Guðmundur Kjærnested, caught the trawler Everton, captained by George Mussell, fishing within the 50-nautical mile zone and demanded that it stopped to be boarded. Captain Mussell rejected the Coast Guards demands and steamed away. Ægir pursued and fired several warning shots, first blanks and then solid shots across Evertons bow. When