In what has been termed Spánverjavígin, a crew of 32 shipwrecked and stranded Basque were executed by Icelanders in 1615. In 1662, locals in Skagaströnd attributed the sudden blindness of 64 sheep to magic spells cast by French whalers on the sheep. Jón Guðmundsson condemned the local sheriff for this decision in his account of the event. Since 2005, historian Magnús Rafnsson and archaeologist Ragnar Edvardsson have been excavating the remains of a 17th-century Basque whaling station in the northwest of Iceland. Icelanders did not engage in any large-scale whaling. According to contemporary sources, Icelanders lacked capital in the 18th century to invest in whaling, and did not have knowledge of the most effective whaling methods. Contemporary sources show that Icelanders were interested in starting whaling operations but lacked access to capital and did not have government support for innovation. Whalers from the United States and from Norway and other European nations expanded their activities into Icelandic waters with new techniques and technology in the late 19th century. In 1865, Americans Thomas Welcome Roys and C. A. Lilliendahl tested their experimental rocket harpoon design and set up a shore station in Seyðisfjörður, east Iceland. However, a slump in oil prices after the American Civil War forced their endeavor into bankruptcy in 1867. A Danish naval officer, O.C. Hammer, set up two shore stations in Iceland and used Roys' rocket harpoon design. Norwegian Svend Foyn (famous for later inventing the modern whaling harpoon) also studied the American method in Iceland. In 1883, whaling expanded from Norwegian waters to Iceland as unrestricted catching depleted whale stocks off the coast of Norway. Svend Foyn made several attempts to profit from whaling in Iceland but was ultimately unsuccessful. In reaction to demands that Norwegians working in Iceland should become naturalized Icelandic (Danish) subjects, Foyn sold his shares to company partners and abandoned his plans for whaling in Iceland. The major shareholder, Thomas Amlie of Oslo, assumed the role of expedition manager and enjoyed great success. As a result, competing companies transferred their operations to Iceland. At the age of 82, Amlie was lost at sea with one of his whaling ships and all 32 hands in a violent 1897 storm. Amlie is considered the father of modern whaling in Iceland.