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 On 23 January 1973 the volcano Eldfell on the island of Heimaey erupted and the ICG ships were withdrawn to aid in the rescue of the island's citizens.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 26 May "Ægir" fired upon the trawler "Everton", nearly sinking it. With the arrival of the Royal Navy, the ICG vessels began interactions with the frigates and "Ægir" had three separate significant collisions with British frigates; on 1 June with on 17 July with and on 29 August with . The final collision resulted in the death of an ICG sailor, the only casualty of the Cod Wars.