• Visit.Shetland.org>
• See & Do>
• Historical>
• Maritime

Maritime

The Seafaring Life

For thousands of years the sea has been the central fact of Shetland life - a source of food, employment, timber, fertiliser and, before roads were built in the mid-19th century, the main means of getting around the archipelago. Until the 1930s the sea was also the only way to travel to and from the outside world.

Prehistoric Stepping Stones

On clear days you can see Orkney from Caithness, Fair Isle from Orkney and Shetland from Fair Isle. Given time, the patience to wait for settled weather, and the courage to venture on the ocean, prehistoric people could have reached Shetland repeatedly. The first to discover Shetland, perhaps 7,000 years ago, may have been seasonal visitors, attracted by the vast abundance of fish and seals. Their boats would have been similar to Irish curraghs, made from animal skins stitched over frames of branches. At that time the islands had extensive scrub woodland and rich pastures, probably ungrazed for thousands of years after the Ice Age, which encouraged settlement.

A Living Tradition, 1,200 Years Old...

Modern Shetland boatbuilders use similar designs and methods to their Viking forebears -and identical technical terms. Hinnispot; kabe; taft; tilfer; humlibaand: these old Norwegian dialect words continue in daily use for parts of Shetland boats, 1,200 years after the islands became part of the Norse empire. The distinctive, double-ended skiffs are still hand-built here for rowing, sailing and sea-angling. You can watch these beautiful craft racing at our many summer regattas, or take a turn at the oar as a galley slave for an evening aboard Shetland's replica Norse war galley, Dim Riv. No flogging - we promise.

A Watch On The Waterfront

From the battlements of Fort Charlotte there's a grand view over Lerwick Harbour and Bressay Sound. The comings and goings of ships and seafarers are a constant source of interest, particularly around the Small Boat Harbour, with its visiting yachts, local small craft and Lerwick's new Severn-class RNLI lifeboat, and "oot ower" at Morrison Dock, where the inshore fishing fleet is based.

"...Bressay Sound, a capacious bay, in which vessels, well found, may ride at all seasons in perfect safety..."

Rev. James Sands, The Statistical Account of the Parish of Lerwick, 1791.

Lerwick was founded as a shore base for the 17th century Dutch herring fishery. It got off to a bad start, being demolished and forbidden in 1615 and 1625 by indignant dignitaries from Scalloway (then the Shetland "capital"). They resented competition and deplored the alleged wickedness of Lerwick's seasonal inhabitants - who gathered there every Midsummer, partying with thousands of Dutch fishermen and selling them warm woollies, fresh provisions and, it must be admitted, a good time.

... being informit of the great abominatioun and wickednes committit yeirlie be the Hollanderis and cuntrie people godles and prophane persones repairing to thame at the houssis of Lerwick quilk [which] is a desert place To the venteris of beir [beer sellers] thair quha [who] as appeiris voyd of all feir of God and misregarding all civell and ecclesiastical 47 governement in thair drunkenes and utherwayis committis manifest bludshed ... also in committing manifold adultrie and fornicatioun with women venteris of the said beir and utheris women Inclyned quha resortis thither under pretext of selling of sokis and utheris necessaris to thame ... [ordered the houses of Lerwick to be demolished].

Sir John Buchanan, Sheriff Principle of Orkney and Shetland, 7th November 1625.

In 1702 French warships burned Lerwick again, along with its fort and much of the Dutch herring fleet. The picturesque lodberries (from the Old Norse "loading rock") at the South End mostly date from the 18th century. Commercial Street winds north along the original shoreline of Ler Wick ("muddy bay"). All the buildings on the seaward side of the street once stood with their foundations in the sea but, since Lerwick Harbour Trust was formed in 1877, most of the waterfront has been reclaimed to build the Esplanade, Victoria Pier and the docks to the north.

"An Immense Concern"

Garth's Pool (1815) and Hay's Dock (1820) were the first harbours in Shetland where ships could lie alongside to work cargo. In 1841 a visitor described "Messrs. Hay and Ogilvie's great stores, building yard, and curing houses ..." and marvelled that "This seemed an immense concern, containing within itself the means and materials of every kind of work, and rather resembled a small self-contained colony than a private establishment, so numerous and complete are its docks and harbours, ships, quays, and other commercial conveniences". Hay's Dock is now home to the new Shetland Museum & Archives, displaying a fine collection of historic craft, including the Swan, a fishing smack built at Hay's in 1900 and now fully restored as a sail training vessel.

Signals From The Past

Overlooking Lerwick Harbour are the TV transmitters on the Ward Hill (742') of Bressay. Its old name is Petta Vird, meaning the Picts' Lookout. It's the only hill where you can see all of Shetland, from Unst to Fair Isle, and it's been in the telecommunications business since prehistoric times. A bonfire on the Ward probably raised the alarm when the first Viking longships appeared on the eastern horizon, around the year 800AD. Viking warlords, like Celtic chieftains before them, could also use the Ward to communicate with mainland Scotland, via beacons on Fair Isle and Orkney.

Those first longships would have come to Shetland on the easterly winds of April and May that still blow today. Their skippers could rely on autumn westerlies to take them home to Norway, at the end of a summer's raiding and trading to the Hebrides, Faroe, Iceland, Greenland or even North America.

The German Connection

For over 600 years Shetland was part of the Scandinavian realm. Most trade was in sturdy wooden knurrs and havskips via Bergen, where the merchants of the Hansa League became dominant. By the early 15th century Hanseatic traders from German ports were sailing direct to Shetland, cutting out the Bergen trading post, or kontor. Each trader was allocated an anchorage by the authorities in Shetland, who also enforced agreed prices. The story of these German merchant families is told in the Symbister Bõd museum in Whalsay.

"Herringopolis"

In the first decade of the 20th century Lerwick and Baltasound were the centres of a huge herring fishery by steam drifters. Dozens of smaller ports around the Shetland coast had their own curing stations, attracting tens of thousands of migrant workers every summer. The First World War destroyed the Russian and East European markets but herring gutters, packers and coopers lasted into the 1960s, when drifters were replaced by purse-seiners and, in the 1990s, by pelagic trawlers.

In the 19th century the great-grandfathers of today's Shetland trawler crews rowed and sailed to the longline fishery for cod, ling and tusk, up to 40 or 50 miles from land. The six-oared "sixerns" with their tan-coloured squaresails were picturesque but deadly in summer storms. Casualties were high and safer, decked boats like the Swan replaced sixerns as soon as Shetlanders could afford them. In the past hundred years the technology of boats and gear has changed repeatedly but the intimate connection between Shetland and the sea remains.

At Scalloway the North Atlantic Fisheries College continues this tradition, training the next generation of fishing crews and seafood workers, and carrying out research into fish stocks, processing and marketing.

Taking fishing, fish farming and fish processing together, seafood is still Shetland's largest industry, employing more people than oil.

Sunset Of The Red Fleet

Throughout the Cold War, the Soviet Bloc fishing fleet made regular calls at Shetland. The early 1990s saw the peak of the "klondykers" when up to 80 fish factory ships anchored in Bressay Sound, processing summer herring and winter mackerel on board. The collapse of Communism was soon followed by the bankruptcy of the klondykers and now most of the fish is handled in modern plants onshore.

The Unicorn

On the east coast of Shetland a rock bears the name of the Unicorn, a ship lost in August 1567 while chasing Mary Queen of Scots' husband, the Earl of Bothwell, who had fled to Shetland under suspicion of involvement in the murder of Mary's first husband, Henry, Lord Darnley. At Sumburgh Bothwell commandeered two ships from German merchants. Just north of Bressay Sound the Unicorn had almost caught up with him when they both ran onto the reef. Bothwell's damaged ship sailed on to Baltasound in Unst but the Unicorn was a total loss. The fugitive sailed before a gale to Norway, where the King of Denmark rejected his offer to give back Orkney and Shetland to the Danish crown and clapped Bothwell in jail, where he died insane.

Throughout history Shetland's fickle weather has contributed to hundreds of wrecks, yet the earliest proper lighthouse was not erected until 1821 and most of the main Shetland lights date from the Crimean War when the Admiralty, worried about the Russian Navy, insisted on navigational aids for the Northern Approaches.

The earliest recorded wrecks were the longships Hjolp and Fifa, probably in Gulberwick, in the year 1148. Earl Rognvald of Norway survived the disaster and the tale is told in Orkneyinga Saga. Some 400 years later the Spanish Armada ship El Gran Grifon loomed out of a gale and crashed into Fair Isle. Other famous wrecks include the 17th century Dutch ships Carmelan and De Liefde on Out Skerries, the White Star liner Oceanic on the Shaalds of Foula, the German barque Bohus on Yell (1924), the mail steamer St Sunniva on Mousa (1930), the Russian factory ship Pionersk at Trebister Ness (1994) - and, most famous of all, the US-owned tanker Braer which stranded at Garth's Ness on January 5, 1993, on a voyage from Norway to Canada.

Shipping Oil Safely

Since 1978 Shetland has been a major oil and gas exporter through the Sullom Voe oil terminal, which has set new global standards for minimising oil pollution. After several incidents in the first months of operation the council-run port instituted new regulations, enforced by its oil company partners, which have made this the cleanest tanker harbour in the world, with negligible spills attributable to Sullom Voe ships. The terminal's environmental and other advisory groups were models for a citizens' group set up in Alaska after the Exxon Valdez spill.

After a generation of decline in Merchant Navy employment, oil brought Shetlanders seafaring jobs on the Sullom Voe tugs, pilot vessels and workboats and greatly increased the amount shipping around the islands, as oilfield supply ships, safety boats, seismic research vessels, pipelayers, drillships and rigs became regular visitors.

The North Boats

For hundreds of years Shetland was cut off from the outside world for most of the winter. The savage storms of the north-east Atlantic - and the lack of lighthouses - deterred skippers of sailing "packets" from venturing near Shetland in the darkest quarter of the year. Until the invention of the steamship, mail might only arrive at Lerwick a dozen times a year and there was nothing like a regular passenger or freight connection with Aberdeen or Leith.

The first summer steamship sailings to the isles began in 1838 but not until 20 years later was there a regular, year-round shipping service. "The North Boats" have a proud record in peace and war. The former operators, P&O, had a special local connection - in 1837 the shipping line's co-founder was a Lerwick man, Arthur Anderson. Since 1977 there has been a roll-on/roll-off ferry service to Aberdeen, and the two new 'cruise ferries', Hjaltland and Hrossey, introduced on the route in 2002, now provide a seven-days-a-week service for the first time under the Northlink pennant. 

So Much To See

Throughout Shetland our museums and visitor centres provide fascinating insights into the islands' maritime heritage, from the tiny museum on Fair Isle to the main Shetland Museum & Archives in Lerwick. The Unst Boat Haven museum in Haroldswick is a must for any visitor with an interest in traditional fishing craft; in Yell the Burravoe Haa centre has a fine collection of sailors' gear; and the Scalloway Museum displays the courageous and heart-warming story of the wartime "Shetland Bus" raids on Nazi-occupied Norway. Other centres well worth a visit include the Bressay Heritage Centre, Tangwick Ha' in Northmavine and the Fetlar Interpretive Centre.

Please bookmark or share this page: