Shetland Fling
“Writing all these stories on Shetland, I thought I’d better touch on our very first visit back in the early 1970s”
We decided to get haircuts! That’s how serious we were about our first trip to Shetland! A haircut was a big deal in 1972! We’d been cultivating our long locks for two or three years. But there was work to be had - and an adventure. So off we went to the barber's!
A Viking Longboat moored off Lerwick Harbour, its occupants undoubtedly swilling pints in The Queens Hotel Bar.
FALL GUYS
Sailing overnight on the ‘St Claire’, we made landfall in the town of Lerwick and went straight up to the Employment Office. It wasn’t open yet so we sat on the doorstep in the sunshine smoking rollie-ups, waiting for 9 am to arrive. By 9.20 am, we were gainfully employed!
The only trees to be found on Shetland shelter between the buildings.
Shetlanders were glad to see us ‘Soothmoothers’ as they called us arriving to help with the No. 1 industry in these parts; fish processing! Oil had only just been discovered in the North Sea but it was going to be another year or two before it made landfall on these northerly lands. Meanwhile, the herring season dovetailed with student summer holidays ‘down south’ so we were hired to start at Young’s Seafood factory the following day!
We lived in the red building in the background for a spell, 20 smelly fish-packers sleeping in one huge room with only one cooker but endless supplies of smoked herring!
GREMISTA
The Böd of Gremista where Arthur Anderson was born and lived until he joined the Royal Navy.
Neil and I had brought a cheap tent and two sleeping bags. We hiked out of town and found some camping space and a sea view on the east side of Lerwick aptly named Gremista! There was a row of cottages overlooking the machair and we asked a lady for some water. The ‘auld wife’ couldn’t be friendlier although a tad difficult to understand. The Shetland accent is fabulous, a mix of my native Dundonian and Goblinese for all I knew. But we did get the impression that us ‘Soothmoothers’ were welcome!
In the afternoon sunshine, I foraged for comestibles while Neil set up the tent and built a campfire. I had the wild idea of making ‘seafood soup’ from the mussels and seaweed I’d gathered from the shore. Looking at the bubbling pot, we decided we’d go into town for a pub dinner.
P&O
Arthur Anderson was born in the Böd of Gremista which still exists as a museum.
As far back as the 1700s, Gremista was the original fish processing station in Shetland. It was also the birthplace and home to another young fish processor, Arthur Anderson.
From these humble beginnings, Anderson went on to become the co-founder of Peninsular & Oriental Steam Navigation Company, (P&O). Following 10 years in the Royal Navy, he developed a shipping business between Britain, Spain and Portugal and then on to Egypt and eventually Australia. By the mid-1800s, P&O was the largest commercial fleet of steamships in the world!
Arthur Anderson was co-founder of P&O Ferries whose cruise ships regularly visit Madeira.
“Anderson’s motto was “Dö Weel and Persevere” which he duly did.”
As a sideline, the ambitious young islander founded the Shetland Journal (1835), Shetland’s first newspaper of which he was editor and main contributor. He also set up the Shetland Fishery Company, encouraging fish exports to the UK mainland and as far afield as Spain.
Anderson became a Member of Parliament for Orkney and Shetland from 1847 to 1852 and was elected as the first MP for Orkney and Shetland who did not come from the land-owning class.
In 1838, he sent Queen Victoria a pair of Shetland lace stockings for her Coronation, a somewhat racy gesture, one might surmise but the Queen loved them, ordered another dozen pairs and kicked off a fashion in the upper echelons of English society and a huge increase in sales of Shetland lace.
Today, Anderson High in Lerwick is the island’s largest school, founded in 1862 as the “Anderson Educational Institute” by Anderson himself. And would you believe, the school’s motto is “Dö Weel and Persevere”.
Commercial Street is Lerwick’s main thoroughfare. Anderson & Co specialises in Shetland Knitwear but I can’t find any family connection between them and Arthur.
THE SUN NEVER SETS
Meanwhile, in our tent in Gremista, despite several beers in the pub, sleep eluded us. The sun never really sets during the Shetland summer. At around 2am, it drops below the horizon only to rise up again an hour or so later. By 4am it was full-on sunshine. And the pub was closed!
That morning we made our weary way to work at Young’s Fish Factory. Thankfully, we were offered a bunk that night in the infamous Mercat Huts next to the factory. We’d already packed the tent hoping that would be the case!
This was the site of the original Mercat Huts now replaced by a swish new Business Park.
ITCHICOO PARK
“A week or two later, the rest of Dundee followed us... ”
As the weeks went by, every Monday morning Neil & I would go down to the harbour to welcome another emigre off the ferry, long-haired louts from Lochee, Loons Road and the lower levels of Dundee. Before long, pretty much our entire clan had shifted north to take up posts in the fish-packing frenzy and a bunk in the Mercat Huts.
ALL-YOU-CAN-EAT
Packing fish for a living wasn’t so bad. We could eat as much of the ‘Silver Darlings’ as we wanted so that saved a packet. Life in Lerwick was cheap and cheerful.
On the conveyor belt, we met kids from all over Scotland and sang the pop & rock songs of the day as we packed the smoked herring into wax-lined cardboard boxes. Rod Stewart had only just come out with ‘Maggie May’. I remember trying to sing ‘Itchycoo Park’ by the Small Faces as we slapped the slippery cargo into their cardboard containers. The Aberdeen girls thought we were fabulous! Well, I thought they did anyway!
A GRAND PLAN
The ‘Grand Plan’ was to make enough money to go travelling around the globe but that idea soon faded as the drink and feminine influences applied their inevitable, irresistible charms.
I was the only one to try and keep that end of the bargain and left Shetland at the end of the summer bound for India. The rest of the gang remained ensconced, some of them for several years! Shetland would never be the same again!
