Moving to Shetland
“We decided to get haircuts! That’s how serious we were about moving to Shetland! ”
A haircut was a big deal in 1972! We’d been cultivating our luxurious, long locks for two or three years. But there was work to be had - along with adventure - so off we went to the barber's!
A Viking Longboat moored offshore, its occupants undoubtedly in The Queens Hotel Bar.
FALL GUYS
Neil and I were the frontrunners or fall guys in this operation. Sailing overnight on the ‘St Claire’, we made landfall early the next morning in the main town of Lerwick and marched straight to the Employment Office. It wasn’t open yet so we sat on the doorstep in the early morning sunshine smoking rollie-ups and waiting for 9am to arrive. By 9.20 am, we were gainfully employed!
As it turned out, Shetlanders were glad to see us ‘Soothmoothers’ as they called us arriving to help with the ‘Numero Uno’ industry on these islands; 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 any impact on these Northern Isles. Meanwhile, the herring season dovetailed neatly with student summer holidays in Scotland so we were to start at Young’s Seafood 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 one cooker and endless supplies of smoked herring. Life could not be better!
GREMISTA
As the expeditionary force, Neil and I had brought a cheap tent and two sleeping bags. We hiked out of town looking for a campsite and found ample space and a sea view on the east side of Lerwick aptly named Gremista!
There was a row of cottages overlooking the machair. We asked a lady for some water and the ‘auld wife’ couldn’t be friendlier although a tad difficult to understand. The Shetland accent is fabulous, a mix between my native Dundonian and Goblinese for all I knew. But we did get the impression that us ‘Soothmoothers’ were more than 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 be better off walking back into town for a pub dinner.
P&O
Arthur Anderson was born in the Böd of Gremista which still exists as a museum.
Gremista was the original fish processing station in Shetland dating as far back as the 1700s. It was also the birthplace and home to another young fish processor, Arthur Anderson.
The Böd of Gremista where Anderson was born and lived until he joined the Royal Navy.
From these humble beginnings, Anderson went on to become the co-founder of Peninsular & Oriental Steam Navigation Company, (P&O). The story goes that after 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! His motto was “Dö Weel and Persevere
Arthur Anderson was co-founder of P&O Ferries whose cruise ships regularly visit Madeira.
As a sideline, the ambitious young islander founded the Shetland Journal (1835), Shetland’s first newspaper to which he was editor and main contributor. There was just no stopping this guy! He also set up the Shetland Fishery Company encouraging fish exports to the UK and as far afield as Spain.
Anderson became a Liberal 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, I would have thought. 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 School in Lerwick is the island’s largest school, founded in 1862 as the “Anderson Educational Institute” by Arthur Anderson. 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, sleep eluded us. The sun never really sets during the Shetland summer. At around 2am, it finally drops below the horizon only to rise again an hour or so later. By 4am it was full-on sunshine and the pubs were 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 with a swish new Business Park.
ITCHICOO PARK
“A week or two later, the rest of Dundee invaded. ”
As the weeks went on, 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 echelons 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.
Standing by the conveyor belt, we met kids from all over Scotland and sang pop and rock songs as we packed the smoked herring into wax-lined cardboard boxes. Rod Stewart had only just come out with ‘Maggie May’ and I remember trying to sing ‘Itchycoo Park’ by the Small Faces as we slapped the cargo into their cardboard containers. The Aberdeen girls thought we were fabulous! Well, I thought so 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 the Aberdeen feminine influence applied their inevitable, irresistible charms.
I was the only one who kept up 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!
