The following history of the origin of the Shetland herring fishery, communicated to Blackwood’s Magazine in 1821, is, I think, worthy of being recorded:—
“Few people, on examining the map of Scotland, would believe that the herring fishing has only within these few years been begun in Orkney, while the natives are almost strangers to the fishing of cod and ling.
“On the other hand, it is no less extraordinary that although the cod and ling fishery has been carried to so great an extent in Shetland as to enable them to export many cargoes to the Catholic countries on the Continent, not a herring net has been spread by the natives of Shetland till the present year (1821), when Mr. Mowat of Gardie, and a few other spirited proprietors of these islands, formed themselves into an association, and subscribed the necessary funds for purchasing boats and nets, to encourage the natives to follow the industrious example of the Dutch.
“The immediate management of this experimental fishery was undertaken in the most patriotic and disinterested manner by Mr. Duncan, the Sheriff-Substitute of Shetland. Having procured three boats, he afterwards visited Orkney, to ascertain the mode of conducting the business there, and having also got fishermen from the south, this little adventure commenced. Its nets were first wetted in the month of July, and it is believed its labours were concluded in the month of September, after obtaining what is considered pretty good success, having caught as follows, viz.:—
| The ‘Experiment,’ | 6-manned boat, | 212½ | crans. |
| The ‘Hope,’ | 5” | 119¾ | ” |
| The ‘Nancy,’ | 4” | 80 | ” |
| 412¼ | ” |
“The great object which the Shetland gentlemen have in view, in this infant establishment, is to give employment to their fishermen in the herring trade, after the cod and ling season is over, and by this means to enable them to partake of those bounties and encouragements so properly bestowed by Government on the fisheries; and thus abstract the attention of the lower orders of these islands from an illicit traffic in foreign spirits, tea, and tobacco, which has greatly increased of late years.
“The profit of the herring fishing at its commencement has, however, afforded more encouragement than could have been expected; for, besides paying the men a liberal allowance for their labour, a small sum has been applied towards defraying the expense of the boats and nets. But what is of far more consequence to this patriotic association is the spirit of enterprise which it is likely to create by bringing forward a number of additional boats in the way of private adventure, which must be attended with the best advantage to the Shetland Islands.”
THE SYMPIESOMETER.
Again, in 1820, Mr. Stevenson took occasion to express his solicitude for the welfare of the fishermen in the following note, suggesting the means whereby they might sometimes avoid a coming storm—a suggestion which is now to some extent carried out by the Board of Trade’s establishment of marine barometers at many of our fishing stations:—
“Mr. Stevenson informs us,” says the editor of the Edinburgh Philosophical Journal[12] for 1820, “that having occasion, in the beginning of September last, to visit the Isle of Man, he beheld the interesting spectacle of about 300 large fishing boats, each from fifteen to twenty tons burden, leaving their various harbours at that island in an apparently fine afternoon, and standing directly out to sea with the intention of prosecuting the fishery under night. He at the same time remarked that both the common marine barometer, and Adie’s sympiesometer, which were in the cabin of his vessel, indicated an approaching change of weather, the mercury falling to 29·5 inches. It became painful, therefore, to witness the scene,—more than a thousand industrious fishermen, lulled to security by the fineness of the day, scattering their little barks over the face of the ocean, and thus rushing forward to imminent danger or probable destruction. At sunset, accordingly, the sky became cloudy and threatening, and in the course of the night it blew a very hard gale, which afterwards continued for three days successively. This gale completely dispersed the fleet of boats, and it was not without the utmost difficulty that many of them reached the various creeks of the island. It is believed no lives were lost on this occasion, but the boats were damaged, much tackle was destroyed, and the men were unnecessarily exposed to danger and fatigue. During the same storm, it may be remarked, thirteen vessels were either totally lost or stranded between the Isle of Anglesea and St. Bee’s Head in Lancashire. Mr. Stevenson remarks, how much it is to be regretted that the barometer is so little in use in the mercantile marine of Great Britain, compared with the trading vessels of Holland, and observes, that although the common marine barometer is perhaps too cumbersome for the ordinary run of fishing and coasting vessels, yet Adie’s sympiesometer is so extremely portable that it might be carried even in a Manx boat. Each lot of such vessels has a commodore, under whose orders the fleet sails; it would therefore be a most desirable thing that a sympiesometer should be attached to each commodore’s boat, from which a preconcerted signal of any expected gale or change of weather as indicated by the sympiesometer could easily be given.”