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Introduction
One of the most important loci of the North
Atlantic herring fisheries has been the seas around
the Shetland Islands, an archipelago in the far north
of Scotland. The established historiography on this
fishery has tended to emphasize three themes: the
monolithic and prolonged Dutch herring fishery, the
sporadic British ventures around Shetland before
1800 (Fig. 1), and the “Great Herring Fishery” of the
1870s onwards. There has been very little discussion
of the Shetland-based industry before the 1870s,
and even less on any Shetland industry before 1800.
Indeed, a Shetland-based herring industry before
1800 has been simply dismissed. Tudor (1883:83)
wrote “until the ... nineteenth century, Shetlanders ...
contented themselves with catching a few barrels of
herrings” and “the year 1826 was practically the first
year in which any quantity of herrings were cured
Re-assessing Shetland’s Herring Industry before the 1870s
Robert William Gear*
Abstract - The Shetland Islands, an archipelago off the North coast of Scotland, have been a locus of the herring fishery
for hundreds of years. The established historiography has tended to emphasize three themes: the prolonged Dutch fishery,
the sporadic British ventures, and the “Great Herring Fishery” of the 1870s onwards. There has been very little discussion
of the Shetland-based industry before the 1870s, and even less on any Shetland industry before 1800. Indeed, a Shetlandbased
herring industry before 1800 has been simply dismissed. However, new research shows evidence of a continuous
Shetland-based industry since at least the beginning of the seventeenth century. This paper refutes the existing historiography
to show there is ample evidence of a consistent, though smaller-scale, Shetlandic industry from the seventeenth to the
nineteenth century.
Across the Sólundarhaf: Connections between Scotland and the Nordic World
Selected Papers from the Inaugural St. Magnus Conference 2011
Journal of the North Atlantic
*Maritime Historical Studies Centre, University of Hull, Kingston upon Hull, UK, and NAFC Marine Centre, University
Highlands and Islands, Port Arthur, Scalloway Shetland Isles, ZE1 0UN, UK; Robert.w.gear@graduate.org.
2013 Special Volume 4:61–68
Figure 1. A view of the British fishery off the south coast of Shetland. Source: Shetland Museum and Archives (SMAA) ref.
no. 01241. From an illustration in the London Magazine or Gentleman’s Monthly Intelligencer, 1752.
R.W. Gear
2013 Journal of the North Atlantic Special Volume 4
62
in Shetland for exportation”. These phrases have
been oft-quoted by the likes of O’Dell (1939:131),
Halcrow (1950, 1994:39), and—inaccurately—by
Thowsen (1970:163). Richard Smith (1986:238) is
perhaps most pithy and forthright, writing simply
“there is no evidence for a continuous industry in
herrings based in the islands.” H. Smith (1984:134),
Donaldson (1954, 1958), and Friedland (1973, 1982)
are some of the few to recognize the existence of an
early Shetlandic herring industry; however, they do
not ascribe proper prominence or offer a comprehensive
history. Further, any discussion of the Shetland
herring industry before the 1870s has tended
to simply highlight the small boom in the 1830s,
while downplaying the fishery on either side of this
“bubble”. Reflecting on this period, Hance Smith
(1984:134) wrote:
In contrast to the ling and cod fisheries, which
were in many ways part of the naturally
evolving order of things, the ling fisheries and
markets having been established since time
immemorial, the herring fishery was brandnew
in almost every sense of the word.
In short, the Shetland herring industry before the
1870s has not been properly recognized. This paper
attempts to redress the balance and refute the existing
historiography to show there is ample evidence
of a consistent, though admittedly smaller, Shetlandic
industry in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries,
with significant fisheries continuing throughout
the nineteenth century up to the climactic 1870s. To
this end, the following paper will examine the Shetland-
based herring industry before 1870, and will be
split into three sections. The first will examine the
early period when local merchants organized fisheries
while external merchants took away the product.
The second examines the 18th century, when a new
class of merchant lairds dominated the local herring
industry. The third looks at the 19th century and
especially the fisheries on either side of the 1830s
“bubble”.
Local Producers, External Merchants:
1400–1700
Dominating this period in Shetland’s history
were merchants from the German Hanseatic towns,
primarily Hamburg, Bremen, and Lübeck. These
German merchants carried on “a lively trade with
the Shetlands ... out of all proportion to the size of
the islands” (Baasch in Friedland 1973:95). It is unclear
when this trade with Shetland began. Friedland
(1982:88) cited the first documentary evidence from
1415, but also stated that the trade already going on
with Norway would have linked Shetland into the
Hanseatic trade sphere earlier. The trade was based
on the demersal fisheries; cod and ling were the species
most readily associated with it. It is less well
known that herring played a major role in the Hanseatic
trade (Hardy 1959:39). Shetlanders naturally
also traded herring with the German ship merchants
(Friedland 1982, Goodlad 1971:91). Indeed, drawing
on the German records, Friedland (1973:24) in
a surprising statement wrote “... the upswing of the
Shetland trade in the early seventeenth century was
caused by the herring which gradually pushed the
stockfish [dried cod and ling] into second place.”
This “upswing” coincides with the first time we
have any significant body of written evidence on
Shetland’s history, and there is a cache of sources
that indicate a domestic herring fishery.
Around this time, a small number of wealthy
Scottish incomers were exploiting the herring stock.
They probably facilitated the fishery with their tenants,
providing drift-nets, barrels, and salt. In the
first decades of the seventeenth century, there were
at least eight Shetland landowners doing so. The first
evidence comes from 1601, when Thomas Cheyne of
Vaila organized a fishery (Donaldson 1954:52). The
inventory of Hugh Sinclair, a local baron who died
two years later, lists “16 hering nettis” and a total
of 10 boats (Ballantyne and Smith 1994:193–195).
The first evidence of a definite sale in herring comes
from five years later in 1609. The Court Book of
Shetland (Donaldson 1954:26) mentions the sale
of herrings and oil, and is doubly significant as the
seller is a woman. This same year, William Bruce
of Sumburgh and Robert Bruce of Symbister were
also prosecuting the herring fishery, as a dispute
is recorded in which the former complains that the
Earl of Shetland destroyed 20 “double herring nets”
and other gear and boats (Ballantyne and Smith
1994:231–232). This gear he used for both herring
and salmon, “thairby wrangulie, violentlie and maisterfullie
ejecting ... the said William Bruce furth of
his said fisheing and commoditie thairof” (Ballantyne
and Smith 1994:231–232, Smith 1984:31). The
fishery was thus obviously of some importance to
Bruce. In 1612 when Robert Swinton, the minister of
Walls, died, he left four herring nets and three boats.
(Donaldson 1958:52). Also that year, Ninian Neven
writes of his own “ventour to the hering fishing in
1619”, mentioning boats and nets (Ballantyne and
Smith, in press). Gilbert Mouat, Neven’s rival and
the minister of Northmavine, also prosecuted the
fishery in 1623. He imported “sex gude sufficient
and wiell barkit hering nettis with their blak ropis”
(NAS, RD1/358, ff.17-8). One of the more unusual
references sees James Mouat of Ollaberry stealing a
mare and “leading his herring upon her”(Donaldson
1954:84).
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2013 Journal of the North Atlantic Special Volume 4
The fruits of these ventures were sold to both
German and Scottish merchants (Smith 1984:22).
There is evidence of some competition between the
two groups, as James Moncrieff, a merchant from
Craill, petitioned the Scottish Parliament in 1661
that buying “from the inhabitants of the aforesaid
isles herring and fish … should be preferred to all
strangers … until we be first served and our boats
fully loaded” (RPS, 1661/1/149). This request was
duly granted. The actual amount of herring exported
is difficult to quantify consistently. There is a snapshot
of Shetland trade for the period November
1618 to November 1619, which details the customs
demanded on goods in and out of the isles (NAS,
DI85/3, ff. 7-9). A total of 128 barrels, probably with
800–1000 herring in each, were exported by three
different merchants, two bound for Bergen and one
for Hamburg. This total is not to be assumed to be the
whole year’s catch, however. From the opposite end
of the trade route, Friedland has identified the Hamburg
records for 1629 and 1633 as some of the only
extant records which can illustrate the extent of the
Shetland herring trade. He cites exports of 270 tons
per year to Hamburg, meaning Shetland was “ranked
third or fourth behind Schleswig-Holstein, North
West Germany and the overwhelming leadership of
the Dutch” (Frieldland 1973:24). This statistic can
be placed in the Scottish context. Coull (2008:210)
cites 6000 barrels going yearly from Scotland to the
Baltic ports during the early 17th century. Considering
the 270 tons of herring going from Shetland to
just one port—Hamburg—was equivalent to around
1890 barrels, the importance of the Shetland trade is
clear.1 It seems that the trade was still going strong
in the late seventeenth century. Around 1680, herring
is stated as a “product of the port” of Walls on
the west side of Shetland, and in Unst, herrings are
recorded as being sold to the Bremen and Hamburg
merchants.2 The final two decades of the seventeenth
century brought significant changes to Shetland.
Brian Smith (1976) writes that by 1700 “most of
these Scottish lairds were bankrupt and landless”. It
can be safely assumed that the commercial herring
fishery declined with them.
In summation, as Donaldson (1958:52) asserts,
the “natives of Shetland, or at least residents, engaged
in the herring fishery on a considerable scale”
in the seventeenth century. The early part of the
century seems to have seen a number of small commercial
enterprises emerging. Local landowners
acted as middle-men, supplying the extractors of the
resource with nets, barrels, and salt and in turn supplying
the merchants, both from Germany and other
nations, with the finished product. For most of the
century, herring was an important commodity, and
during this period and due to the landowners’ efforts,
herring had (probably briefly) overtaken stockfish in
terms of importance. Shetland was remarkably, according
to Friedland, the third or fourth biggest exporter
of herring to Hamburg, from whence it would
have been exported over the continent.
Merchant-Laird Production: 1700–1800
In practical terms, there was little change in the
herring fishery during this period; the fishery again
came to be facilitated by the landowners, but, for
the first time, they exported it too. The turn of the
eighteenth century was a very complex time in
Shetland’s history (Smith 1976). This was the era
in which the German merchants finally withdrew
from the islands, for reasons treated fully elsewhere
(Smith 1984, 2003:38, 39), leaving a trade vacuum.
The Hollander herring fishers also came in fewer
numbers after 1703 due to a devastating attack on
their busses in Lerwick. There was a resultant drop
in the trade of goods, which adversely affected the
lower classes, and in turn reduced landlords rents. In
response, the remaining local lairds “were obliged
to turn merchants and export the country produce”.
(Gifford 1786 in Smith 1976). This century thus saw
the rise to prominence of a new class of merchantlairds.
The key figure in this change was Thomas
Gifford of Busta (Fig. 2), a “pioneer” in the “small
revolution”. He instigated the far haaf fishery3 based
on demersal fish, and the system of fishing tenures
which dominated Shetland’s socio-economic landscape
for over one hundred and fifty years thereafter.
It is less well known that Gifford exploited herring
as well.
Gifford, spurred by the decline of the Dutch fishery
and eager to “share somewhat in those profits”,
designed a “tryall of hering fishing upon the cost
of Zettland,” which he described in 1718 (Bruce
1913:194). In the same year, he was actually already
trading in herring, suggesting the trial was simply a
bigger-scale version of what he was already doing.
There is little evidence of Gifford’s herring fishery
after this until 1726. That year a bounty was introduced
on all Scottish cured fish, and Gifford tested
new markets in the Baltic, receiving good returns
(Goodlad 1971:93). This positive result seems to
have stimulated the trade, as from 1727 until 1745
there are numerous records which illustrate a fairly
constant exportation of herring. Perhaps surprisingly,
herring were actually worth more than ling per
barrel at one point in 1732 (SMAA, D17/6/10).
Thomas Gifford was not the only landlord in the
early eighteenth century dealing in herring. Fenton
(1997:604) is one of the few to recognize that herring
fishing was organized by landlords during this
period, probably mostly outside the main whitefish
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2013 Journal of the North Atlantic Special Volume 4
64
season. Arthur Nicolson of Bullister and Lochend
exported herring, possibly as early as 1724, in
collaboration with Gifford (SMAA, D24/109/11).
Smith (1986:241) cites four examples of this herring
fishery. In the 1740s, Nicolson’s tenants in Papa
Stour are recorded as fishing for herring and whitefish,
although they caught only small amounts of the
former. As the century progressed and mostly new
landlords came to prominence, William Hay of Unst
was exporting his tenants’ herrings via a Lerwick
merchant in the 1760s. At the same time, Gifford’s
grandson-successor Gideon Gifford carried on the
fishery, owning at least one boat for herring as well
as buying them from his tenants. In the next decade,
John Bruce of Sumburgh was exporting herring from
Scalloway direct to Hamburg.
For the first time, there are some details of the actual
process of catching and processing by Shetlanders.
John Bruce, a local laird, described one method
of fishing in 1785:
The netts indeed are lashed together, and
the whole of them fixed to a bauk rope with
buoys, the same as in the open sea. But for
fear of the current in these narrow inlets dragging
their nets, on the rocks or out to sea, they
have heavy sinkers which go to the bottom
… so as to keep them fixed on the spot they
intend. They set at night, perhaps across the
mouth of a small bay or cove, so as to catch
the herring going out or coming in; they then
go home to their beds till the morning when
they return and haul them. (OLAA, D11/24)
On the processing side, a description of Northmavine
from the last decade notes “many of our small
boats are ... employed during the night in catching
herrings, and old men and boys in the day in curing
them.” In Aithsting and Sandsting, Delting,
and Walls and Sandness, herring is recorded as
being caught and—crucially—sold, either “to the
laird or their tacksman” (Withrington and Grant
1978:362,408).
Out with Shetland, the British herring fishery
was growing. Between 1771 and 1776, the number
of British busses increased tenfold from 29 to 294
after the re-establishment of a bounty (Goodlad
1971:167). It was during this period that larger-scale
local enterprises began to emerge, using
new larger vessels. The first reference
to a local buss comes from 1774 and is
recorded as “belonging to the town”,
that is, Lerwick (Low 1774, 1978:66).
Assuming this informant was correct,
it is unclear who may have owned the
craft. Thirteen years later, in 1787,
there is better-documented evidence
of four busses belonging to Shetland;
these were operated by James Hay
(son of the aforementioned William)
and a number of Yarmouth merchants.
This enterprise was termed the “North
Sea Fishery Adventure” and one particular
shipment landed the coveted
first barrels to the Continental market,
beating the Dutch (something Gifford
had hoped to do 70 years earlier). This
shipment earned some £194 12/4 for
just 21 barrels. Despite this apparent
success, the company dissolved in 1791
(Smith 1986:248). Other lairds were not
averse to trying larger-scale ventures
either; sometime before 1781, “in an attempt
to introduce the summer herring
fishing upon the coasts of Shetland”,
Bruce bought a sloop that he himself
helped crew for several weeks (OLAA,
D11/24).
It is possible for the first time to
Figure 2. Thomas Gifford of Busta ca. 1680–1760. Source: Photographed by attempt to quantify the total Shetland
author; original in Busta House Hotel, Brae, Shetland.
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2013 Journal of the North Atlantic Special Volume 4
herring catches of these various ventures due to customs
records being extant for the latter half of the
century. Hance Smith has compiled a graph showing
the percentage of the herring that Shetland exported
in comparison to the Scottish export. Shetland herring
constitutes usually between 5% and 20% of the
total Scottish export between 1750 and 1770 (Smith
1984, 2003:70).
As shown, the new merchant-laird class exploited
the herring during the eighteenth century
by both buying fish from their tenants and latterly
organizing larger-scale enterprises themselves. The
total catches were growing, and Shetland’s place in
the Scottish context of herring exportation was not
inconsiderable.
A Stalling Start: 1800–1870
The nineteenth-century herring industry in
Shetland is generally much better recognized. Two
periods of intense activity, in the 1830s and 1870s
onwards, saw herring become the most important
commodity in the isles by far. This was the period
that immediately preceded the immense herring fishery
of the late Victorian and Edwardian era.
In 1809, the Hay family once more come to the
fore with a new herring business. Their ship, the
Don, was the biggest Shetland “buss” so far: 80 4/94
tons burden (Smith 1986:250). The venture seems to
have made a profit in its first few years, and by 1813,
the Hays had four busses (Smith 1984, 2003:251).
How much of this success was actually due to smuggling
is uncertain, however. In 1821, there was also
a venture attempted by Mouat of Gardie, with three
herring vessels, which was relatively successful (see
Manson’s Almanac 1903). In 1820, the Shetland
Herring Co. was founded by the partnership of Hay
and Ogilvy (Smith 1986:250). This
company, with their remarkable local
bank, the first and only in Shetland,
kick-started the local herring fishery
and ushered in a new concentrated
and large-scale Shetland-based herring
fishery. This period is sometimes
referred to as “the first boom”.
After gradually building in the
1820s, the 1830s herring fishery had
an air of a speculative bubble. There
was “fluidity of capital”, and Smith
claims some £60,000 was invested
in the industry as a whole during the
boom years (Goodlad 1971:274, Smith
1986:258). It began due to a combination
of international and domestic
factors. Restored peace after the end
of the Napoleonic wars allowed more
shipping and general stability. Also, a new working
class began to emerge (including West Indian
slaves) who were dependant on cheap food. Locally,
a spirit of enterprise led by Hay and Ogilvy
encouraged investment in fishing ventures. Finally,
a major factor in the boom was the appearance of a
new type of boat: the half-decker (Fig. 3).
The coming of the first half-deckers to Shetland
marked a move away from the traditional aspirations
of large Dutch-style busses for the herring fishing.
Hay and Ogilvy began buying, and later building,
these vessels. Half-deckers were smaller, cheaper,
and more manuverable craft than busses, but safer
and with greater capacity—principally for nets—
than sixareens:
[They] were half decked in the fore part,
while a small locker for food, etc. was placed
aft. Planks ran round the sides of the boat,
so that the crew need not tread on the fish in
the bottom of their vessel. Usually each boat
carried a crew of five men. (Hardy 1910:184)
These years saw various herring ventures
arise, including some Scottish curing firms that
promoted the fishery and established curing yards
in Shetland. That said, Hay and Ogilvy remained
the principal force in the Shetland herring fishery,
owning around 100 half-deckers by the end of the
1830s and supplying an additional 120 or so. The
peak year was 1834 when some 43,000 barrels were
cured, which constituted 10% of the total Scottish
catch (Smith 1986:253). However, the boom
was short lived. A terrible storm in 1840, herring
failures, sub-standard curing, and the effect of the
emancipation of the West Indian slaves played significant
roles, and the Shetland Bank—sometimes
known as the “fisherman’s bank”—folded as a direct
result in 1842.
Figure 3. One of the only depictions of a half-decker in Shetland, painted by
Charles McGowan. Source: SMAA, ref.no. ART 1991.330.
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2013 Journal of the North Atlantic Special Volume 4
66
it [the fishery] on just now at a heavy sacrifice, year
after year, in the expectation that the herring will
come” (Smith 1986:265).
The 1870s saw prolific herring shoals being
found off Shetland. Simultaneously the whole British
herring fleet became more mobile, following the
herring in its migratory journey. Shetlanders fully
participated too, and especially did so after 1886 and
the Crofters Act. In 1874, 1200 barrels were caught
by 50 boats; by 1881, 59,586 barrels were caught
by 276 boats. After a depression between 1886 and
1895, the growth began again, surpassing everything
that had gone before (see Riddell 2007). As the 1905
Report on the Fisheries of Scotland said:
The rapid development of the herring fishing
industry in Shetland is without a parallel in
the whole of the history of the industry in
Scotland.
This was the “Great Herring Fishery”, as depicted
in Figure 4. It is a central fact of Shetland’s history
and the phenomenon that overshadowed all the
preceding herring fisheries. In summation, the end
of the nineteenth century saw a remarkable period
Elsewhere in Scotland, it was in the next few
decades that the Scottish herring fishery expanded
in places like Wick and Fraserburgh; that Shetland
didn’t develop apace is termed by Coull (1996:104–
125, 2008:208–235) an “anomaly”. The period
between the two recognized “herring booms” unquestionably
saw reduced landings, but significant
fisheries were ongoing throughout the period. This
was the start of a phase identified by Hance Smith
(1984, 2003:135,136) as lasting from 1842–1875,
during which time Baltic ports became the primary
export destination for Shetland herring, and production
levels fluctuated between 5 and 20,000 barrels a
year. Small vessels fitted out with drift nets in many
areas such as the Isle of Papa, and sold their fish
to local merchants (Coull 2008:26–33). Halcrow
(1950, 1994:134,135) highlights these merchants
as entrepreneurs who developed the herring fishery
in this period. These were people like James Smith,
Thomas Tulloch, G. Harrison, Robert Irvine, and the
indomitable Hay family. Rather than a lack of effort
or investment, the limiting factor for at least part of
this period seems to have been environmental factors.
It was said at the time that they “are carrying
Figure 4. Typical curing station in Shetland in the late nineteenth centur y. Source: SMAA, ref. no. JJ00088.
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2013 Journal of the North Atlantic Special Volume 4
go to the funders of my Ph.D.: Shetland Catch Ltd. and the
Lerwick Port Authority, and to the project partners NAFC
Marine Centre and Shetland Amenity Trust.
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1580–1611. Shetland Times Ltd., Lerwick, UK.
352 pp
Ballantyne, J.H., and B. Smith. In press. Shetland Documents
1612–1637.Shetland Times Ltd., Lerwick, UK.
Bruce, R.S. 1913. A Memorial Anent a trial of fishing
upon the coast of Zetland, T. Gifford. Pp. 193–201,
In A.W. Johnston (Ed.). Old Lore Miscellany Vol. 6.
University of London, London, UK.
Coull, J.R. 1996. The Sea Fisheries of Scotland. John
Donald Publishers Ltd., Edinburgh, UK. 308 pp.
Coull, J.R. 2008. The herring fishery. Pp. 208–235, In J.R.
Coull, A. Fenton, and K. Vaitch (Eds.). Boats, Fishing,
and the Sea. John Donald Publishers Ltd., Edinburgh,
UK. 621 pp.
Donaldson, G. 1954. Court Book of Shetland: 1602–1604.
Scottish Record Society, Edinburgh, UK. 176 pp.
Donaldson, G., 1958. Life under Earl Patrick. Oliver and
Boyd, Edinburgh, UK. 149 pp.
Fenton, A. 1997. The Northern Isles: Orkney and Shetland.
2nd Edition. Tuckwell Press Ltd., Edinburgh,
UK. 722 pp.
Fishery Board for Scotland. 1905. Annual report. Edinburgh,
UK.
Friedland, K. 1973. Der Hansische Shetlandhandel. Pp.
66–79, In Stadt und Land in der Gerschichte des
Osteeraums. Schmidt-Roemhild. Lubeck, Germany.
[English translation, SMAA SA.2/97.]
Friedland, K. 1982. Hanseatic merchants and their trade
with Shetland. Pp. 86–95, In D.J. Withrington (Ed.).
Shetland and the Outside World 1469–1969. Oxford
University Press, Oxford, UK.
Goodlad, C.A. 1971. Shetland Fishing Saga. Shetland
Times Ltd, Lerwick, UK. 343 pp.
Halcrow, A. 1950, 1994. The Sail Fishermen of Shetland.
Shetland Times Ltd., Lerwick, UK. 188 pp
Hardy, A. 1959. The Open Sea II: Fish and Fisheries. Collins,
London, UK. 322 pp.
Hardy, E.W. 1910. Life and Customs in the Shetland Isles.
Charles H. Kelly, London, UK. 247 pp.
Low, G. 1774, 1978. Orkney and Schetland. Melven Press,
Inverness, UK. 223 pp.
Mansons Almanac. 1903. Lerwick, UK.
O’Dell, A.C. 1939. The Historical Geography of the Shetland
Islands. T. and J. Manson, Lerwick, UK. 328 pp.
Riddell, L. 2007. When herring was king: Boom and
recession in Shetland’s herring industry, 1880–1893.
M.Sc. Thesis. University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh,
UK. 63 pp.
Smith, B. 1976. Introduction to Gifford, T. An Historical
Description of the Shetland Islands Thuleprint, Sandwick,
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Smith, H.D. 1984, 2003. Shetland Life and Trade, 1550–
1914. John Donald Publishers Ltd., Edinburgh, UK.
378 pp.
of growth in the Shetland herring fishery, but it
should be recognized that the fishery was continuous
throughout the preceding decades.
Conclusion
“There is no evidence for a continuous industry
in herrings based in the islands.” (Smith
1986:238)
Richard Smith’s quote is typical of the historiographical
milieu described at the outset. However,
the weight of evidence suggests the reverse is true.
We know that the merchants from Hanseatic towns
bought herring from the Shetlanders, and can safely
assume this practice pre-dates the first written evidence.
The first confirmation of this trade in herring
comes from the beginning of the seventeenth
century, a time when a cache of sources indicate a
domestic herring industry, facilitated by landowners
among their tenants. This fishery appears to
have been continuous throughout the seventeenth
century. Around this time, herring was even more
important than stockfish, and Shetland became
the third or fourth most important area for herring
exportation into Hamburg at least. There may have
been a brief hiatus in the fishery at the turn of the
century during a period of depression, but Gifford
had restarted it by the 1710s. This century was
marked by the new merchant-lairds both organizing
the fishery and exporting the finished product.
Later in the century, larger-scale attempts were
made, using sloops and busses to prosecute the herring
fishery. Indeed, as has been shown, Shetland
herring constituted 20% of the total Scottish export
in the fish at one point in the 1750s. The new century
saw more domestic buss fisheries arise, and the
domestic fishery took off for a decade in the 1830s.
In the decades before the “Great Herring Fishery”
began, the fishery was continuous, probably limited
to some extent by the failure of the stocks. The
fishery in these years was mostly facilitated by the
merchants, and the landings were not insignificant.
Thus, in the period 1600–1870—at the very least—
there is evidence of a continuous herring industry,
with the main economic actors consistently aspiring
to expand it. In short, it is questionable if Shetlanders
at any time in the period were “contented
… with catching a few barrels of herring.”
Acknowledgments
With thanks to Brian Smith and Ian Tait for helpful
advice, Jenny Murray and John Hunter for help with illustrations,
the Shetland Archives staff and to Busta House
hotel for allowing access for photography. My thanks also
R.W. Gear
2013 Journal of the North Atlantic Special Volume 4
68
Smith, R. 1986. Shetland in the World Economy: A sociological
History of the 18th and 19th Centuries. Ph.D.
Dissertation. University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh,
UK. 381 pp.
Thowsen, A. 1970. The Norwegian export of boats to
Shetland, and its influence upon Shetland boatbuilding
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Endnotes
1Based on a herring barrel being roughly the same size
as 1722 when a royal convention specified its size. This
contained 66 Scots pints, and was roughly equal to 320
pounds..
2Various authors (1680, 1908: 67 and 77)
3The haaf (Old Norse, Håv meaning sea) fishery was the
term applied to a deep sea fishery, primarily for cod and
ling, prosecuted from four-oared vessels (fourareens) and
latterly six-oared vessels (sixareens).