Hard down! Hard down!. Captain Jack Isbester
well as our patience and perseverance was tried to the utmost. The point was slowly passed. To rest was to go backwards. Another point was ahead under the shelter of which we could rest and take in more ballast. Every nerve was strained to reach it which we at last did. A drink of buttermilk, a smoke, a few stones put in [as ballast, to prevent the boat being caught too much by the wind] and we were off, & Busta which had hitherto been in sight and from which we thought you were watching us, was lost to view. The wind and sea were now worse than ever. Robbie sometimes let the head of the boat fall down & the spray would dash over us. [From this I deduce that Robbie and David were each rowing with one oar, with Robbie on the port side.] Once the whole top of the sea came in over the quarter right upon Mrs Irvine which nearly upset her equanimity. A short time after we again got under the lee of the shore and went about as fast as we did at first. Aith was reached about four hours after leaving Busta [a distance of about 7 statute miles]. My hands were the only thing that suffered damage.
Figure 1.2 Journey by boat and foot from Busta to Strom Bridge
A rest at Aith. No thought of another sea voyage. The [second] boat was to be left at Bixter, said Mrs Irvine and likewise Mr Irvine. Not being in command I didn’t give any opinion. Little said going over the hill. A little said going down the hill & that little was to take the boat to Tresta – nothing more. [Aith to Bixter had been a walk of 2.5 statute miles.] In to see Mrs Johnson – a biscuit and a dram. The wind had shifted two points to the west – get the boat down – the boat was got down – and rowed under the lee of the opposite side – the rudder shipped and down the voe as if running a race. Tresta was never looked at. Now we again met the wind and rowed easily along the lee of the shore till we came opposite the point of Russa Ness – Then along the side of the wind, the boat rolling over the large waves – the skipper was steering, Robbie and I rowing. The point was passed and then right before the wind to old Johnny Abernethy where we landed & drew up the boat. Home at last.
It appears that the boat was headed straight across Weisdale Voe to Haggersta in Whiteness, from where it was a walk of only 0.7 statute miles to home at Strom Bridge. This second boat trip would have been of about 6.5 statute miles.
Writing a few days later,25 David Hobart remarks that ‘The boat has not yet been brought round’, which I take as confirmation that the boat had been left at Haggersta or thereabouts and was to be brought down Weisdale Voe and up Stromness Voe, a trip of 7 miles, after which it would be half a mile closer to Strom Bridge.
A further example of a boat trip in the same period is recorded by another schoolmaster, Robert Jamieson, who by coincidence also taught at Whiteness. In November 1860, when he had left Whiteness and moved to Sandness, he visited his beloved in Gulberwick. He was lame and was loaned a horse for the journey home but was forced to leave it at Cova. He records26 that he went to Clousta and took a boat from there to Sandness, a distance of 12 miles.
I had to bribe the lazy fellow of a boatman with extra fare before I could make him move. He thought it so cold and a part of the voe was frozen.
When love drove him, David Hobart was prepared to walk as well as to row. One weekend when Mary Jane Irvine was at Busta, he proposed leaving Strom Bridge at 0400 hrs, reaching Busta at 0900 hrs, leaving Busta at 1700 hrs and arriving back at Strom Bridge at 2200 hrs.27 The distance, over rough open countryside with few tracks, is about 16.5 statute miles each way. In the event he made the return journey to Strom Bridge on Monday morning, leaving Busta at 0310 hrs and reaching Strom Bridge at 0810 hrs, ready for a day in school. When enjoying the simmer dim (twilight) of late June in Shetland this was a practical proposition.
This is his account:28
On leaving you I set out not very fast but gradually my pace quickened till I went at full swing. One hour and three quarters I was passing Voe where I found innumerable fences and dykes the gates of which I never took the trouble of looking for but climbed or vaulted over them as they came in my way. Hunger also made itself felt there & I sat down and ate a piece of bread & took a good draught of water out of a spring. Then into the lee side of a dyke to smoke which detained me about twenty minutes. For the next hour & quarter I was passing between Voe and Setter plunging through mires, over bogs, leaping ditches and vaulting wire fences. Setter was reached at last. Mr M in bed not so much as whiff of tobacco and drink of milk – stingy dogs – said I. Though breakfast was offered – Breakfast took up time & time was everything to me. I found a kinder but less able entertainer in Malley of the Lea – Her tea was not ready – her cow was not calved a cup of cold water more of Mr Gs bread and butter & I was on the road again arriving in the dining room or sitting room of Strom Bridge ten minutes past eight, thus being with all my halts five hours exactly on the road.
With the leaping of ditches and the vaulting of wire fences, he sounds like a young man spurred on by love. Tragically Mary Jane Irvine, the object of his affections, died of consumption in 1870 aged 20, but her younger sister, Susie, has a major role to play in this story.
1 Isbester, Capt. John, letter J1 of 10.04.1884 (Isbester Collection).
2 Abrams, Lynn. Myth and Materiality in a Womans World. Manchester University Press, 2005. p.66.
3 Eight of Laurence Andersons nine children were conceived between September and March and he was at home between September and March to register four of their births. He was also home once in June to conceive a child and three times in June to register the birth of a child. I have found no evidence that he was ever at home in April, May, July or August which fits well with the pattern of summer fishing on the Faroe smacks (See Chapter 3).
4 Isbester, Capt. John, letter J26 of 06.04.1913 (Isbester Collection).
5 Shetland Islands Census 1871, District WW2.
6 Hobart, David, letter H6 of 03.06.1868 (Isbester Collection).
7 Jamieson, Robert. Shetland – A Love Story, The Shetland Times Ltd. Lerwick, 2010.
8 Isbester, Allan, letter CAI1 of 07.09.1966 (Isbester Collection).
9 Thomson, Captain J P OBE ExC. Captain John Isbester’s Career at Sea, Unpublished manuscript. 1971 (Isbester Collection).
10 Smith, Davie, letter DS3 of June 2013 (Isbester Collection).
11 Whiteness School Log Book, 1890–1912, Shetland Archive.
12 Baptismal Register for Tingwall, Whiteness and Weisdale. The Registrar, Shetland Islands Council.
13 Abrams, Lynn. Op.cit. P.154.