This blog and video have been written by George Ewen (a Shetlander, from Unst, and my father). In the video, George recites a poem by Rhoda Bulter about the Shetland herring industry. A key site in the Shetland Herring industry was Baltasound, in Unst, a big sheltered bay facing the North Sea. On our Shetland Walking Tour, we visit Baltasound and learn about the herring industry. Also of note is the pelagic fishing vessel Research, mentioned in the text below. Research is regularly seen in Lerwick Harbour as we arrive on the ferry on the first day of our tour. Check out George’s YouTube channel for more Shetland poetry and song, set to images.
Blog by George Ewen…..
Löd a Langer, meaning Song of Longing, by Rhoda Bulter, was published in 1986 in her collection Snyivveries, although it may have been written a few years before. It is a favourite poem of many. It is clearly nostalgic for the frankly astonishing phenomenon of the historic North Sea herring fishing industry, which burgeoned for a hundred years before North Sea oil was heard of. When one considers the many adverse factors and conditions which must have made the work incredibly hard for the many, mostly young men and women, who followed the ‘silver darlings’ from Baltasound to Lowestoft, one may wonder what there is to be nostalgic about. As a pupil of the Anderson Educational Institute in Lerwick in the 1960s, I remember the excitement of every early evening, of seeing a stream of fishing boats, slowly making their way out of the South Mouth, and the spotting of the vintage boat Research was always the first point of attention. How much more the anticipation of adventure for the young men who went to sea, or male coopers and women gutters and packers, who travelled far to remote shore fish curing stations, such as Balta Isle, a small island at the mouth of Baltsasound harbour in Unst, or so far south to Lowestoft.
This poem, in a few short lines, conveys the attractions and the sufferings of the herring industry in a most vivid way. But what stands out as the key factor to have a yearning for, is, and it can be summed up in one word, camaraderie. Whether cooped up in a cramped sailing drifter, or in a rudimentary bothy, or around a farlin, surrounded by barrels, with the mess, gore and overwhelmingly pungent smells, it was the energy, cheerfulness and comradeship which kept them going.
Rhoda Bulter witnessed the arrival of the purse-net and the depletion of stocks, such that there was a herring ban from 1977. Although the industry is regulated now by quota and the modern pelagic fleet, including the Research, still LK62, is immensely efficient in finding and catching their quota of herring, there has never been and never will be a return to the camaraderie of the past herring fishing era. Thus, it is still true that the herring gull EENCE followed the boat to the herring.
The images I have created have either been generated by AI or derived and greatly altered by a multi-stage process from some old black and white photographs of the herring fishing industry. The final treatment for each has been to make them look like watercolours.
I am grateful to the Bulter family for allowing me to produce this video, and I anticipate further recitations and songs to follow.
