best. Individuals were required to keep a record of the fish they caught, which they did by cutting off and retaining the barbel – the whisker-like organ that hangs below the lower jaw of a cod – to provide the proof. They received a bonus payment, usually sixpence, for each score (20) of fish caught.24
When the fishing was really good it was a case of all hands on deck, working round the clock, perhaps catching 1,000 fish a day and only stopping when the shoal disappeared, the weather became foul or there was so much fish on deck that they had to stop fishing and process it.25
Processing the fish involved installing the flensing table on deck, then removing the head of each fish, gutting it, splitting it, removing its spine, washing and scrubbing it free of all blood and gut lining, salting it and stowing it in the hold. Junior hands like John Isbester were expected to do the beheading, gutting, washing and scrubbing, salting and stowing, but the splitting and removing of the spine was skilled work usually done by the master, mate, or trusted senior hand.
When the fishing was poor the cold wind seemed even keener, the icy spray more hostile and the slippery, pitching decks more treacherous. As Captain Thomson observed,26 ‘This was indeed an endurance test to make or break, yet many young Shetlanders started their sea career under these conditions.’
To sustain them, the crew were provided with ‘biscuit’ (actually bread) and with coffee which could be laced with brandy. They could also eat fish. The Shetland practice of eating cod livers, a natural source of vitamins A and D, was a healthy one which helped to prevent illness during long periods at sea. Any other food they had to provide for themselves.
There was one bonus to work on the Faroe smacks – the smuggling of duty free brandy and tobacco from Faroe, and there are reasons to believe that for much of the 19th century 80–90 per cent of the Shetland population was involved in the trade, as either smugglers or their customers. With the Shetland fishermen knowing every inch of the coastline and the Customs officers all coming from England or Scotland, it was common practice for the contraband to be landed at night in some remote spot before the smack made a public arrival in port on the following morning.27 On his first voyage John Isbester might not have had any money with which to buy contraband, but in the next three years he would have many further opportunities.
John Isbester paid off the Telegraph on 10 June 1867 and was at his mother’s home, Garths of Easthouse in Tingwall, when she died from tetanus on 4 July that year. We know nothing of her death except for the bald facts recorded in the death certificate.
John Isbester had a half-sister, Barbara Anderson, who like him was illegitimate. At the time of her mother’s death she was a few days short of her eighth birthday, and her future must have concerned John and members of his extended family. From census records it appears that his aunt Philophia (or Philadelphia) Sutherland, his mother’s eldest sister, took Barbara into her own family. The census of 1871 describes Barbara as a scholar (ie a schoolchild) and annuitant and gives her the surname Hunter, which hints that the previously unadmitted father had played a role in providing for her future. That John Isbester kept in contact with his sister through the years is evidenced by a postcard,28 couched in affectionate terms, from Barbara’s daughter Susan, writing in 1913. She writes ‘We were all so glad to see that uncle had arrived safe and well’, apparently referring to his final successful passage from Newcastle NSW to Callao, Peru.
With his own career at sea launched, his mother dead, his father incommunicado in New Zealand and his half-sister provided for, John Isbester had every reason to return to sea and he did so by joining the schooner Novice, another Faroe smack, on 9 August 1867 for her final trip of the season, ending on 30 September.
1 Zetland Directory & Guide Second Edition.1861.
2 Thomson, Captain J.P, OBE ExC. Captain John Isbester’s Career at Sea, p.2. Unpublished manuscript. (Isbester Collection).
3 Smith, Davie. Personal letters Nos.DS5, DS9 (Isbester Collection).
4 The Shetland Customs and Excise Fishing Boat Register for 1869, Shetland Archives, Lerwick.
5 Smith, Davie. Personal letters No.DS5 (Isbester Collection).
6 The Shetland Book, Zetland Education Committee, 1967, p.89.
7 Halcrow, Captain A. The Sail Fishermen of Shetland. The Shetland Times Ltd, Lerwick, 1994. pp.82–83
8 Coull, Dr J.R. Herring Fishing in Scotland, A Resources for Learning in Scotland Project.
9 See this book, Chapter 11.
10 Halcrow, Captain A. Op.cit, pp.67–68.
11 Halcrow, Captain A. Ibid, pp. 69–71.
12 Sandison, Charles. The Sixareen and her Racing Descendants, pp.16–17. The Shetland Times Ltd, Lerwick. 2005.
13 Halcrow, Captain A. Op.cit, pp.75–80.
14 Johnson, Charles, of Toam, North Roe.
15 Mansons Shetland Almanac & Directory for 1932.
16 Thomson, Captain J.P, OBE ExC. Letters JPT9, JPT10 & JPT11 of 1969. (Isbester Collection). For the dates of this and subsequent voyages prior to John Isbester obtaining command I rely upon unpublished research undertaken in the 1960s. Captain Thomson writes that the information on John Isbester’s early voyages on the smacks came from Mr Manson of the Shetland News while data for the subsequent voyages was obtained from the Registrar General of Shipping and Seamen at that time.
17 Halcrow, Captain A. Op.cit. p.105.
18 Goodlad, John, PhD. Thesis: The Shetland Cod Fishery from 1811 to 1908. A study in Historical Geography, Section 5.2.4.
19 Thomson, Captain J.P, OBE ExC. Op.cit, p.2.
20 Halcrow, Captain A. Op.cit. p.99.
21 Scottish Fishery Board Records
