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 Captain John Isbester’s Career at Sea, Unpublished manuscript. 1971 (Isbester Collection).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.
14 Isbister, John, Death Certificate, N.Z.No.1911008433, registered 27.10.1911.
15 Anderson, Sarah. Death certificate 04.07.1867 and the 1861 census.
16 The Second Shetland Truck System Report 1872.
17 Truck System Report Paragraph 11,527 et seq.
18 Truck System Report Paragraph 11,562 et seq.
19 Truck System Report Paragraph 11,585 et seq.
20 Thompson, Paul, Living the Fishing, Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1981. p.313.
21 Shetland Islands Census 1851, District TWW 8.
22 Hobart, David, letters H8 dated 12.06.1868 and H10 dated 20.06.1868 (Isbester Collection).
23 Shetland Islands Census 1851, District TWW 8.
24 Strom Bridge, Whiteness, my grandmother’s family home, later known as Olligarth.
25 Hobart, David, letter H6 dated 03.06.1868 (Isbester Collection).
26 Jamieson, Robert. Op.cit. p.72.
27 Hobart, David, letter H11 dated 23.06.1868 (Isbester Collection).
28 Hobart, David, letter H12 dated 29.06.1868 (Isbester Collection).
2 GOING TO SEA – ARTHUR IRVINE
Starting a career at sea in the 1860s was tough. There are no letters describing John Isbester’s early days at sea, but Arthur Irvine, son of Magnus Irvine of Strom Bridge, Whiteness, was aged 15 when he left home in April 1867 to start his life as a seaman. He was my grandmother’s elder brother – John Isbester’s brother-in-law to be. Magnus Irvine was a farmer and landowner – a laird – his wife’s family listing doctors, army officers and clergymen amongst their ancestors, so the choice of a life at sea, starting as a boy or ordinary seaman, is surprising. It may hint at a determination to see the world, a recognition that he was not academic, or that the family did not at that time have the funds to launch him in a professional career.
Travelling from Shetland to Glasgow, where he hoped to find a ship, was in itself a major challenge. David Hobart, the Whiteness schoolmaster, a Scot returning home, described the two-day voyage from Lerwick to Aberdeen via Kirkwall and Wick also in 1867, in the following lively terms.1
We started from Lerwick before one o’clock on Tuesday morning2 and steamed at an immense rate down past Dunrossness. When we came to the Sumburgh Roost [the area of overfalls and disturbed water south of Shetland] the sea began to be rather rough and the vessel rolled and pitched a good deal but not so much as makes me sick. After that I turned in and had a sleep and awoke about five o’clock in the morning. Going on deck I saw the Fair Isle far astern looking up out of the sea with a helmet with a deep cut across the top of it. The wind was still blowing hard and the sea raging and the weather
