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Anecdote about the first steam vessel seen in Yell and how p...

Date 13 April 1973
Track ID 74307
Part 1

Track Information

Original Track ID

SA1973.60.A3

Original Tape ID

SA1973.060

Summary

Anecdote about the first steam vessel seen in Yell and how people reacted.

The first steam vessel ever seen in Yell startled Andrew Irvine's grandfather, who was a youth at the time, and some older men, as they gathered limpets for bait in the ebb [shore exposed by the tide]. It was a beautiful summer evening and one man looked up and saw this vessel with a great cloud of black smoke pouring from it. He sat down and asked the others what on earth it was. One religious man speculated whether it was supernatural and asked for God's protection. Another, less religiously inclined, invited the boy to take snuff, "for we'll snuff no more, till we snuff in annider world".

Recording Location

County - Shetland

Parish - Unst

Island - Unst

Village/Place - Westing

Item Location

County - Shetland

Parish - Yell

Island - Yell

Language

English, Scots

Collection

SoSS

Source Type

Reel to reel

Audio Quality

Good