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The Ness yoal; processing and marketing fish; the rigging of...

Contributors
Date 10 October 1970
Track ID 79032
Part 1

Track Information

Original Track ID

SA1970.301

Original Tape ID

SA1970.301

Summary

The Ness yoal; processing and marketing fish; the rigging of the lugsail.

Robert Bairnson describes the Ness yoal, which was 15 feet long in the keel and narrower than a sixareen [six-oared boat]. He also refers to a decked-in sixareen used for fishing herring, which sold for a shilling per wey (hundredweight). He describes the local processing and storing of fish when his family were fishing in the 1890s. They sold the fish to Aberdeen. This differed from the usual practice whereby most people worked for the lairds' agents.

The rigging of the square sail or lugsail on the sixareen is discussed, using cutlery to demonstrate. The sailman was responsible for handling the sail when the vessel was before the wind. There is also discussion of the rakki, a semicircular piece of horn or wood, employed in lowering and raising the lugsail.

Item Location

County - Shetland

Language

English, Scots

Genre

Information

Collection

SoSS

Source Type

Reel to reel

Audio Quality

Good