#shetlander

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42362 Shetland Pony Foal [2017]

6th January 1978 saw the death in Shetland of Thomas Fraser.

Fraser was a fisherman and crofter from Burra who left thousands of songs recorded at home using a reel-to-reel recorder, and his music was first released in 2002 after his tapes were undiscovered for 25 years.

Thomas Fraser was born in Outterabrake on Burra, a collection of islands and islets which parallel the western shore of Mainland Shetland. . He performed as a musician at family events and gave one of his first public performances in Hamnavoe in 1948.

Despite an innate shyness, his country and western style of music soon became widely appreciated across Shetland. Thomas met and married his wife Phyllis, another enthusiastic Shetland musician, in 1955, and the two went on to record and play together.

Thomas had begun to earn his living as a fisherman on locally based boats at the age of 16. By the late 1950s he was operating his own lobster boat, still in the waters he had known all his life, while also working the family croft. On 19 October 1973 Thomas’s boat ran aground on rocks off Burra.

After spending some time in the icy water he was rescued by other fisherman, but his uninsured boat was wrecked. Early in 1977 Thomas was injured while dredging for scallops and flown to Aberdeen for treatment. Although still clearly unwell after his return to Shetland he refused further medical help and passed away on January 6th aged just 50.

During his lifetime Thomas Fraser has made many recordings of his work on a reel to reel tape recorder, often for family and friends. After his death, requests for copies of his recordings increased. His nephew made some available on cassette during the 1980s, but it was his grandson who began to appreciate the lasting value of Thomas Fraser’s music. This lead to the release in 2002 of a 25 track CD, Long Gone Lonesome Blues. A series of further CDs followed, together with a BBC TV documentary Shetland Lone Star, while the National Theatre of Scotland has mounted a stage production of the Thomas Fraser story.

Meanwhile Thomas Fraser has gone from someone virtually unheard of outside Shetland to a country music legend with an international following. It’s just a shame he isn’t here to see it.

The people of Burra remember Thomas Fraser with The Thomas Fraser Concerts, which were first held in 2002, they have since morphed into the annual Thomas Fraser festival attracting musicians from around the globe.

30th January 1886 saw Betty Mouat set sail from Grutness in Shetland for Lerwick aboard the Columbine.

Betty Mouat was 59 years old in 1886. She lived in a crofthouse with her brother’s family in the hamlet of Scatness–24 miles south of the town of Lerwick, Shetland. At this time, most people made the journey to the town by foot but Betty was some what disabled and preferred to travel there by sea.

The Columbine is said to have been a fine vessel, rigged as a cutter. The Captain and 2 crew members were experienced sailors. On January 30th, 1886, to escape bad weather, the Captain decided to sail to Lerwick from Grutness, near Betty’s home. With a southerly wind, this was expected to take 2–3 hours. The Captain advised Betty not to take the journey as he anticipated a rough passage. She rejected his advice as she was anxious to see a doctor and trade some fine hand knitted goods of her own and those of other community members. So, she went below with the knitted garments and one quart of milk and 2 biscuits.

The Columbine set sail. Thirty minutes later, disaster struck. A heavy sea caused the main boom to swing to port.The Captain and Mate tried to repair the problem when the boom threw them overboard. The Mate managed to clamber back aboard, only to become aware that his Captain was drowning. He and the third crew member immediately launched the small lifeboat and tried to locate the Captain without success. To their horror they then realized that the Columbine was too far away for them to overtake her. With extreme difficulty, they headed for shore, where alarmed watchers had observed the erratic scene.

The ships owner offered a reward to anyone who would launch a boat to go after the cutter. By now, the storm made this impossible. No steamship was immediately available—although, later, several searches took place over a wide area. Wireless telegraphy had not been invented but press agency telegrams were sent to the British government and the British Consul in Norway. On February 1st. it was considered that further searches would be fruitless.

Meantime, Betty had realised that she was alone. She was seasick, cold and frightened. After screaming bitterly, she calmed down,recognising that only God could hear her. Thereafter, her religious belief helped. The storm caused her to lurch about in the cabin until she propped herself into a sitting position—holding a rope with one hand then the other. Both hands were soon numb and blistered. She could not reach the forecastle so rationed her milk and biscuits. As the storm slowly abated, she put on the Captain’s thick jacket and wound his watch daily. On February 3rd,she finished her milk and the second biscuit. Some sunshine and the sight of some land cheered her. She tried to light a lamp with some matches she had found but the light only flickered momentarily.

This nightmare scenario continued until February 6th.She later described praying and counting the stars. On her eighth day the Columbine struck submerged rocks near a bay in Lepsoy island off the coast of Norway.

She managed to attract attention–in spite of her weakened condition. Fishermen helped her ashore and carried her over very rough terrain to a house in Ronstad where she received great kindness and care.

Betty was now safe but her ordeal was far from over as she became a ‘celebrity’ of that time. She reached Edinburgh on February 24th and finally Shetland on March 16th. At all stages of her journey, the public crowded to see her. Even when she was back home, she was obliged to entertain people on a regular basis.

However, she continued her knitting and lived for another 30 years.

Her rescuers received medals from the Government. The bay in Lepsoy where the Columbine went aground was named Columbukta.

The bay where she came ashore in Norway is now called Columbinebukta or Columbine Bay: on 17th May 1986 a plaque was unveiled there commemorating the event. The croft in which Betty Mouat spent most of her life has now been extended to become Betty Mouat’s Böd, a camping böd close to Sumburgh Airport.

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