This is Davie Smith showing me the model of his fishing boat ‘Evening Star’, he had two Evening Stars this is the second one. Davie a retired Captain and fisherman lives in Scalloway with his wife Agnes, they were very welcoming and Davie shared with me his detailed and impressive knowledge and memory of fishing, he obviously still feels a passion for it and I thoroughly enjoyed learning…even more…about fishing in Shetland. I hope to return to find out more very soon, this time to focus on some of the areas of interest that I feel I starting to emerge.
Evening Star, number 1
Particular details that stick in my mind are when I asked him when he started fishing he told me ‘I was 3 weeks short of 15, I left school on Thursday and started Monday’……so young. The other detail was his description of how the nets can spontaneously combust! because of the build up of grease from the herring and the heat generated in the centre when they are piled up that they can start smoking and get damaged, they have to put salt on them.
There were many more stories and they will be recorded for the Fish Van Collection, along with the photographs they lent to me.
I have so many wonderful images from today, that it feels a privilege to be able to see them and to use them. In fact I am feeling that the generosity and kindness that has been shown to me so far is also a kind of privilege, not even mentioning all the fabulous scones and food.
The following photos were taken by a Czechoslovakian photographer in the early 1970’s on board Davie’s boat, I find them amazing images, here are some…..
I love this one, this is Davie, he looks like Dirk Bogarde !
