Meids nae mair

A new book – Water in Burgidale - by Cunningsburgh-based writer Charlie Simpson charts the amazing revolution which has taken place in marine navigation over the past 60 years.

Until the mid-20th century navi­gation at sea relied on a combination of observation and memory. Most fishing was done within sight of land, and “meids” were used to locate fishing grounds. Features such as hills, headlands, buildings and other marks were lined up, and the intersections of these lines provided an accurate and essential positioning system.

But according to the book’s intro­duction, while completing the pro­ject he experienced “the growing realisation of just how prolific our inshore fisheries used to be, within living memory. Trying to imagine what it must have been like even earlier, in the sixern days before steam trawling, leads to the now-elusive notion of ‘a sea full of fish’ . . . It’s sad to realise that today, this scenario no longer exists – anywhere in the world.”

A typical meid from John Scott, a crewman on the Day Dawn in the mid-1960s was :

“Gyaan oot nort o da Score, da first you’d come tae wid be da Score Sand hitsel. You wid run oot til you got da Bard Head comin ida Noss Soond; wance du saw da Bard du wis comin on da wast edge o it, so you took da Bard oot. Du guid nort til du hed Kebister Ness on da nort end o da Green Holm; dat wis da nort limit. Da aest edge, du could come oot til du got da Bard Head comin on da aest side o da soond, a peerie bit on ta da Noss land.”

The development of electronic equipment, which can now pinpoint locations precisely and effortlessly, has utterly transformed the maritime industries, and fishing in particular – “There’s been such a huge change in fishing methods and in fish stocks,” according to Mr Simpson. “There’s a whole generation that has no knowledge of this at all.”

Copies of the book are available from Shetland Amenity Trust offices at Garthspool in Lerwick, The Shetland Museum and Archives Shop, and The Shetland Times Bookshop.

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