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  • 21 Aug, 2019

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Voe, Northmavine
Voe is a settlement on the Northmavine peninsula of Mainland, Shetland, Scotland. It is at the head of Ronas Voe and just off the A970 road.

Whaling

Two Norwegian whaling stations were constructed in Voe at the beginning of the 20th century - the Zetland Whale Fishing Company, set up by Christian Nielsen; and the Norrona Whale Fishing Company, set up by Peder Bogen - opened in April and June 1903 respectively, being the first whaling stations based in UK territory.

Whales caught by harpoon were dragged in by steamers. They were hauled up a wooden slip with a steam winch to take them ashore. They would then be cut up using blades on long handles called flensing knives. Species caught included fin whales, sperm whales, bowhead whales and bottlenose whales. In 1903 the Norrona station had around six boilers, of which some were up to 12 feet (3.7 m) tall.

While some work was made available for the locals, there was push-back against the factories due to the smell of the operations and pollution left upon the nearby beaches. Those engaged in the herring fishing also believed that the waste products of processing the whales (some of which ended up in the sea) attracted sharks that frightened off the herring shoals. A committee to investigate these claims was set up in 1904, however it wasn't able to determine a connection between the whaling and a downturn in the herring catch. The stations operated until 1914. There is very little left of the whaling stations - as of 2019 only a few low walls remain to be seen.

Economics

Station Economic Activity 1903 ... 1908 1909 1910 1911 1912 1913 1914 Source
Zetland Whales landed 61 81 71 53 25 20 50 65
Products value Total £7,768 £6,264
of which oil £5,380 £4,940
Norrona Whales landed 63 52 60 65 36 16 59 67
Products value Total £3,251 £4,285
of which oil £2,256 £3,200

Notes

  1. ^ Including whale oil, manure, baleen, and in the case of Norrona, meat meal and bone meal

References

  1. ^ Gazetter for Scotland.
  2. ^ Gustafsson 2019, p. 109.
  3. ^ HEARD - Whaling 2006.
  4. ^ Shetland Museum & Archives.
  5. ^ Haldane 1904, p. 74-77.
  6. ^ Tønnessen & Johnsen 1982, p. 89.
  7. ^ Gray 2014.
  8. ^ Murton 2019, p. 113.
  9. ^ Johnson 2015, p. 19.

Sources

  • Gray, Alan (15 July 2014). Bevington, Pete (ed.). "Whaling station research". Shetland News. Retrieved 16 September 2019.
  • Gustafsson, Ulf Ingemar (2019). Icebound frontiers of exploitation: Networks for whaling in the Polar regions, 1904-1931 (PDF) (PhD thesis). University of Groningen. p. 109. hdl:11370/6715a46a-a130-4e6b-9e34-8b9038c9a062. ISBN 978-94-034-1527-7.
  • Haldane, R. C. (1904). Harvie-Brown, J. A.; Trail, James W. H.; Clarke, William Eagle (eds.). "Whaling in Shetland". The Annals of Scottish Natural History. 50. David Douglas: 74–77. OCLC 805938354 – via archive.org.
  • Johnson, Laureen (2015). Shetland's whaling tradition from Willafjord to Enderby Land. Smith, James C., Shetland ex-Whalers Association. Lerwick: The Shetland Times Ltd. pp. 12–20. ISBN 9780955778421. OCLC 941068842.
  • Murton, Paul (10 October 2019). The Viking Isles: Travels in Orkney and Shetland. Birlinn. p. 113. ISBN 978-1-78885-228-9.
  • Tønnessen, Johan Nicolay; Johnsen, Arne Odd (1 January 1982). The History of Modern Whaling. Translated by Christophersen, R. I. University of California Press. pp. 88–89. ISBN 9780520039735. Retrieved 16 September 2019.
  • "HEARD Hillswick Eshaness Area Regeneration and Development - Our History, Whaling". www.heard.shetland.co.uk. 2006. Retrieved 15 September 2019.
  • "Overview of Voe". Scottish Places. Retrieved 13 December 2014.
  • "Ronas Voe whaling station". Shetland Museum and Archives Photo Library. Retrieved 17 March 2020.
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