CHARLES WILLIAMSON, examined.
10,769. You are a fisherman at Cullivoe in North Yell?-Yes.
10,770. How long have you lived there?-I have lived for four
years at Gutcher.
10,771. Where were you before?-At Mid Yell.
10,772. Have you been a fisherman in Yell all your life?-No; I
have been south at sea half the time, and at the whale fishing.
10,773. Do you do much in the winter fishing?-A good deal.
10,774. You do a good deal more at that than your neighbours?-
Yes, a good deal.
10,775. How much will you make for a winter and spring fishing,
before the regular haaf fishing begins?-Last winter I made about
£12, and in the spring £6.
10,776. Have you made a good fishing of it this winter season, so
far as it is gone?-Yes, very good.
10,777. Do you sell your fish as you land them?-No, I salt them
as I land them.
10,778. Will you make as good a fishing of it this season as you
did last season?-I hope I shall. I have every prospect of doing so.
10,779. You carry on that winter fishing with a small boat?-Yes,
with a small four-oared boat which I work with my two boys.
10,780. You think you make a great deal more in the winter and
spring than any of your neighbours?-Yes, I have always done
that, because I devote my time to it exclusively.
10,781. In fact you are more industrious and courageous?-I think
I have been that.
10,782. Do you think it would be possible for a man here to live by
fishing all the year round?-I am living by it myself.
10,783. Have you not a piece of ground?-I have a small piece of
ground, but it can do very little for me, because I am paying about
£12 of rent and rates. I have to buy all my livelihood in the course
of the year from my fishing.
10,784. You do not depend much upon your ground?-No.
10,785. Not so much as most of the tenants round about you?-I
do not.
10,786. Is that because the rent you pay is higher than is paid by
others?-I have a better house than others, and that makes the
land higher.
10,787. Do you think that if you had large boats here, such as they
have on the east coast, the fishing might be carried on all the
winter?-Not the Faroe fishing, or the fishing which is carried on
in the summer time. The deep-sea fishing could not be carried on
in winter, because there is such a heavy current.
10,788. Do you think that even with the large boats, in which you
have a shelter for two or three of the men, it would not be possible
to carry on that fishing?-With the large boats we could hardly
work the lines in the way we work them now.
10,789. Have you thought of trying that?-I have, and I am
thinking of trying it now.
10,790. You are going to make an experiment about it this
season?-Yes; I am thinking about trying it now with a large
boat, such as are used along the Scotch coast. If I had a boat
like theirs, I think I could fish all March and all April and May.
10,791. Do you know whether anything of that kind has been tried
before in Shetland?-There has been no attempt made in a boat
like that.
10,792. But you believe there may be a fair chance of doing a good
business with it?-I should think there is.
10,793. Do you think you could not go out to the haaf with a boat
like that in winter as you do in summer?-We would trust more to
her if she were decked over.
10,794. Do you think you could manage to get out to the deep sea
with such a boat as that in winter?-Yes, we could manage to get
there; but the difficulty would be to manage the sailing in of our
lines. The way we do just now is to haul them in.
10,795. You mean the difficulty is to take in your lines with the
boat sailing?-Yes; the same as they do on the Scotch coast.
10,796. Your practice in Shetland is to haul in your lines while
rowing, and never to haul them in while sailing?-Yes; we
sometimes set them while sailing.
10,797. But you believe you could learn to haul them in while
sailing also?-Yes.
10,798. Are the lines you use of the same kind and the same length
as are used on the east coast?-The lines we use are 42 fathoms to
the length of line, and we use hundred of these lines.
10,799. Is it long since you were at the whaling?-I think the last
year I was there was 1864.
10,800. How were you engaged that year?-I was engaged in Mr.
Tait's office, in Lerwick.
10,801. Did you get your outfit from him?-I got my advance; I
did not need an outfit.
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10,802. Had you been there before?-Yes, often.
10,803. Had you an account with Mr. Tait that year?-Yes, I had
several accounts.
10,804. Was that for your own supplies at home?-Yes; they
required a little while I was away.
10,805. I suppose you always had an account with the agent who
engaged you for the fishing?-Yes.
10,806. At that time I believe these accounts were generally
settled in the agent's office and the amount of your account was
deducted from the payment of your wages and the first payment of
oil-money?-Yes.
10,807. And you settled the final payment of oil-money at any time
that suited you when you were in Lerwick?-Yes.
10,808. Was the settlement of your account made when you landed
from the ship?-Yes; if we chose to make it there and then, we
could do so.
10,809. But it was very often later?-Yes, pretty often. I cannot
say how much it was later. If I came into Lerwick, and the packet
was ready to leave, so that I had not time to carry through a
settlement then, I would go home, and then I would return in about
a fortnight or so, and have a settlement made.
10,810. How was the second payment of oil-money made to you?
Was it in cash?-Yes, generally it was in cash.
10,811. Did you sometimes get it in goods?-If I wanted goods I
could get them, but I was commonly paid in cash.
10,812. When you were to settle for your first payment, I suppose
you generally had some small account standing?-Yes.
10,813. Where was it settled?-In the office.
10,814. Was the office beside the shop?-Yes.
10,815. Was it always with Mr. Tait that you engaged for the
whale fishing?-No; I have been out for Mr. Leask too.
10,816. Did both of these gentlemen have their offices in the
shop?-Yes.
10,817. When you went into the shop were you generally asked if
you wanted anything?-Yes; commonly we were asked that.
10,818. Was that before the settlement or after it?-It was after we
had done settling, and when we had money coming to us.
10,819. Had your money been paid to you before that?-No.
10,820. But when you found out the total that was due to you, you
were asked whether you wanted any goods?-Yes.
10,821. And you would generally take something else?-I did not
take very much myself. I always got the money.
10,822. When you went to settle for your final balance, were you
also asked whether you wanted anything?-It was always when I
came down again to go to Greenland, or to go south, that I got it.
10,823. At that time you would want some supplies to be sent
home?-Yes.
10,824. And if you wanted anything of that kind, it would be set
down against your next account?-No, it was set down against the
second payment of oil-money, if we had so much coming to us.
10,825. What you have been describing was the ordinary practice
during all the years you were at the whale fishing, both for Mr.
Leask and Mr. Tait?-Yes, and for Messrs. Hay also.
10,826. Did you sometimes engage with Messrs. Hay?-Yes.
10,827. Do you think it would be better to have your fishing paid
by monthly payments, according to the quantity delivered, and at a
price fixed at the beginning of the season, rather than to have the
long accounts you have now?-I don't know that, upon the whole,
it would be any better for myself; and I can only speak for myself.
Those whom I have been serving for the last three years have
given me money whenever I wanted it.
10,828. But don't you think you would have the money more
under your own command if you were paid monthly or
fortnightly?-I could not say that I would have it more under
my own command, because they give it to me whenever I ask
for it.
10,829. I suppose the merchants are always very glad to get you to
fish for them?-I suppose they are.
10,830. Are you not about the best fisherman in the islands?-I
have heard that said since I started.
10,831 And I suppose you have generally a balance to get at the
end of the year above the supplies you have got?-Yes,
sometimes.
10,832. Who do you fish for?-Spence & Co.; I have done so for
the last three years.
10,833. Do you get all your supplies at Uyea Sound?-Yes, except
occasionally when I send down for anything to Lerwick.
10,834. Do you think you get any advantage in price or quality by
sending to Lerwick for your goods?-I do not.
10,835. I suppose you get all money if you ask for it?-Yes.
10 836. And you don't require to take any supplies from Spence &
Co. unless you wish?-No; I only take meal and oil-cloth, and the
like of that.
10,837. But you might get all your pay in money if you wished,
and be able to buy your goods anywhere else?-Yes, I could get
every cent of my money if I wanted it.
10,838. Is it entirely of your own choice that you deal in the
shop?-Entirely.
10,839. Where is it that boats are most commonly lost on the coast
of Shetland? Is it at sea or in the sounds?-It is when we come in
towards the land. We fish fifty or sixty miles dead off the land,
and we will come in within ten or twelve miles of the land before
we get into any danger. Then we come in upon the tides.
10,840. Therefore, if you were out at the haaf in your large boats,
these boats might live through any storm?-Yes; a large boat
could keep outside and not require to come in to involve herself in
the tides, but when we have a small boat we are forced to come in.
10,841. A man cannot stay outside in these small boats?-No; the
weather is always getting worse, and the sea getting higher and
higher on them, and they must run for the laud.
10,842. But with a larger boat you might run out to sea in a
storm?-Yes.
10,483. Do you do that sometimes with your small boats, and
escape?-Yes.
10,484. You think that is often a better course to take than running
for the land in a storm?-Yes; the summer breezes are not very
long.
10,845. But do you do that in a winter storm?-In winter we do
not go very far off the land in our small boats.
10,846. But in a winter storm with one of the large boats you are to
try, you think you may run off to sea and be comparatively safe?-
I think so.
<Adjourned>.
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