An occasional column from the Lerwick Fishermen’s Mission

5 March, 2008

 

WE HAVE various events coming up in the year ahead

Our annual Fish Fiesta meal takes place on Friday, 14 March, at the NAFC Marine Centre. The meal is sponsored by Shetland Fishermen’s Association, Shetland Aquaculture, Seafood Shetland and NAFC Marine Centre and starts at 7pm for 7.30pm.

Following the Shetland seafood buffet, museum curator Ian Tait will be giving a presentation on “Displaying Fishing History in the new Shetland Museum”, about how the displays were created from artefacts, images and archives.

Tickets for the Fish Fiesta are available from the NAFC Marine Centre reception at Scalloway, or on 01595 772 000, at £20 each.


Mission Weekend 2008 takes place on 26 and 27 April, with our guest and speaker Rev Andrew Wright, Mission Chaplain RNMDSF, who will be the preacher at both services on Sunday.

On Saturday 26 April there will be a concert at Lerwick Town Hall with Shetland artistes. Tickets cost £5 and can be purchased by contacting the Mission office on 01595 69 2703.

On Sunday 27 April at 10.45am there is the Harvest of the Sea Service, in the Church of Scotland, Scalloway. At 8pm there is a Night Cap Special, in the Congregational Church, Lerwick with Scalloway Men’s Choir.


Due to the success of the Nostalgic Bus Trip following the herring trail last year, which was part of the 100 year celebrations of the Fishermen’s Mission in Shetland, we are planning a similar kind of trip to the South Coast and East Anglia.

Mission Bus Trip Revisited will include such highlights as a visit to the Scottish Fisheries Museum, at Anstruther, Fife, whilst on the visit to the South Coast there will be a special visit to Mather House, headquarters of the Royal National Mission to Deep Sea Fishermen (RNMDSF) in Portsmouth as part of Portsmouth Visit, a day in beautiful Brixham and a four night stop in East Anglia.

The dates are leaving Lerwick on the ferry on Monday 22 September and arriving back in Lerwick on Friday 3 October.

If you are interested in going please in contact the Mission office in Lerwick on 01595 692703 to put your name down. Once again we are delighted to have Andrew’s Coaches for this trip.


RNMDSF Shetland Fish Trades Golf Cup – the Mission Cup – is once again being generously sponsored by Shetland Catch Ltd.

It may seem a bit early to be mentioning it already but the event is slightly earlier in the calendar this year. Teeing off is on Saturday 24 May at Whalsay Golf Club. The Mission’s guest is Captain Dan Conley, RNMDSF chief executive. Information will be sent out soon about this soon.


Constant change is here to stay - Moving On

Finally some of you will already be aware that I am moving on this July, to take charge of Scrabster Centre on the Scottish mainland. Port moves occur in the Mission from time to time and all superintendents are aware of this.

In July this year Senior Superintendent Neil McGregor, who was based in Shetland until 2004, and is now at Fraserburgh retires from the Mission. Superintendent Murray Campbell presently at Scrabster will take over Fraserburgh, I will be moving to Scrabster and Paul Govier (presently at Peterhead) will be Acting Superintendent and will take charge of Shetland.

Paul Govier and his wife Kim and family will be in Shetland for the Mission Weekend 2008, so hopefully many of you will get a chance to meet them.

I will miss Shetland of course, especially as this is my second time here, however I am only “just down the road” and part of my remit includes oversight of Orkney and Shetland. So I will not be relinquishing my links completely.

In the meantime it is business as usual!


Incidents….winter mode…

Since the beginning of this year we have averaged about 20 to 30 fishing boats sheltering in poor weather in Lerwick harbour, as well as Scalloway harbour, because of Storm Force 10 winds and gusts. This has led to certainly more injuries than usual.

Bad weather does not cause accidents at sea. Fishermen are working on rolling decks all year round, but obviously if you are doing some jobs in severe weather with the boat rolling violently then yes accidents can occur.

A few weeks ago we were called out to six injured fishermen in one week at literally all times of the day and night. Thankfully none were too serious and were allowed to go home eventually. Nearly all were weather related.


“Christianity with its sleeves rolled up”

“Da Fishermen’s Mission - A century of service in Shetland by the Royal National Mission to Deep Sea Fishermen 1907 - 2007", £5 each

This booklet is still available from Shetland Times Bookshop, LHD Marine Supplies, Visit Shetland, Christian Bookshop, Post Office Hamnavoe, Burra, JWJ stores, Symbister, Whalsay, Tetley & Anderson, Symbister, Whalsay, Aywick Stores, EastYell, R S Henderson, Cullivoe, Yell, Skibhoul Stores, Baltasound, Unst and Mission Office, Lerwick.


Well that just about rounds up this A View from the Helm. The next one will be my last one and will be a Summer “Special” before passing over the Helm.

In the meantime…….Keep the flag flying.

Peter Dade
Superintendent
Port Missioner
SHETLAND