Salt Wick

Taken on the B9081 as we pass through East Yell, Yell, Shetland, I am looking across Otters Wick to the Ness of Queyon, the croft of the same name and the Hill of Queyon. The cliffs of Hascosay and Mid Yell can be seen beyond.

A small postbox alongside a bus shelter at the junction, a short distance from the post office. The box is emptied at half past nine on weekday and Saturday mornigs.

This unusual monument commemorates a shipping disaster in April 1924. Setting sail from Gothenburg, bound for Chile, the 'Bohus' had been sailing for three days when a navigational error resulted in the ship becoming grounded a short distance from here, some 60 miles off her intended course. Within half an hour most of the ship had broken up. Four of the 39 on board perished, and the survivors owed a lot to the men of Yell who acted swiftly when they saw the tragedy emerging. The ship's figurehead was washed ashore in September 1924 and this is what we see here: erected by local people as a memorial to the tragedy, within sight of where it occurred.

Another view of HU5285 : East Yell: the White Wife, from behind her as she looks out across Otters Wick. Black Skerry is the rock in the centre of the picture. This unusual monument commemorates a shipping disaster in April 1924. Setting sail from Gothenburg, bound for Chile, the 'Bohus' had been sailing for three days when a navigational error resulted in the ship becoming grounded a short distance from here, some 60 miles off her intended course. Within half an hour most of the ship had broken up. Four of the 39 on board perished, and the survivors owed a lot to the men of Yell who acted swiftly when they saw the tragedy emerging. The ship's figurehead was washed ashore in September 1924 and this is what we see here: erected by local people as a memorial to the tragedy, within sight of where it occurred.

Looking down on the head of Otters Wick.

The course of this, surely one of the longest named streams, can be seen running across the picture left-to-right and then coming towards us into the North Burn of Otterswick, whose northern bank is more prominent across the bottom of the picture.

Beach at Otterswick.

Community hall near Otterswick. The balers are lined up at an agricultural market.

The story of how the 'White Wife' (aka 'Wudden Wife') ship's figurehead came to be at Otterswick is told here HU5285 : The White Wife: an explanation.

With the Black Skerry rock in Otters Wick in the background.

View of the Hill of Queyon, with the 'White Wife' (an old ship's figurehead rescued from a wreck) on the near shore. The bay in the foreground is Otters Wick, the island of Fetlar is in the background. View from the hill above Otterswick village.

The figurehead of the German barque, Bohus, which ran aground in 1924

According to local tradition (and thus published many times) The White Wife (or White Lady) of Otterswick is said to be a German lady. According to her life records we have to say that Bertha is a British girl or more correctly a Scottish girl, "born in Grangemouth of German parents". She was the figurehead of the steel barque Bertha built in 1892 by Grangemouth Dockyard Co., Grangemouth, as yard no. 163. Her dimensions were: 74,11×11,70×6,88 metres [248'2"×38'4"×22'4"] and with a tonnage of 1653 GRT (1499 NRT and 2600 DWT). She was launched at the shipyard of Grangemouth Dockyard Co. for Joh. H. Soost, Hamburg on July 6th, 1892 and assigned the official German signal RJQD. She was named after Bertha, the eldest daughter of Joh. H. Soost, and this should be the proper name of The White Lady. In 1899 she was sold to Captain M. Dietrich, Hamburg, and thereafter changed hands several times. In her great days until 1912 she did a lot of long distance runs such as 1904 from Lizard Point to Seattle in 154 days, 1906 from Lizard Point to Sydney in 117 days and again in 1909 in 114 days or in 1910 from Sydney to Falmouth f/o in 129 days. In 1912 she was sold to Sweden changed hands several times and ended up with Förnyade Ångfartygs AB Viking, Gothenburg, for SEK 500.000. She was then renamed Bohus and assigned the official Swedish Reg. No. 5903 and signal KBCV. Captain at that time was Mr Ragnar Erik Nyberg, Stockholm. Bertha was bound to the Baltic Sea, mostly sailing in Swedish and Finnish waters.

The burn rises on the hill of Hoga Lee and flows into the Loch of Vatsetter but, like several other Shetland burns, it has several names along the way.

Once quite widespread in Shetland, very few of these houses remain.

Looking towards Vatsetter.