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Shetlopedia - The Shetland Encyclopaedia
Autumn
According to the Orkneyinga Saga (chapter 85) Earl Rognvald Kali Kolsson wrecked with two langships on the east coast of Shetland mainland. At this time Rognvald was on his way back home from a state visit to King Ingi of Norway. The two ships (both presents by the King), the Hjolp under the comand of Earl Harald and the Fifa under the command of Rognvald himself, got lost.
The exact location ist not clear, but Rognvald sent men to Einar of Gulberwick to call for help. This might or might not lead to the conclusion that the site of the wreckage was somewhere in the neighbourhood of Gulberwick.
The breaker battered
our boats, cracked
in sleet-storm our two
sisters, our ships.
Curling, the killer-wave
crushed lives, the crew
endured: the undaunted
Earl's story won't die.
(quoted after Herman Pálsson & Edwards, Paul: The Orkneyinga Saga (Penguin Classics))
This report is the oldest record of a wreck in Shetland waters up to now.
Further Reading
Herman Pálsson and Paul Edwards: Orkneyinga Saga - The History of the Earls of Orkney, Penguin Classics, Hammondsworth, 1978 (ISBN 0140443835)
