1883
Shetlopedia - The Shetland Encyclopaedia
- Zetland County got its own police force.
- Shetland had 81,103 sheep, among them many Cheviots and hardy Blackfaced from Scotland.
- Herring boats numbered 792 (up 420 from the previous year) and the catch was 256,487 barrels
- Mountfort Baddeley's guidebook The Northern Highlands and Islands listed accomodations at Lerwick as the Royal and Queens Hotels and Crutwell's, Winchester's and Cooper's boarding houses. A recommended bathing place for men was the Slates, half a mile from town, and for ladies the Sands of Sound. Mr. Umphray's shop dealt in the trade of wildfowl eggs, carrying common birds eggs in addition to those of the Great Skuas, Red-Throated Divers, Peregrine falcons, Manx Shearwaters, Stormy Petrels, Great Ravens, Richardson's Skuas, Mergansers, Royston Crows, and Arctic, Greater and Lesser Black-backed Gulls.
January
- 22nd
The Ann (1883), a wooden hulled sail lugger, of Aithsting, foundered between Papa Little and Vementry with the loss of both souls aboard.
February
- 3rd
Two fishermen drowned in a boat accident at Olna Firth. - 9th/10th
The Bonafide, a barque, laden with a cargo of coal and coal tar, of and for Arendal, Norway from Bruntisland, Fife, Scotland presumed wrecked on Sumburgh Head with the loss of all hands, after lights observed in the vicinity and wreckage, including ships papers, strewn along the coast.
March
- 19th
Sir William Harcourt, Home Secretary in Gladstone's Liberal government, announced in the House of Commons he was setting up a Royal Commission "to inquire into the conditions of the crofters and cottars in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland" - 20th
The W. E. Gladstone (LK146), a wooden hulled sail fishing smack, of Lerwick, wrecked in the vicinity of Burra or possibly Scalloway on this date, or the same date in 1884 (the available records are in dispute). - 29th
The Martha Ann (LK86), a wooden hulled sail dandy, laden with a mixed cargo of provisions, coal, salt and fishing gear in preparation of departing for Faroe for the fishing season, parted her chains while lying at anchor in Busta Voe during SSW Force 10 wind condition, and drove ashore. All of the crew were saved and the vessel became a total wreck, but some of the coal and most of the fishing gear was expected to be salvaged.
July
- 5th
Channel fleet visits Lerwick harbour. - 13th
The Napier Commission, chaired by Lord Napier, arrived in Shetland to take evidence for "The Royal Commission of inquiry into the Condition of Crofters and Cotters in the Highlands and Islands". The evidence that Napier collected is an important source of information about rural communities in Scotland in the 1880s and previous decades. However, the government didn't accept Napier's recommendations. Instead it promoted the Crofters Act of 1886, based on similar legislation in Ireland, which gave crofters fair rents and security of tenure.
Findings in PDF format - 30th
Sherriff-Substitute Thoms presided over the opening ceremony of Lerwick Town Hall, built at a cost of £4,500 with stained glass windows worth an additional £1,200.
August
- 2nd
Foundation stone laid for the Victoria Pier - 26th
The Monarch, a wooden hulled sail fishing lugger, of Pitullie, Aberdeenshire, Scotland, while on a fishing trip out of Lerwick foundered and sank at a position approx 9 miles S of Bressay either on this date, or on the same date in 1886 (the available records are in dispute).
September
- An unidentified vessel, of either British or American origin, suspected wrecked on the Ve Skerries, after wreckage washed ashore along the west coast of Shetland.
October
- The Jessies (PD1001), a lug sail vessel, or Cairnbulg, Scotland, wrecked at an unspecifield location on or near Shetland.
November
- 6th
Election of the Lerwick Town Council. - 18th/19th
The Labrador, a brigantine or schooner, of Paimpol, France from Antwerp, Belgium and for Sunderland, England laden with a cargo of foundry sand/loam drove from anchor and wrecked in the West Voe of Sumburgh. All of the crew were saved.
