Adam Halcrow

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Adam Halcrow, Shetland sea captain and author who published under the name Captain A. Halcrow, was born on the 9th of December 1872 at Pundstow, Cunningsburgh, the second of eight children born to James Halcrow and his wife Barbara (Jarmson), both of Cunningsburgh. James was a seaman, and two of the children became Master Mariners, Adam and his younger brother William. Another brother, Jeremiah, became a schoolmaster in North Berwick.

Adam started his sea-going career as a fisherman on sail herring boats, and was cod fishing on the Faroe banks. After a season whaling at Greenland, he shipped on the four masted barque 'Falls of Dee' for San Francisco, a trip which saw the vessel considerably overdue because of severe Cape Horn weather. After further sea time, he obtained his master's ticket, aged 29, and sailed world-wide. From 1910 to 1930 he was employed on the west coast of Africa. He qualified as a pilot on the river Niger, and in 1918 was appointed Marine Superintendent at Lagos and later Freetown. He retired from the sea in 1930 and returned to Shetland.

Entering public life at home, he became Chairman of Lerwick Ratepayers' Association and was elected to Lerwick Town Council, becoming Junior and later Senior Bailie. He was a member of Lerwick Harbour Trust and was also Vice-Convenor and later Convenor of Zetland County Council. He retired from this position in 1938 for health reasons.

Captain Adam Halcrow married Jane Smith of Sandwick on the 23rd of January 1902, and they had two children. The eldest, James Alexander Smith Halcrow, was lost at sea when serving as a Lieutenant in the Royal Naval Reserve. His ship, the corvette H.M.S. Marigold, was sunk west of Gibraltar Strait on the 9th of December 1942 - on what would have been his father's 70th birthday, had Capt. Halcrow not had already died on the 24th of December 1940 at 6 Carlton Place, Lerwick.

His published works include:

Deep-sea Plunderings: tales of fact, Oliver & Boyd, Edinburgh 1938.
A compilation of articles previously published in magazines and newspapers.

The Sail Fishermen of Shetland : and their Norse and Dutch forerunners, T and J Manson, 1950, reprinted in facsimile by the Shetland Times, 1994 (ISBN 0900662980)