Haaf Fishing

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The word ‘haaf’ is derived from the Norse word ‘hav’, meaning open sea. This was certainly the case with the Shetland ‘Far Haaf’ fishing. The haaf fishing was carried out from the mid 18th century, until the end of the 19th century, and the crew of a Sixareen could be as much as 50 miles from home when they set their fishing lines.
The Sixareen was an open 6 oared boat with a square sail. For stability the boats set out on fishing trips with a large amount of stone ballast on board, which was dumped as fish was caught to replace it.
Without the benefit of modern navigation methods and weather forecasts it is hard not to be in awe of the crews who set out on such long and dangerous trips. Sadly, on all too many occasions crews didn’t return, and indeed events such as The Gloup Disaster and the Delting Disaster were the catalyst for the end of the haaf fishing.
The sixareen crews, forced by the fear and burden of debt, were under constant pressure from the Lairds to fish, and often this pressure meant that a crew would take a chance and stay at sea beyond the point where the weather conditions dictated that it was unsafe. Such was the pressure from the Lairds, that in some cases where a boat and crew were lost, the Laird tried to claim compensation for his loss from the widows.
The Haaf season traditionally started on the 12th May, although the crews would have spent some time beforehand tarring the boats, preparing their equipment, and ensuring that the lodges they would spend their time ashore in, were fit for habitation. Weather permitting a crew made 2 trips each week, Monday to Wednesday, and Thursday to Saturday, in which time the crew, baited and set up to 100 lines for Ling, Tusk, and Cod.
Much of the bait for the lines, was caught inshore, and one of the fish commonly used for bait was Haddock, which, given our love of Haddock and Chips as a takeaway meal, may sound surprising. Some of the boats also carried drift nets to catch herring for bait, but failing that any fish was used for bait, any that is apart from the marketable fish.
The Lines were carefully prepared beforehand with the hooks in order, stuck into cork along the side of the line box. The hooks were spaced about 3 metres (10 feet)apart on bids of about 1 metre (3 feet) length. A fleet of lines could have as many as 1200 hooks and would stretch in total about 3.5 Km (over 2 miles).
Once a crew reached the fishing grounds, the sail was stowed and 4 of the crew rowed the boat in the direction they wished to set the line, while the other two crew baited and released the line.
The line started with the 'bowe', (bouy) attached to the 'burrip, (bowe rope), then the 'klett', (anchor stone). The main line was attached to the 'klett, and as this was lowered to the bottom the hooks were baited with a perhaps half a herring, or similair sized piece of bait. As the crew rowed the line was laid out, finishing in another 'klett', 'burrip', and 'bowe'. In storng tidal conditions several additional 'bighters', (weights), may have been placed along the line, and perhaps extra 'burrips', and 'bowes', to aid recovery if the main line broke.
After all the lines were set, the crew had a few hours rest before hailing began. This was time to have a meal, or if lucky, grab a little sleep perhaps in the fore room lying on, or under the sail.
The most likely meal for the men was oatcakes, or bannocks, washed down with 'blaand', (sour whey).
Then it was time to 'hail', (haul), the lines. In order to reduce the strain on the lines, 4 of the crew would row in the opposite direction to the way the line was set, while 2 men dressed in 'waterproof' garmants hailed the line. These waterproofs were fairly basic by modern standards, and were more than likely just normal garments which had been treated with boiled oil to waterproof them.
A common haul was in the region of 200 fish, with an average of 10 to the hundredweight, or in good cases as few as eight to the hundredweight, which meant that an average fish weighed up to 14 LBS, approx 6.3Kg. Often the catch would exceed this, in which case the crew on occasion would have to stop hailing and clean the fish already onboard, to reduce weight and make way for the rest of the catch.
This was the time when weather could play a big part,. If the weather turned bad the crew were under extreme pressure to hail the remainder of the lines because if they failed and the lines were lost, the crew would be in debt to the Laird for new lines. But even if they hailed all the lines with a good catch the boat could be so low in the water that even moderate waves could risk swamping the boat. There are many stories of boats which made shore purely because of the extra lift created by being under sail with a favourable wind.
Generally, catches were good and the boats returned fully laden. By the time a boat reached shore the catch would be gutted, and the livers separated, to be later rendered for their oil. Once ashore the catch was in the hands of the many people involved in the operation of the Haaf Stations.