The story of the Violet

Captain Halcrow, in his Sail Fishermen of Shetland said she was a welled long-boomer who regularly carried live cod to the Humber every autumn. The more prosaic Register of Shipping describes a wooden carvel-built smack with an elliptical stern, one mast, 55.97 tons, 62.2 feet long, 17.3 wide, and hold depth of 10.8. She was built in Aldeburgh, Suffolk, in 1860. The fishing effort there is small now, but Aldeburgh and nearby Woodbridge, like Shetland, sent out boats as far as Iceland. A smack with a well, taking back live fish in a tank, could gain a premium.

The vessel was registered in Woodbridge, with Thomas Parrett of High Street, Aldeburgh, as managing owner. The Violet had salvage adventures. The brigantine Jason grounded on the Shipwash Sands in December 1862. A magistrate awarded £80 to be divided between the crews who helped out, the Violet of Woodbridge among them, but there is no more information. There was another case -- the Aurora of Ipswich in January 1865, this time mentioning a Henry Barley, skipper. A crew list in the National Maritime Museum Caird Library Archive for 1865 has Henry John Barley as Master, and the vessel’s port as Woodbridge and Thomas Parritt as owner. It looks like our Violet.

Shortly after, in 1868, the Violet was sold on to Greenwich, the 64 shares being divided between Alfred Blake, John Henry Reid, William Benjamin Fisher, and Thomas Patterson, smackmen. This was in the latter years of the Greenwich long-distance fishery. Despite proximity to the metropolis, it couldn’t compete with ports like Grimsby and their rail connections, and in 1874, the Violet was in Scalloway. Ellen Jane Robertson and James Garriock had 21 shares each, and James Kirkland Galloway had 22.

The Violet, commanded by James Garriock, came into Scalloway on the 4th May 1874, with 12,000 cod. James Garriock, who came from Burwick, only had a short career on her. He was knocked overboard by the main boom on the way from Faroe to Iceland on 12th July 1876. Afterwards the Violet was taken over by Gideon Nicolson of Scalloway, and remained in his hands.

In September 1880 the Violet landed 15,000 cod in Scalloway. The crew tried to land a few other things. The Customs picked up eight of them, nine and a half gallons of brandy, and twenty-five pounds of tobacco. Since this kind of smuggling was widespread in the Faroe fishery, Robert Thomson, William Bolt, Thomas Robertson, Robert Gray, Thomas Laurenson, Laurence Laurenson, and Thomas Twatt, could have counted themselves unlucky. Fines ranged from £1 7d 6d to £5 2s 9d. The Laurensons chose 14 days in jail instead, and later on James Gray was charged with smuggling three and a quarter pounds of tobacco. That was 23s 3d and 10s costs. He spent a short time in prison before the fine was paid.

Robert Gray was probably Robert Gray junior, who was mate on the Violet in two crew lists from 1881. Otherwise they don’t seem to have held over any crew from 1880. Maybe there was a feeling about bad luck. Robert Gray senior was the master. He died at home, Scalloway, in 1892. Apart from James Garriock, two other Violet masters weren’t lucky. James Coutts died in 1896 on board, after being ill. He was buried in Tórshavn. At the end of April 1891 the Violet came back to Scalloway with the master, Adam Leask, who had a broken leg. The young mate brought the vessel back. He was Joseph Peterson.

Something of a legend, Joseph Peterson had a formidable talent for the cod-fishing, and took on the Violet from 1892-1894. The Nicolson Company thought so much of him they got him another, better, vessel, the William Martin. Despite his efforts, the cod-fishery continued to face problems. Nicolson and Co. had advertised their small fleet for sale more than once – the Violet, the Imogine, and the Alma. They advertised for crew in the Shetland newpapers – young men preferred – but the young men preferred the herring fishing, and Shetland crew were difficult to get. Faroese were not, and the William Martin was sold there in 1908.

The Violet didn’t get a second life in Faroe. There isn’t much trace of her in the Shetland newspapers after 1900. Still listed in Manson’s Almanac, there’s a Walter Goudie as her master from 1898 onwards, perhaps laid up for much of the year, or used for cargo. In the Shipping Register, there’s one final note in red ink Registry closed 8th of February 1906. Vessel broken up.