Second Shetland Truck System Report Part 48

1103. How do you make your living?-By fis.h.i.+ng, and sometimes by going as master of a small coasting vessel.

1104. Does that vessel belong to you?-No; I sometimes get employment from the owners in Lerwick,-from Mr. Leask, or Messrs. Hay, or others.

1105. You have not a permanent employment as master?-No, but I am competent for taking charge of a vessel at times.

1106. Is that a vessel employed in the fis.h.i.+ng trade?-Yes, and sometimes in the coasting trade, taking cured fish to any port in England or Scotland.

1107. You have been present during the examination of the previous witnesses during the day?-Yes.

1108. Do you concur generally in what they have stated?-So far as I can remember it, I do.

1109. Is there anything additional you want to say?-Yes. Our wishes are to have our liberty to fish for whoever we please, and to make the best we can of our fish.

1110. But you are not bound in any way?-I am bound to fish for Messrs. Hay in the long-line and herring fis.h.i.+ng in the island.

1111. Did you sign any obligation-to fish for Messrs. Hay only?- No.

1112. Then in what way are you bound?-By our father signing an obligation.

1113. Are you the son of a Burra man?-Yes.

1114. Did your father sign the obligation eight years ago?-Yes.

1115. What reason have you to suppose that binds you to fish?- My father told me when he came home, that neither he nor his sons were to be allowed to fish to any other men than Messrs. Hay.

1116. Is it eight years since he told you that-Yes.

1117. Is your father alive?-Yes, he is here. His name is John Sinclair.

1118. Have you attempted or wished to fish for any other than Messrs. Hay?-Yes; in the Faroe fis.h.i.+ng, but nowhere else.

1119. Was there any objection taken to your doing so?-No; because at the time when I broke off from Messrs. Hay they could not suit me with a vessel. I was competent to take charge of a vessel, and they had none to give me, and for that reason they let me off.

1120. Do you go in for the home fis.h.i.+ng?-Sometimes.

1121. Have you fished for any other than Messrs. Hay in that fis.h.i.+ng?-No, not in the long-line fis.h.i.+ng.

1122. Have you proposed to do so?-No.

1123. Then you have never been interfered with in any way yourself?-No, not further than that. Occasionally I have had to fish a little for them when I was not engaged at anything else.

[Page 23]

1124. How had you to fish to them?-To support myself.

1125. But if you had chosen, you might have engaged with any other merchant than Messrs. Hay?-No, not for the home fis.h.i.+ng.

1126. Why do you say that?-Because we were made to understand that we would not be allowed to do so.

1127. You say that your only reason for understanding that, was what your father had told you. What would have been the result to you if you had done it?-The result would have been, that my father would have been turned out on my account.

1128. Is that what you were afraid of?-Yes.

1129. And is that the reason why you never tried to get engaged with any other merchant?-Yes.

1130. Had you ever to pay liberty money?-No.

1131. Had your father ever to pay liberty money for you or any of his sons?-I believe he had to pay for one who died.

1132. Do you know that yourself?-I am confident of it, from having heard about it.

1133. Was that when you were young?-Yes.

1134. But that was a good many years ago?-Yes. I cannot remember the time.

1135. Is that all you wish to say?-I remember in my early years, when I was a young fellow, and commenced to fish along with my father, we went chiefly to the herring fis.h.i.+ng, and we had to catch herring for Messrs. Hay at a very low price. We had a certain allowance of meal, which I suppose would amount to about twenty-four pounds for seven or eight days; and it was hardly fit to sustain a family of about eight people. My father had to find boats and nets with which to proceed to the fis.h.i.+ng, and that put him into debt; and about four years ago I and my brothers had to come good for that debt.

1136. Was that an old debt which your father had contracted?-It was a debt acc.u.mulated chiefly in the herring fis.h.i.+ng.

1137. When was it begun to be incurred?-About fifteen or sixteen years ago.

1138. Had the debt increased, or did it merely stand over?-It was not regular; it sometimes rose and sometimes fell.

1139. But your father was constantly in debt up to four years ago?-Yes, so far as I can remember.

1140. Was that debt made out by the annual accountings which we have heard about to-day? Was it a debt in the books of Messrs.

Hay for provisions supplied at the store?-Yes, and for fis.h.i.+ng materials.

1141. Was it for a boat also?-It was chiefly for a new boat and nets. He purchased a new boat, which put him further down than ever.

1142. Was it purchased about fifteen or twenty years ago?-No; it is perhaps ten or twelve years ago.

1143. And you say that about four years ago this debt became so large that you and your brother had to become bound for it?-Yes.

1144. How did that happen?-Because they wrote out, or pretended to write out, what might be called a travelling-ticket, or a warning to remove off the land.

1145. At what term?-Was it at Martinmas?-As far as I recollect, it was.

1146. Some people have taken special objection to the short Martinmas warning. Do you concur in that objection?-Yes. It is only forty days in some cases.

1147. And your father got that warning?-Yes.

1148. How much was he in debt at that time?-Perhaps from 9 to 12. I and my brother Robert had to pay 6, and I believe that was the half of it.

1149. Did you sign any doc.u.ment obliging you pay that money?- No.

1150. Then how did you become bound?-On account of my father being warned out.