THE HAZAEL III AND THE HESPERUS

Some months ago, I started to do a little history project, through this blog, on the subject of the old wooden 20ft Shetland model boat, which my father bought in a sieve-like condition, and restored to full seaworthiness by means of a mixture of fibreglass, glue and bits of board. We spent many happy summers thereafter, fishing in her with lines and exploring parts of the Shetland coast which, being inaccessible from land, had probably never seen the foot of man for many a day. Some day I plan to finish the story of this wonderful little boat, which my mother had christened "Hesperus" after the wreck in Longfellow's poem.

I was reminded of her this week, when someone made a posting on the Fishing Boats forum in www.shipsnostalgia.com about an old Fraserburgh drifter called the Hazael III, registration no. FR107. This was the number painted on the large plastic drift-net buoy which we found, on one of our "Hesperus" expeditions, jammed among the boulders on the beach in a rocky cove on the south end of Shetland mainland. The buoy, in good condition despite what it had encountered on its way to the cove, was a valuable find for a lad in his early teens, and it was duly taken to the Lerwick fishing agents LHD, who gave me the princely sum of 7s6d (37.5p!) for it. In the early 1960s this was real money!

I couldn't resist replying to the Shipsnostalgia post, telling them this little story.