Skipper retires after 64 years at sea
Chloe Irvine
A Whalsay fisherman has reflected on his lifetime at sea as he retires after almost six and a half decades.
Davie Hutchison, 79, known locally as “Davie A Skaw”, had been skipper of the 75-metre pelagic trawler Charisma.
He has now called time on his career after 64 years.
Mr Hutchison’s first job at the fishing was in 1960 on the 53-feet seine-net vessel Brighter Morn where he worked as the cook.
“I was 15 and one month when I went off to the fishing – the Brighter Morn was one of the peerier boats,” he told The Shetland Times.
“It was normal for folk at that age to be a cook for a year or two. I don’t know what like my cooking was but it didn’t kill them anyway,” he joked.
Throughout his career, Mr Hutchison witnessed countless changes to the industry – including the introduction of radars.
“Radars came aboard the boats twarry year after I started. That was before I was in the wheelhouse. I don’t know how the older ones managed to get up and down Yell Sound and places like that, but they did manage somehow or another.
“There’s been a lot of changes when you see the boats there is now. It’s a job keeping up with it all when you get to my age.
“I can’t see there being as many changes in the next 60-odd year, but I suppose you never know.”
The introduction of the first pelagic vessels was a significant gamble, with paying back loans serving as the greatest pressure of all.
“We weren’t that confident about it,” he said. “It was tough going for a few years. It wasn’t just a case of getting the boat and making money. The hardest bit was paying it back.”
Read the full story in yesterday’s Shetland Times.
