THE GERMAN MERCHANTS
For hundreds of years
the salt fish trade was in the hands of German merchants of the Hanseatic
League. The fascinating museum in the Symbister Pier House tells how ships
from Hamburg, Bremen and Lubeck sailed to Shetland every summer, bringing
seeds, cloth, iron tools, salt, spirits, luxury goods and hard currency.
This picturesque old building, restored with its dock and cargo hoist, was
one of two Hansa böds, or warehouses, in Whalsay until the Germans were
forced out by import duties after the 1707 Treaty of Union between England
and Scotland.
THE AULD HAA
Not all trade was
legal. Tradition says a smugglers tunnel ran under "Bremen Strasse", the
road outside the böd, to the cellars of the Auld Haa, the former home of the
Bruce lauds.
According to legend, soil in the garden was shipped from Spain as ballast
after the laud's ships had discharged fish cargoes there.
