If you were transported back in time to the middle of 19th century or thereabouts, many aspects of life in Shetland would have surprised you.

At the end of the 18th century, the Napoleonic Wars shook Europe. This was the period of the Press Gangs, and Shetland paid a heavy price in men - possibly one third of the entire male population served at sea, mostly in the Navy. The wars closed many existing European markets for fish, which meant increased hardship. This was also a period of hard winters and poor harvests.

The end of the Napoleonic Wars also heralded a growth in the number of Shetland men taking part in Arctic whaling.

   An Arctic whaler in Lerwick harbour
From the 1830’s, overpopulation was becoming a problem. In 1846/47, there was a potato crop failure due to blight, and this, coupled with a series of setbacks in the fishing, led to the decade later known as the ‘hungry Forties’. The meal roads are a result of this period.

By the 1870’s, emigration was becoming a more and more attractive option. It is estimated that between 1861 and 1881, one quarter of the population left Shetland, mainly for North America, Australia and New Zealand.

The Truck Acts of the 1870’s and the Crofter’s Act of 1886 spelt the end of the truck system and put paid to fishing tenures. However, Shetland’s population was still too large to be supported by crofting alone.

A herring boom from the mid-1870’s onwards, however, helped offset this, and at least the new economic system was free of the old landlord/tenant bondage. Many smaller local merchants and fishcurers benefitted greatly, as did the community as a whole.

The herring fishery reached its peak at the turn of the century, but failed just before World War I and never really recovered.