The bad day

The sixareen or sixern (Old Norse: sexæringr; Norwegian: seksring meaning “six-oared”) is a traditional fishing boat used around the Shetland Islands.

It is a clinker-built boat, evolved as a larger version of the yoal, when the need arose for crews to fish further from shore.

The first of the sixareens were, like the yoal, imported from Norway in kit form until the mid 19th century, when increasing import duty made it more cost effective to import the raw materials and build the boats in Shetland.

Haaf fishing was very dangerous due to the unpredictable nature of the weather far out at sea.

However, when you look at the numbers of men that fished and the length of time that they fished for, the actual disasters are relatively few.