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| The route followed by the Armada around Great Britain, 1590 (engraving by Robert Adams and Augustine Ryther, National Maritime Museum) |
What's in the book:
PREFACE; INTRODUCTION
STOPOVER IN THE NORTH OF ENGLAND: DURHAM AND THE EXCURSION TO THE LAKE DISTRICT: Durham, "model" of Urban Geography; Warkworth, Lindisfarne and Durham; Durham Foundation; Sir Walter Scott, the Shetlands and Durham;From coal mines to university colleges;The excursion to Lake District
HISTORY OF SHETLANDS: The Picts, the Brochs, Jarlshof; Broch Clickhmin, Lerwick; Vikings, Norwegians, Danish-Norwegians, Scots; The archipelagos of the Shetlands and Orkneys offered under warranty to Scotland
LANGUAGE, BETWEEN ENGLISH AND NORN: Folklore; The Up-Helly-Aa
LINKS WITH NORWAY
ECONOMY: Agriculture; Breeding; Fishing and fish farming; Oil; Tourism
BIRTH (WITH ORIGINAL SIN) AND DEVELOPMENT OF LERWICK: Some significant urban development dates; The "original sin" of Lerwick: smuggling; The history of lodberries
MAINLAND: Lerwick; Scalloway; In the north of Mainland: The Gallows Hill (The "Hill of Witches"), Tingwall, Weisdale Voe, Esha Ness; In the south of Mainland
COLLECTIVE EXISTENTIAL CRISIS
FOUR CULTURAL REVOLUTIONS: First Revolution, 1886: The Crofters' Act; Second Revolution, 1960: wool, knitwear, refrigerated fish, silver craftsmanship; Third Revolution, 1971-1998: discovery and exploitation of oil and gas; Fourth Revolution, 1998-today: contraction of oil extraction, revival and development of traditional economic activities (crofting, breeding, fishing, fish farming), tourism; Oil, gas; Fishing and fish farming; Cultivation, breeding, tourism
SMUGGLING AND PIRACY IN THE ARCHIPELAGO
SHIPWRECKS: In Scotland; Protection of wrecks of historical importance; In the Shetlands; The ground stations of the haaf: Walls and Stenness (Mainland); Important" shipwrecks and wrecks protected by law: XVII-XVIII century; During the Great War; In the Second World War
FAIR ISLE: 1. The shipwreck of El Gran Grifón, 1588 2. Shipwrecks, 1868-1894 3. The “Year of the Disaster”, 1897 The background The tragedy begins The request for help
ESSENTIAL BIBLIOGRAPHY
...
The orographic characteristics of the tiny and isolated Fair Isle, halfway between Shetland and Orkney, property of the National Trust for Scotland, have caused numerous shipwrecks over the centuries. Like that of El Gran Grifón, belonging to the Spanish Armada. Paradise for naturalists and ornithologists, from here comes the pattern of the classic Shetland sweater
It is an island that I observed only from the window of the twin-engine that, from Shetland, took me to Kirkwall, the capital of Orkney.
Because Fair Isle is located exactly halfway between the Shetlands (45 km, to the north), to which it belongs administratively, and the Orkneys (43 km, to the south).
The degree of geo-spatial isolation of this fragment of land, only 5 km long and wide 2, that has suffered over the centuries, it is however much more thick than imaginable, looking at a map.
This does not mean, as "always" the classic Shetland sweater derives from a “model” born on this island, which today has less than 70 souls (they were 108 in 1931), but that is considered a paradise for ornithologists.
Since it is populated by a myriad of seabirds, in addition to being a spring and summer stop for migratory birds.
In my book on St Kilda I remember how, between 1909 and 1914, Mary Russell, Duchess of Bedford, an amateur ornithologist, but also an English philanthropist (...) and a future pilot, spent a lot of time here, being a bird-watcher.
(...) The island is owned by the National Trust for Scotland and since 1948 there is here a Bird Observatory.
Well protected from the peninsula parallel to the central mass of the island, there is the little harbour of North Haven.
Its orographic features have meant that many ships have sunk in the waters of the island (50 between 1702 and 1937).
Although there are three reasons that led me to talk about an island, which I could not "explore" personally.
Historical and humanitarian (...), the first two; deeply connected to the same community survival (...), the other...
1. The shipwreck of El Gran Grifón, 1588
But let's start with the story, which is then a direct, albeit secondary, emanation of the Great History...
In 1588 El Gran Grifón, one of the ships of the Spanish Armada of Philip II, clashed against Fair Isle.
Built in Rostock, on the Baltic coast of Germany, she has 650 tons, 38 cannons, 43 sailors, 243 soldiers.
Under the command of Captain General Juan Gomez de Medina, she is the flagship of the fleet of the Urcas, the supply vessels of the Armada.
Damaged during a battle in the Channel with the Revenge, the ship of Sir Francis Drake, to repair the damage she bounds for the North Sea and the north of Scotland.
A storm, however, on August 27th slams her against the rocks of Stroms Heelor, in the south-east of the island, near Swartz Geo and Fless Islet. Since then, she lies on a backdrop of 20 m.
The Spaniards, who survived the shipwreck, immediately find themselves in a very precarious position: the island is small, has a modest population, seems devoid of resources.
From the diary, perhaps held by the same Medina, we know how (...) fifty of his men will die of hunger or for the injuries.
Although the relationships between sailors and islanders will be completely peaceful and the food received will be duly paid, when it could also be obtained by force...
Upon hearing of their presence, in mid-November Andrew Umphrey of Burra boarded them on his boat.
For a month they will stay in Quendale, in the Shetlands.
Then they will get a ride to Scotland and, finally, to Dunquerque (August 1589).
Despite everything, the odyssey of the Spaniards of Fair Isle has a happy ending.
Not so will happen to 10,000 Spanish soldiers and sailors, who will follow those same northern routes.
Once beached, they will be killed or die from malnutrition.
FROM: ULTIMA THULE. MEMORIES OF A WINTER STUDY JOURNEY TO THE SHETLAND ISLANDS
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ALL DATA (ECONOMIC, STATISTICAL, DEMOGRAPHIC, ETHNOGRAPHIC, ETC.) CONTAINED IN MY BOOKS HAVE BEEN CAREFULLY VERIFIED, INTEGRATED AND UPDATED AT THE TIME OF THEIR PUBLICATION
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