Virtual maritime museum project by P5/6 Aith Junior High School

2019

The sea and what it means to us. As islanders, the sea ebbs and flows into every part of our lives. Within our class project on Stories of the Sea we have been considering skills for learning, life and work. We discussed many good ideas on how to share our learning and eventually decided to think of it in terms of Past, Present and Future.

Da Past. Whether family stories passed down through generations or further investigation of local history that helped shape the community we live in today.

Da Present - or eenoo! We are never more than 3 miles away from the sea at any given point in Shetland with many miles of stunning coastline rich in flora and fauna. Many have family and friends either directly or indirectly linked to the sea through work. Indeed, the sea fish industry is currently worth over £300 million annually to Shetland (bigger than the value of the oil, gas, agriculture, tourism and creative industries combined).

Our school enjoys links with the world of work through visitors coming into school and trips out (Fishmarket, Ocean Kinetics). Recently we have had representatives from Cooke Aquaculture， North Atlantic Fisheries College and The Aith Lifeboat visit our school. We also had the privilege of viewing a wide range of fish kindly brought in by fisherman Ivor Moffat, a parent recently returned from a pelagic fishing trip and able to share detailed knowledge of species with our pupils.

Aith Lifeboat is the most Northerly lifeboat in the UK. From the school windows we look out onto the marina and Aith voe. The lifeboat at the end of the breakwater/pier is an integral part of the community. Aith lifeboat has been providing protection to seafarers off the West of Shetland from the storms of the Atlantic Ocean since 1933. The crew are well known to the school with many relations involved both past and present. We are extremely proud of the Aith lifeboat and its crew. The annual local RNLI Gala day is much anticipated with school children from a young age keen to volunteer to help raise funds for this much valued emergency service.

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The sea for us is also often linked to enjoyment. Many happy hours are spent outdoors on the beautiful beaches, swimming in the sea, guddling in burns, fishing or maybe trying a crabby line at the end of a pier.

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The regattas in the summer months are a highlight for many, with youngsters taking part in sailing and rowing competitions throughout the isles. Hours of practice go into getting the right technique and perfecting timing. Rowing at the local Aith boating club is now a very popular pastime for all ages. Rowing connects us to our past when fishermen went ‘aff tae da Haaf‘ in sixareens , the same style of boats used in the rowing competitions today. Our youngest competitors race in the under 12s events.

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Rowing brings us together as a community as well as a team. We would like to give special thanks to Nick McCaffrey (Southspear Media & Surveys Ltd) from Aith who did a fantastic job of filming our under 12s rowing team in action, practising in Aith voe earlier this summer. We really enjoyed getting a birds-eye view!

A peek into the past. After carefully selecting stories the pupils felt had the most impact on them they discussed how to interpret and share with others. After a number of possible suggestions, the consensus was they wanted to share the news items through film, in a nod to the way they would have heard these stories first, through spoken word.

Aith Lifeboat

The Juniper rescue

The story of Ove Joensen
- the accidental visitor

The adventures of Bertie Thomas Nicolson Moffat

Scapa Flow, Orkney

The Delting and Gloup fishing disasters