#shetland — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #shetland, aggregated by home.social.
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Boo hiss...
Controversial #JackdawGasField set to be approved in weeks, sources say
Simon Jack, 3 September 2026
"The #UK government is set to give the go-ahead for a controversial new #GasField off the coast of #Aberdeen, the BBC understands.
"Approval for the Jackdaw project could come in mid-September, just before #Parliament breaks for party conference season, according to government and industry sources.
"The gas field was approved by the former #ConservativeGovernment in 2022 but was delayed by a legal ruling from a #ScottishCourt, after #EnvironmentalGroups argued consent was given without fully considering the #ClimateImpact.
"Jackdaw's owner says it will account for 6% of UK gas output when at peak production but environmental groups say it will provide only 2% of UK use when imports are included.
"Campaigners launched legal challenges after Jackdaw was approved in 2022 and when the #RosebankOilField off #Shetland was given the green light in 2023.
"The Court of Session in Edinburgh ruled last year that #Rosebank and Jackdaw had been unlawfully approved because the government had failed to take into account the climate impact of burning extracted #OilAndGas from the sites.
"A judge ruled that more detailed climate assessments had to be published, and further estimates were put out for consultation in July.
"Both Jackdaw and Rosebank are operated by #Adura, a joint venture between energy giants #ShellOil and Norway's #Equinor. Aberdeen-based firm Ithaca also owns 20% of Rosebank.
"Adura has estimated that Jackdaw could produce 35.8m tonnes of carbon over its 11-year lifetime, the equivalent of 90% of Scotland's emissions for 2023. But it said a more likely estimate was about 23.6m tonnes - equivalent to 60% of the 2023 figure.
" #Environmentalists insist that more #drilling would be unconscionable, hampering efforts to cut planet-warming carbon emissions as deadly #heatwaves and #ExtremeWeather affect billions across the globe.
"They also say starting production would not protect energy security and that transitioning sooner to #GreenerTechnologies would be better for supporting jobs."
Read more:
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cj9xe09jz4eo#RenewablesNow #NoDrilling #NorthSea #ScottishCoast #UKNews #UKPol #Scotland #BigOilAndGas #ShellLies #Oiligarchy
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Boo hiss...
Controversial #JackdawGasField set to be approved in weeks, sources say
Simon Jack, 3 September 2026
"The #UK government is set to give the go-ahead for a controversial new #GasField off the coast of #Aberdeen, the BBC understands.
"Approval for the Jackdaw project could come in mid-September, just before #Parliament breaks for party conference season, according to government and industry sources.
"The gas field was approved by the former #ConservativeGovernment in 2022 but was delayed by a legal ruling from a #ScottishCourt, after #EnvironmentalGroups argued consent was given without fully considering the #ClimateImpact.
"Jackdaw's owner says it will account for 6% of UK gas output when at peak production but environmental groups say it will provide only 2% of UK use when imports are included.
"Campaigners launched legal challenges after Jackdaw was approved in 2022 and when the #RosebankOilField off #Shetland was given the green light in 2023.
"The Court of Session in Edinburgh ruled last year that #Rosebank and Jackdaw had been unlawfully approved because the government had failed to take into account the climate impact of burning extracted #OilAndGas from the sites.
"A judge ruled that more detailed climate assessments had to be published, and further estimates were put out for consultation in July.
"Both Jackdaw and Rosebank are operated by #Adura, a joint venture between energy giants #ShellOil and Norway's #Equinor. Aberdeen-based firm Ithaca also owns 20% of Rosebank.
"Adura has estimated that Jackdaw could produce 35.8m tonnes of carbon over its 11-year lifetime, the equivalent of 90% of Scotland's emissions for 2023. But it said a more likely estimate was about 23.6m tonnes - equivalent to 60% of the 2023 figure.
" #Environmentalists insist that more #drilling would be unconscionable, hampering efforts to cut planet-warming carbon emissions as deadly #heatwaves and #ExtremeWeather affect billions across the globe.
"They also say starting production would not protect energy security and that transitioning sooner to #GreenerTechnologies would be better for supporting jobs."
Read more:
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cj9xe09jz4eo#RenewablesNow #NoDrilling #NorthSea #ScottishCoast #UKNews #UKPol #Scotland #BigOilAndGas #ShellLies #Oiligarchy
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Boo hiss...
Controversial #JackdawGasField set to be approved in weeks, sources say
Simon Jack, 3 September 2026
"The #UK government is set to give the go-ahead for a controversial new #GasField off the coast of #Aberdeen, the BBC understands.
"Approval for the Jackdaw project could come in mid-September, just before #Parliament breaks for party conference season, according to government and industry sources.
"The gas field was approved by the former #ConservativeGovernment in 2022 but was delayed by a legal ruling from a #ScottishCourt, after #EnvironmentalGroups argued consent was given without fully considering the #ClimateImpact.
"Jackdaw's owner says it will account for 6% of UK gas output when at peak production but environmental groups say it will provide only 2% of UK use when imports are included.
"Campaigners launched legal challenges after Jackdaw was approved in 2022 and when the #RosebankOilField off #Shetland was given the green light in 2023.
"The Court of Session in Edinburgh ruled last year that #Rosebank and Jackdaw had been unlawfully approved because the government had failed to take into account the climate impact of burning extracted #OilAndGas from the sites.
"A judge ruled that more detailed climate assessments had to be published, and further estimates were put out for consultation in July.
"Both Jackdaw and Rosebank are operated by #Adura, a joint venture between energy giants #ShellOil and Norway's #Equinor. Aberdeen-based firm Ithaca also owns 20% of Rosebank.
"Adura has estimated that Jackdaw could produce 35.8m tonnes of carbon over its 11-year lifetime, the equivalent of 90% of Scotland's emissions for 2023. But it said a more likely estimate was about 23.6m tonnes - equivalent to 60% of the 2023 figure.
" #Environmentalists insist that more #drilling would be unconscionable, hampering efforts to cut planet-warming carbon emissions as deadly #heatwaves and #ExtremeWeather affect billions across the globe.
"They also say starting production would not protect energy security and that transitioning sooner to #GreenerTechnologies would be better for supporting jobs."
Read more:
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cj9xe09jz4eo#RenewablesNow #NoDrilling #NorthSea #ScottishCoast #UKNews #UKPol #Scotland #BigOilAndGas #ShellLies #Oiligarchy
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Boo hiss...
Controversial #JackdawGasField set to be approved in weeks, sources say
Simon Jack, 3 September 2026
"The #UK government is set to give the go-ahead for a controversial new #GasField off the coast of #Aberdeen, the BBC understands.
"Approval for the Jackdaw project could come in mid-September, just before #Parliament breaks for party conference season, according to government and industry sources.
"The gas field was approved by the former #ConservativeGovernment in 2022 but was delayed by a legal ruling from a #ScottishCourt, after #EnvironmentalGroups argued consent was given without fully considering the #ClimateImpact.
"Jackdaw's owner says it will account for 6% of UK gas output when at peak production but environmental groups say it will provide only 2% of UK use when imports are included.
"Campaigners launched legal challenges after Jackdaw was approved in 2022 and when the #RosebankOilField off #Shetland was given the green light in 2023.
"The Court of Session in Edinburgh ruled last year that #Rosebank and Jackdaw had been unlawfully approved because the government had failed to take into account the climate impact of burning extracted #OilAndGas from the sites.
"A judge ruled that more detailed climate assessments had to be published, and further estimates were put out for consultation in July.
"Both Jackdaw and Rosebank are operated by #Adura, a joint venture between energy giants #ShellOil and Norway's #Equinor. Aberdeen-based firm Ithaca also owns 20% of Rosebank.
"Adura has estimated that Jackdaw could produce 35.8m tonnes of carbon over its 11-year lifetime, the equivalent of 90% of Scotland's emissions for 2023. But it said a more likely estimate was about 23.6m tonnes - equivalent to 60% of the 2023 figure.
" #Environmentalists insist that more #drilling would be unconscionable, hampering efforts to cut planet-warming carbon emissions as deadly #heatwaves and #ExtremeWeather affect billions across the globe.
"They also say starting production would not protect energy security and that transitioning sooner to #GreenerTechnologies would be better for supporting jobs."
Read more:
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cj9xe09jz4eo#RenewablesNow #NoDrilling #NorthSea #ScottishCoast #UKNews #UKPol #Scotland #BigOilAndGas #ShellLies #Oiligarchy
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Boo hiss...
Controversial #JackdawGasField set to be approved in weeks, sources say
Simon Jack, 3 September 2026
"The #UK government is set to give the go-ahead for a controversial new #GasField off the coast of #Aberdeen, the BBC understands.
"Approval for the Jackdaw project could come in mid-September, just before #Parliament breaks for party conference season, according to government and industry sources.
"The gas field was approved by the former #ConservativeGovernment in 2022 but was delayed by a legal ruling from a #ScottishCourt, after #EnvironmentalGroups argued consent was given without fully considering the #ClimateImpact.
"Jackdaw's owner says it will account for 6% of UK gas output when at peak production but environmental groups say it will provide only 2% of UK use when imports are included.
"Campaigners launched legal challenges after Jackdaw was approved in 2022 and when the #RosebankOilField off #Shetland was given the green light in 2023.
"The Court of Session in Edinburgh ruled last year that #Rosebank and Jackdaw had been unlawfully approved because the government had failed to take into account the climate impact of burning extracted #OilAndGas from the sites.
"A judge ruled that more detailed climate assessments had to be published, and further estimates were put out for consultation in July.
"Both Jackdaw and Rosebank are operated by #Adura, a joint venture between energy giants #ShellOil and Norway's #Equinor. Aberdeen-based firm Ithaca also owns 20% of Rosebank.
"Adura has estimated that Jackdaw could produce 35.8m tonnes of carbon over its 11-year lifetime, the equivalent of 90% of Scotland's emissions for 2023. But it said a more likely estimate was about 23.6m tonnes - equivalent to 60% of the 2023 figure.
" #Environmentalists insist that more #drilling would be unconscionable, hampering efforts to cut planet-warming carbon emissions as deadly #heatwaves and #ExtremeWeather affect billions across the globe.
"They also say starting production would not protect energy security and that transitioning sooner to #GreenerTechnologies would be better for supporting jobs."
Read more:
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cj9xe09jz4eo#RenewablesNow #NoDrilling #NorthSea #ScottishCoast #UKNews #UKPol #Scotland #BigOilAndGas #ShellLies #Oiligarchy
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Notre blogue présente des écogestes, des technologies vertes, dans le domaine du logement, du jardinage, du transport et de l'énergie, du textile et de la mode, l'agriculture et l'alimentation, la santé et du bien-être, la finance responsable, ainsi que des références de livres
Plus: https://www.revolutionverte.fr
#Avignon #BuenosAires #Argentina #Argentine #Uruguay #Paraguay #Belize #Haiti #Cuba #LaHavane #Montevideo #Venezuela #Honduras #Panama #Ecuador #Equateur #Shetland #Galapagos #USA #UK #Iran
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Bressay, an island of Shetland (and homes to lots of seabirds)
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Bressay, an island of Shetland (and homes to lots of seabirds)
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Bressay, an island of Shetland (and homes to lots of seabirds)
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Bressay, an island of Shetland (and homes to lots of seabirds)
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Technical solution could help #Shetland #walkers ward off biting beastie
Digital creator and #ShetlandTimes contributor Mark Burgess is behind the new application, which could provide welcome relief for walkers and other #outdoor #explorers.
Similar #data has been used before to help fight against the #midge in mainland #Scotland.
But the new app has been specifically designed to take account of Shetland’s own conditions
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The Trows of #Orkney and #Shetland
What is a #Trow?
According to Saxby and Edmondston’s 'Home of a #Naturalist’ (1888):
“This interesting race of #supernatural beings is closely allied to the #Scandinavian #Trolls, but has some very distinctive characteristics of its own. The Trow is not such a mischief-making #sprite as the Troll, is more #human-like in some respects, and his #nature seems cast in a #morbid, #melancholy mould.”
https://faeryfolklorist.blogspot.com/2015/10/the-trows-of-orkney-and-shetland.html
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Flinching in my hands
this soiled and studded but good heart,
which stippling my cupped palms, breathes –—Jen Hadfield, “Hedgehog, Hamnavoe”
published in NIGH-NO-PLACE (Bloodaxe Books, 2007)Today, 3 March, is World Wildlife Day.
https://www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk/poem/hedgehog-hamnavoe/
#Scottish #literature #WorldWildlifeDay #poem #poetry #hedgehogs #Shetland
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‘It’s a project’ – Crazy Chris offers vintage lifeboat free to good home
Well – courtesy of Skerries’ most famous resident, ‘Crazy Chris’ Harris – that unique opportunity has just presented itself.
And the cost? Nothing at all.
Crazy Chris, who took on the #lifeboat in the hope of turning her into a truly one-of-a-kind #B&B on one of #Shetland’s most remote #islands, hopes to pass her on to the right person as a personal project.
https://www.shetnews.co.uk/2025/10/23/project-crazy-chris-offers-vintage/?utm_source=Fediverse
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A #Yorkshireman working on a #NorthSea #oilrig rescued an #owl that had been blown nearly 300km off course by #StormAmy - he fed her for a few days and she was collected by a #wildlife sanctuary in #Shetland , checked over by #vets and released
(it is impressive the lad was able to catch an owl and even had all the kit ready to look after her!)
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#Coastguard response times could quadruple under new plans
Controversial new proposal from #Bristow’s a private, profit motivated company Tories contracted to #privatize the service
Coastguard will have 60 min to launch after call is made
Currently they have 15 min during day, 45 min at night
This will risk lives
https://www.shetlandtimes.co.uk/2023/10/06/coastguard-response-times-could-quadruple-under-new-plans
#ToryScum #CutsKill #Rescue #Shetland #Maritime #UK #greed #ToryDictatorship #Privatization #SearcjRescue #OilRigs #Ships #CruiseShips #PeopleNotProfits
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#Coastguard response times could quadruple under new plans
Controversial new proposal from #Bristow’s a private, profit motivated company Tories contracted to #privatize the service
Coastguard will have 60 min to launch after call is made
Currently they have 15 min during day, 45 min at night
This will risk lives
https://www.shetlandtimes.co.uk/2023/10/06/coastguard-response-times-could-quadruple-under-new-plans
#ToryScum #CutsKill #Rescue #Shetland #Maritime #UK #greed #ToryDictatorship #Privatization #SearcjRescue #OilRigs #Ships #CruiseShips #PeopleNotProfits
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#Coastguard response times could quadruple under new plans
Controversial new proposal from #Bristow’s a private, profit motivated company Tories contracted to #privatize the service
Coastguard will have 60 min to launch after call is made
Currently they have 15 min during day, 45 min at night
This will risk lives
https://www.shetlandtimes.co.uk/2023/10/06/coastguard-response-times-could-quadruple-under-new-plans
#ToryScum #CutsKill #Rescue #Shetland #Maritime #UK #greed #ToryDictatorship #Privatization #SearcjRescue #OilRigs #Ships #CruiseShips #PeopleNotProfits
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#Coastguard response times could quadruple under new plans
Controversial new proposal from #Bristow’s a private, profit motivated company Tories contracted to #privatize the service
Coastguard will have 60 min to launch after call is made
Currently they have 15 min during day, 45 min at night
This will risk lives
https://www.shetlandtimes.co.uk/2023/10/06/coastguard-response-times-could-quadruple-under-new-plans
#ToryScum #CutsKill #Rescue #Shetland #Maritime #UK #greed #ToryDictatorship #Privatization #SearcjRescue #OilRigs #Ships #CruiseShips #PeopleNotProfits
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#Coastguard response times could quadruple under new plans
Controversial new proposal from #Bristow’s a private, profit motivated company Tories contracted to #privatize the service
Coastguard will have 60 min to launch after call is made
Currently they have 15 min during day, 45 min at night
This will risk lives
https://www.shetlandtimes.co.uk/2023/10/06/coastguard-response-times-could-quadruple-under-new-plans
#ToryScum #CutsKill #Rescue #Shetland #Maritime #UK #greed #ToryDictatorship #Privatization #SearcjRescue #OilRigs #Ships #CruiseShips #PeopleNotProfits
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The thread about Leith shipping owners; industrial whaling, the penguins of Edinburgh Zoo and “Homes for Heroes”
Today’s auction house artefact is a painting of the handsome steam & sail ship SS Windsor of Leith off of Flushing in 1874 by Carl Ludovig Weyts (1828-1875), a Dutch artist. She carries the house flag of George Gibson & Co., a big name in Leith shipping that principally served the Low Countries trade. The Windsor was initially employed on the Leith to Antwerp run and was last noted in newspapers in 1899 when she landed the crew of a French hospital ship, St. Paul, who had been rescued off of Iceland after their ship ran aground and had worked their passage back to Leith.
Windsor of Leith, Capt T. Fulton, Passing Flushing, 1874George Gibson & Co. was set up by the man of that name in 1820, he had previously been the general manager of the Leith, Hamburg & Rotterdam Shipping Co. His company acquired its first steamer, the Balmoral, in 1850.
An 1886 advert for Gibsons lists nine steam ships in service. Alongside Windsor there was the Abbotsford, Amulet, Anglia, Kinghorn, Mascotte, Osborne, Talisman and Woodstock all serving Rotterdam, Amsterdam, Antwerp, Ghent and Dunkirk from Leith. The naming of their vessels borrowed from the lore of Sit Walter Scott (this was a common fad at the time in Scotland) and their advertising played heavily on links to their principal destinations in the Low Countries, the illustration below shoing the flags of Belgium and Holland and people in national costume. .As late as 1964 the company was still advertising weekly sailings to Rotterdam, Amsterdam, Antwerp and Dunkirk from Leith.
George Gibson & Co. advertThere is an example of the George Gibson house flag in the collection of the National Maritime Museum, the colours below have darkened and the lower bar of the flag was blue as it was based on the national flag of the Netherlands.
House Flag of George Gibson & Co., 1950s, © National Maritime MuseumGibsons were formed into a limited company in 1916 and on the death in 1920 of the last family owner of Gibsons, a joint parent company was formed, Gibson Rankine Line, with the interests of a number of other Scottish commercial shipping companies; J. T. Salvesen & Co. of Grangemouth, James Rankine & Sons of Glasgow and P. S. Nicoll of Dundee. This formalised a cooperation agreement for advertisement of services and sharing of traffic between these companies that had been in place since 1895. In turn, Gibson Rankine was acquired by the Anchor Line conglomerate in 1972 and had ceased to exist as a distinct subsidiary by 1976.
J. T. Salvesen of Grangemouth was founded in that port in 1843 by Johan Theodor Salvesen, the third son of the Norwegian shipmaster Thomas Salvesen (1787-1853) of Kristiansand. Johan Theodor first founded a business in Leith with a local partner, George Vair Turnbull, in 1846 as Salvesen & Turnbull. The business imported timber for pit props and railway sleepers and grain for distilling from Norway, sending coal and iron back from Scotland in return. They also dealt in Norwegian salted herring, a trade that returned healthy profits.
J. T. Salvesen house flagJohan Theodor’s younger brother, Salve Christian (known as Christian), was brought over from Norway to help in this business and would take over in Leith, his elder brother running the Grangemouth business. The house flag was a red field with a white-bordered blue diamond in its centre and a white “S” centred within that. Johan Theodore died in 1865, the Grangemoth company passing on to his sons. Christian left the partnership with Turnbull in 1872 and set up on his own in Leith as Christian Salvesen & Co., focussing on trade between mines he owned in Norway and Leith, via Stavanger. His house flag was a Norwegian cross set in a diamond in the middle of a white field.
Christian Salvesen house flagIn 1883, Christian delegated control of the company to his eldest sons Edward T. and Theodore. By the turn of the 20th century the company was sailing between Leith and many Baltic and Scandinavian ports, to as far east as Malta and Egypt. They had also become heavily involved in supplying the North Atlantic and Arctic whaling stations in Greenland, Iceland and the Faroes. In 1904 they moved directly into whaling, setting up a shore base at Olnafirth in the Shetland Islands. The company’s whalers would travel up to 200 miles into the Atlantic in the hunt for whales, which they continued to do until 1929.
Processing a whale carcass at Olnafirth. © Shetland Museum & ArchivesA depression in the global shipping industry early in the 20th century saw whaling become an increasingly important part of the business, and its profits kept the company as a whole going. In 1907 they ventured into the South Atlantic whaling by setting up a station in the Falkland Islands, In 1909 a subsidiary of the company, the South Georgia Company, founded the port of Leith Harbour in South Georgia as a station closer to the whaling waters. It would become the largest of the seven such stations in South Georgia and Salvesens would eventually go on to become the single largest whaling company in the world.
Some of the Salvesen fleet at Leith Harbour, South Georgia. The factory ship Southern Opal is closest, with at least 8 whale catchers behind. © Edinburgh City LibrariesStripping whale carcasses at Leith Harbour, with the hut encampment of the “town” behind. CC-by-NC-SA 2.0, Edinburgh University Centre for Research CollectionsSalve Christian Salvesen died in 1911. Up until 1914 the company’s funnels had been painted red, white and black stripes, but this proved to be too close to the colours of the Imperial German flag. When Salvesen’s steamer Glitra was sunk 14 miles off of Stavanger in October of that year by a U-boat they switched to the red, white and blue of the Norwegian flag. These new colours can be seen below on the preserved whale catcher Southern Actor, now a museum ship in Sandefjord, Norway.
Southern Actor in 2014, the worlds last surviving, functional steam whaler. CC Tore Sætre, @toresetrephotoAfter WW1, Salvesens purchased the former Royal Mail steamer Carmarthenshire and had her converted into a whaling factory ship – the Sourabaya – with a stern ramp up which carcasses could be hauled, to be disassembled and processed on board. The factory ships could accompany the whale catchers directly to the hunting grounds and made the whole process more efficient; the whalers had shorter journeys back and forth to the factory ship rather than always back to the shore base, and the partially processed whales could be transshipped to the shore base for final processing and packing. The Sourabaya was used as a cargo ship during WW2 and was sunk by a German U-boat in the middle of the Atlantic in 1942.
The Sourabaya, Salvesen’s first stern ramp factory ship. PD, source Vestfold Fylkesmuseum Digitalt bildearkivSalvesens shipping losses during WW2 were particularly heavy for the size of the company. Seven of their ten tramp steamers were sunk; they lost sixteen from their fleet in total, from the 876 ton Glenfarg up to the 12,000 ton factory ship Salvestria. The Salvestria was lost within sight of Leith, bringing a cargo of processed whale blubber all the way from the South Atlantic; she hit a German mine off of Inchkeith in July 1940 and went down with ten of her crew; 5 British and 5 Norwegian. Nine of the company’s whale catchers that had been requisitioned for naval service would also be sunk. After the war, Salvesens began to made good their war losses and return to the South Atlantic whaling. They started by buying up war surplus naval corvettes – a type of vessel built on the hull of a commercial whale catcher and which was easily converted into one.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/scottishmaritimemuseum/48126941931/
Whale catchers were small vessels and did exactly what it said on their tin; they caught up with the whales and caught them by harpoon. They had no facilities for processing the carcasses, which were towed to the factory ships or places onshore like Leith Harbour. The company’s post-war factory ships were enormous, the Southern Venturer was one of two 15,000-ton monsters complete with helicopter, landing pad and hangar. These were built in 1945. We can now look back on this industrial whaling with the horror it deserves, but this was a big and profitable business in depressed economics of post-war Britain.
Southern Venturer, from the Salvesen Archive and Edinburgh University. Note the whale catchers, one alongside and the other in the distance, and the whale carcass being towed into the ship through the stern hatch.But the company faced a problem of its own making; the extreme post-war modernisation of its whaling fleet was producing ever-diminishing returns; as they had become more efficient, the whale populations were ever more reduced. In turn, the whalers had to hunt further and further for longer and longer to try and find whales and it was ceasing to be a profitable venture. Salvesens now had an about turn in attitude and became a proponent of whale conservation; their whaling assets were sold in 1963 and the company’s “southern capital” at Leith Harbour was abandoned by 1965.
The rusty remains of Leith Harbour, South Georgia in 2007. PD – MarkabqThe company was not without a replacement income stream for whaling however, they had been hedging their bets and had also dipped their toes into the Atlantic whitefish business. Again they turned to industrialisation and would revolutionise the industry in the early 1950s when they developed the first stern trawler freezer factory ships. These both trawled for the fish and also processed and packaged it for sale and kept it frozen so that they could be at sea for much longer periods. The first of these vessels was Fairtry I of 1952 and was the brainchild of Sir Dennis Burney who had approached Salvesens in 1948 with the idea. He had been experimenting with the concept and Salvesens quickly saw the potential, buying both his prototype trawler Fairfree and his business. Their experience in factory whaling ships and knowledge of the Nordic demand for fresh white fish made this a common sense business decision.
The revolutionary Fairtry I, built in Aberdeen for Salvesens in 1952But once again, the company’s heavy technological investment started to produce diminishing returns. As the whales had disappeared so too did the once seemingly infinite shoals of Atlantic cod and haddock. With trawling now waning too, the company survived once again through reinvention and diversification. They moved away from traditional coastal shipping and focussed themselves in specific sectors such as bulk carriers, managing colliers for the Central Electricity Generation Board and in the North Sea oil offshore service industry. On land they moved into containerised distribution, frozen food and storage – all head-quartered in Leith and Edinburgh. I can clearly recall their lorries around town when I was young, carrying the house flag once sported by the company’s ships.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/88738529@N02/16044987670/
In 1986 the company listed itself as Christian Salvesen PLC on the London Stock Exchange and by 1989 took the decision to exit the shipping business entirely to concentrate on logistics and distribution. In 1997 it left its spiritual home Bernard Street in Leith behind for the East Midlands and Northampton. They did at least leave their flagpoles behind! This building at one time also co-housed the Norwegian Consulate.
Christian Salvesen’s former HQ on Bernard Street in LeithSalvesens are now long gone from Edinburgh and Leith but they have left us behind a few reminders of their presence. The famous penguins of Edinburgh Zoo for instance were first brought back from South Georgia by Salvesen’s ships alongside 4 seals. They were captured by the Coronda in 1913 and arrived in Edinburgh on Sunday 25th January 1914.
Edinburgh Zoo King Penguins, CC-by-SA 3.0 SeanMackOn the banks of the sterile river basin of the Water of Leith, now cut off from the sea and shipping, a Salvesen’s harpoon gun is a bit of a curiosity and a reminder of Leith’s dubious role at the forefront of the 20th century whaling industry.
A whaling harpoon gun from a Salvesen’s ship, now a curious heritage objet on the banks of the sterile river basin of Leith CC-by-SA 3.0 Kim TraynorThe Salvesen family lost a number of sons and nephews in WW1 and after the war Edward T. Salvesen – by now Lord Salvesen – became involved in the Scottish Veterans Garden City movement; a scheme to build “Homes for Heroes“. In Trinity in Leith the SVGCA built a small housing scheme for injured ex-servicemen named Earl Haig Gardens (no comment on the appropriateness of that name.) on land that had been gifted by the Salvesen family, formerly part of the gardens of Salve Christian’s house of Mayfield . Plaques over the doors of some of the cottages commemorate the lost Salvesen men and relatives of some of the other benefactors.
Earl Haig Gardens2nd Lt. Eric Thomas Smervell Salvesen, died 23 April 19172nd Lt. James Harvey Bryson, died 20th October 1918Major James Norman Henderson, died 28th June 1915Earl Haig Gardens and memorial tabletsAt Kaimes Crossroads the Edinburgh Ladies Committee of the SVGCA, led by Lady Salvesen, built a row of neat modern cottage houses for disabled ex-servicemen, with ELC plaques on the pediments.
SVGCA cottages at Kaimes CrossroadsLord Salvesen died in 1942 but his family remained involved in the SVGCA. After WW2 they again helped finance the construction of SVGCA ex-servicemen’s housing, this time in Muirhouse. Salvesen Gardens is a pleasant little cottage housing scheme again laid out along Garden City sorts of lines. If you stroll around you will find commemorative or benefactory plaques by most doors.
Salvesen Gardens at Muirhouse, note the commemorative plaques.And next to Salvesen Crescent are the former Lighthouse keepers cottages for the Forth shore station, built in 1951 for the Northern Lighthouse Board. These housed the keepers and their families who served the lights of Bass Rock, Bell Rock, Inchkeith, Fidra and the Isle of May. As the lights became automated these were later used as retirement housing for ex-Lighthouse keepers before being gradually sold into private ownership. This is really one of the most charming little bits of social housing Edinburgh has to offer. Small but perfectly formed and with a style that evokes the NLB‘s lighthouse keepers cottage style.
Salvesen Crescent, former Lighthouse keeper’s family housingNote to readers: unfortunately in April 2026, a third-party plug-in more than exceeded its authority and broke many of the image links on this site. No images were lost but I will have to restore them page-by-page, which may take some time. In the meantime please bear with me while I go about rectifying this issue.
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