News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1905-01-04

NaQ, WIFI no Intervening lSlduuS VI
scraps of reef, stands. a tiny cottage
Built of ragged graystone and with its
turf roof fallen in. 1t is a vantage
point, this situation, for, though the
cot is well sheltered by the higher por
zion of the nose, it is but a step to the
summit from which the outlook is un-
surpassed. No ship can come within
sight of the west coast without being
quickly spied from this point, and this
Is of moment when one considers that
most of the men thereabOut claim to
Be pilots, and there is great competi
ton between them for every vessel
that comes nigh the island. In the
old days they were wreckers, SO the
nose has always been a site to be
coveted
Despite it's value as place of abode,
however, the cottage has been unten
anted and the headland deserted for
years In all the island of INST, and
in Yell, for that matter, not u man is
there who would occupy the old cot
sage or rebuild upon it's site. 1t was
the property Of Donald Fran, known
far and wide among the Shetlands as
s'the dumb pilot of Unst," and, although
the dumb pilot has been dead these
twenty years, the fear of him still lies
cold upon the hearts of the Shetland
men.
They are a superstitious people, these
Ghetlanders, rude of speech and uncouth,
R,,k ~, M Mn Iu q
all jewellers upon the islands of the
Bleak North sea. But it is whispered
shat on stormy nights the wrath of
Donald Fran walks on the rocky head
land, and gold would not tempt the
bravest to visit the place of the haunt.
1t is said, too, that ship always goes
down upon the Black reef at the en-
trance of the gut between INST and
Yell when the restless spirit of the
dumb pilot walks abroad.
The Black reef is the wickedeSt
spur of rock about the islands, and
there is no hope for either ship or crew
if once the current which sets in about
it seizes the unwary craft Never was
there but one man who saw vessel
go to pieces beneath him on Black reef
and came again to land, and that was
the dumb pilot himself. All the old,
mahogany faced longshoremen know
the tale and are ready to tell it, too,
at the slightest provocation.
Donald Fran came of long line of
viking folk. He was of that mixture
of Norwegian and Scottish blood that
made the man as rugged as the rocks
of his own island of INST and with
passions as fierce and uncontrolled as
the sea which beats upon them. His
father and fathers father had lived be
fore him in the cottage on the head.
hand and between fishing seasons had
striven to cultivate the barren farm
about it. But, like the other men OF
INST, most of their livelihood came
from the sea.
Not so long before Donald Fram's
time storm was the signal for the
gathering of those ghoul-like figures
upon the rocks to spy out for vessels
in distress. and when the sigma
rockets were displayed some one woulC
drive Il shaggy little pony. with Il Ian
tern tied to its girth, along the rough
shore, that tie helpless seamen nigh
see and believe Il sister ship was there
in safe anchorage Then, when The
rocks were beneath their keel and i
was too late. they would see their errol
and-God help them.-curse, as they
sank, the wreckers who had brought
about their undOing.
When daylight came men, womeI
and children thr0nged the shore ant
saved what they could from the wreck
But if any men had come ashore dur
ing the night they were dead. The
coast guard system has stopped all tina
now, and the people of INST and Vel
are poorer and more miserable than
they were.
Donald Fran knew the channels anC
fords of the Shetlands as one of tht
shaggy little ponies of the islands
Knows its home paddock. Every poin
Of rock, every reef and current, eacl
narrow passage between the bits o
islands, was marked upon the char
Of his brain. He knew the exact dept
OF water on every bar and the out
hne of every treacherous reef. a
1hirty he was the best pilot in INST
nc not in the whole of Shetland.
A hundred years ago, although
wrecking was not commonly practiced
there were yet wild doings about tn,
Shetlands. The coast guard was veal
in numbers and inefficient in discipline
especially about Yell and INST and TIN
smaller islands in the north. Many
hidden anchorage became a SNUG
glers' rendezvous, and the eyes of tn
home government began to be opened
to the sort of gentry who frequentet
the islands.
Naturally ships of any considerable
Ronnage could not bring dutiable goods
into the ports of either Scotland o
England and land them without beint
quickly apprehended. But at severa
points in the Shetlands the foreign
ships could quite safely discharge thei
eargoes. which We're distributed anon;
their friends in small sailing Graf
Eluggers." they were called and "rui
I'm" with little danger, to Lerwick OF
che mainland or the Scotch ports o