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EARL OF ZETLAND

Shipbuildervessel built by Hall, Russell & Company, Limited (Aberdeen, Scotland, 1864 - 1992)

Shipownervessel built for North of Scotland & Orkney & Shetland Steam Navigation Company

Date20 May 1939

Object NamePASSENGER AND CARGO VESSEL

MediumSTEEL

ClassificationsShip

Dimensionslength 150 1/3' x breadth 29 1/12' x depth 12'
Gross Tonnage: 548 ton

Object numberABDSHIP002451

Keywords

About MeYard: Hall, Russell & Co.
Yard Number: 749
Official Number: 165251
Subsequent Name: CELTIC SURVEYOR (1975); LA PASSARELLE (1985); EARL OF ZETLAND (2007?)

Fate: Scrapped October 2020 (https://www.nationalhistoricships.org.uk/register/990/earl-zetland)

Propulsion: Motor
Description: 1 deck, combined poop and bridge deck 90', forecastle 37', cruiser stern

Owners:
1939: North of Scotland, Orkney and Shetland Steam Navigation Co.
01/1940: Requisitioned for war service
11/1945: Returned to owners
1975: Middlesborough Ocean Surveys

General History:
The first motor vessel owned by North of Scotland Company.

Routes: brought into service late 1939 on Lerwick - North Isles route. During WWII on special service on Pentland Firth during which time she traveled over 100,000 miles and carried approximately 600,000 persons. Spent rest of her career with North of Scotland Company on the Lerwick and North Isles route and as a relief vessel when the ST. OLA went for surveys.

02/06/1939:
railway lines cleared for machinery for EARL OF ZETLAND to be run on track to the sheerpoles at North Lock.
(Aberdeen Evening Express)

20/05/1939:
Large crowds gathered at dock Gayes and Mathew's Quay to see launch of passenger motor vessel EARL OF ZETLAND from Hall, Russell's yard.
(Aberdeen Evening Express)

18/08/1939:
EARL OF ZETLAND ran trials, sailing south as far as St. Cyrus. Although designed to do 12 knots, she averaged 13 on measured mile at 94% of full power. Accommodation luxurious. Amazing comfort can be provided in such limited space. 1st class vestible artistically panelled in Nigerian mahogany, smoke-room in elm and dining saloon in light maple. Vessel has sleeping accommodation for 38 1st class passengers in comfortable 2 berth cabins fitted with wash basins, spacious lounge for 1st class. 2nd class passengers are housed in comfortable accommodation in forepart of vessel, which is air conditioned throughout. Vessel has latest navigation instruments, including depth-sounding, and telemotor steering. Vessel's British polar marine diesel two cycle single-acting engine evoked interest and favourable comment. Master Thomas Gifford, chief engineer S.B.Harrison.
(Press & Journal)

21/08/1939
Rockets were fired and flags flown as new EARL OF ZETLAND arrived at Lerwick. The old EARL OF ZETLAND, which had served islanders for 62 years, steamed down Bressay to meet her successor, also St. Magnus and St. Sunniva. The 4 ships, led by the old EARL OF ZETLAND, proceeded to Lerwick in single line. Next day new EARL OF ZETLAND. led her predecessor as far as Bressay light on her departure.
(Press & Journal) (also Scotsman, 22/08/1939)

03/02/1950:
In 70mph gale with sleet and hail schooner EARL OF ZETLAND with many people aboard stormbound between Yell and Fetlab. An M.P. was stranded on Whalsay for 3 1/2 days.
(Press & Journal) (also Dundee Courier, 01/02/1950)

22/12/1953:
As relief vessel on Pentland Firth route, EARL OF ZETLAND, loaded with Christmas letters and parcels, was strormbound in Stromness.
(Dundee Courier)

17/02/1968:
EARL OF ZETLAND completing extended refit at Aberdeen, where annual survey revealed a fractured tail-shaft. This has now been replaced.
(Press & Journal)

04/03/1975:
Veteran cargo passenger ship EARL OF ZETLAND berthed at Aberdeen pending her sale. Has spent her career on North Isles service apart from war service as troop carrier on Pentland Firth run.
(Evening Express)

Now owned by Middlesborough Ocean Surveys it was renamed CELTIC SURVEYOR and converted into a diving support vessel.
In the 1980's the vessel became a restaurant ship and eventually regained the EARL OF ZETLAND name. It was moored on the Thames near Embankment, then between 1993 and 1996 it was at Eastbourne. As of 2002, was located at the West India Docks, London. Finally it was a floating pub located at Royal Quays, North Shields, on the River Tyne from 2007 until 2020. (https://www.nationalhistoricships.org.uk/register/990/earl-zetland)

ABS, EARL OF ZETLAND (1939) additional material written by Finlay McKichan:

Gordon Donaldson commented that, like her 1877 predecessor, she had shallow draught and a well forward surrounding the hatch for convenience of working with flatboats at the Shetland North islands. Passenger accommodation was much superior with dining saloon and smoking room on the upper deck, an enclosed observation compartment below the bridge and 2 berth cabins for a considerable number of passengers in. She underwent trials in Aberdeen Bay on 14 August 1939 and arrived at Lerwick under command of her master, Capt. Gifford, on 20 August to replace the vessel of the same name which had served the route for 62 years. The old EARL OF ZETLAND led her up the Sound of Bressay, followed in single line by ST. MAGNUS and ST. SUNNIVA (all dressed overall). At Victoria Pier she was welcomed by the firing of rockets and cheers of thousands of people, some from remote parts of the islands.

After only months on the North Isles service she was requisitioned by the government to operate the ‘Military’ Stromness-Scrabster route (for service personnel), controlled by the Army Scottish Command, which she did between 23 January 1940 and 23 November 1945. Her shallow draught made for lively crossings of the Pentland Firth. Margaret Orr, who served in the ATS in Orkney for three years, described her experiences when she went on leave. She could not remember a smooth passage. She claimed that the Earl was always crammed with soldiers going to Orkney for training or returning and that almost everyone, with the possible exception of the captain, was seasick. While on military service she called regularly at ports around Scapa Flow – Flotta, Longhope, Lyness, St. Margaret’s Hope and Scapa. Often these calls would be made en route from Scrabster to Stromness.

EARL OF ZETLAND returned to the Shetland North Isles service in December 1945, leaving it only for a stint on the Aberdeen-Kirkwall route March-May 1946 and to relieve St. Ola annually on the Pentland Firth route for survey and overhaul. By the 1950s thought was being given to the introduction of short-crossing car ferries to the North Isles and consequent development of ‘the overland route’. In 1953, when it was proposed to improve the pier at Billister for crossing to Whalsay, R.C. Mackie, general manager of the North Co., wrote that this might ultimately jeopardise the North Isles service. He commented that it was no secret that it had for a very long time been maintained at a considerable financial sacrifice, despite successful efforts to attract tourists and local excursions. Advertisements in the Shetland press in the early 1950s show day excursions from Lerwick to the North Isles, from the Isles to Lerwick and from Lerwick to Foula (weather permitting) and evening cruises from Lerwick round Bressay. In the Summer of 1953 it made long day excursions from Lerwick to, for the first time, three of the more remote islands – Fair Isle, Foula and Muckle Flugga.

When it was in Aberdeen for annual overhaul in January 1968, the survey revealed a fractured tail shaft. Replacement took three weeks and its return to the North Isles service consequently delayed until the third week of February. From October 1960 EARL OF ZETLAND’s operating deficit was covered by a government grant, subject to an annual maximum of £10,000. By 1964 this was insufficient and a new agreement was made to pay higher sums until 1966 to give the Shetland County Council time to develop overland routes. However, it was not till 1970 that the County Council received approval for an inter-island car ferry service, attracting a 75% government grant. The first car ferry entered service in May 1973, to Yell, and there were no calls by the EARL at any Yell ports from August of that year. Unst calls were withdrawn in December 1973. From then the North Isles service was to Whalsay, Skerries and Fetlar. The last Fetlar call was in November 1974 and the EARLl’s final voyage to the North Isles on 21 February 1975. As she prepared (dressed overall) to sail for Aberdeen to start a new career as seismic survey ship the Lerwick brass band played ‘Abide with Me’. As she cast off they changed to ‘Auld Lang Syne’. Three former masters were on the quay to bid her farewell.

Sources:- Gordon Donaldson, (1978) 'Northwards by Sea' (Paul Harris Publishing, Edinburgh), p. 114; Alastair W. McRobb, The North Boats, pp. 34-5, 41, 53, 54; Dundee Courier, 14/8/1939; Press and Journal 21/08/1939, 28/11/1964,17/02/1968, 04/03/1975; Orkney Herald, 15/03/1949; Shetland Times, 13/07/1951, 21/02 28/04 and 29/05/1953, 20/01/1968; Shetland News 16/06/1953, 28/07/1953 (from BNA, downloaded 21/7/2022 and press cutting scrapbooks held in Aberdeen Maritime Museum and probably compiled by A. McRobb); statement of EARL OF ZETLAND’s wartime service by A. McRobb, AMM.