Aith is the UK’s most northerly lifeboat station, and every spring there’s a simple reminder of the tragedy that brought the lifeboat to Aith: a wreath of holly on a grave in Sandness, at the western corner of Shetland, looking out towards the notorious Vee skerries.
In March 1930, the Aberdeen trawler was wrecked on the Vee Skerries, with the loss of all nine men aboard. It was thought the man steering on that Friday evening had been, spotted her plight, and headed north for Hillswick where there was a phone. At that time there was no lifeboat in Lerwick either, but there was a rescue society. The head of it went to Hillswick, to join the ; yachtsman Theo Kay headed for Voe, hoping for a small haddock boat, which might get closer in to the skerries. He found the ready to go out on a rescue mission. By now it was Saturday evening. The wind had risen steadily. The hadn’t yet set out from Hillswick; the put in to Papa Stour, the nearest island to the Vee skerries, to get a local man as a pilot.
