Henry WILLIAMSON

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   from bayanne.info/Shetland
                  

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   from bayanne.info/Shetland

   Shetland Times, May 05, 1935.After Fifty YearsSHETLAND COLONIST REVISTS THE OLD ROCK.The other day we were favoured with a visit from Captain Joseph Williamson, who was born in Culswick, and who emigrated to Australia over half a century ago and is at present on his first return visit to Britain. When Mr Williamson was about twelve years of age, he went to the Iceland and Faroe fishings, and after two or three seasons there he proceeded to Liverpool to join the Mercantile Marine. Shipping was brisk in those days and he sailed in the deep sea sailing ships of the well known Black Ball company, trading to America and the Far East. Eventually about 1884, he migrated to Australia where at that time, there was very little doing in shipping, but there were few a few barques and brigantines and fewer steam vessels trading coastwise there, and he soon found employment as a sailor on those brigantines. He made rapid progress in his calling, and finally secured his masterís certificate, when he went into steam, joining Coast Steamships Ltd. This firm later merged in to the Adelaide Steam Shipping Company, and Captain Williamson remained with the original and the new company for the long period of 45 years, retiring about two years ago.Captain Williamson married in Australia, and has a grown-up family, one of whom was badly injured during the war. He came to Shetland to see his relations, and intends staying till September. He is meantime staying with relations in Walls, and he mentioned that during the fifty years he has been away, practically every place in the district has had its name changed. He says that he has been extremely fortunate in his seafaring experience in Australia; he has never been wrecked, and has never had anything in the nature of a serious accident. He is an enthusiastic Australian, and believe in that great country. He says that conditions there are improving greatly, and at the time he left, a great many new houses were being erected, including blocks eleven storeys high, while the unemployment figures showed a marked decrease from the previous year, and were still going down. It is a wonderful country, he says, with vast productive reserves, and he added that gold mining, with the high price for gold, is doing particularly well. In this connection, he mentioned that the development of air travel was doing a great deal for the country, and at the present time aeroplanes are employed in gold prospecting in areas where any other prospecting methods were practically impossible.Enthusiastic as he is about Australia, he is even more enthusiastic about Shetland. What better could you have than this? he asked. He says that Shetland is a splendid place, with free fishing at everybodyís door, long natural harbours which could afford shelter to a fleet, fine air and long hours of sunshine, and he added, that if any other country but Britain owned Shetland, it would be one of the luxury holiday resorts of the world. But for my family ties, he said, I would have been happy to settle down in the old homeland again. He had intended visiting more of Britain, but he feels quite happy and contented to spend his holiday in Shetland, though he intends to give some little time to seeing some parts of Scotland and England.He was much impressed with London during his short stay there, and expressed, as all strangers do who visit London, his wonder at and admiration for the London policemen. He had only a brief stay in Liverpool, and saw great change since he left fifty years ago, but was not long enough in the city to grasp just how the changes were. Naturally he sees changes in Shetland but, except for the West Side, he does not know the County very well, having left home, and indeed Brit- ain, at a very early age. It is to be hoped that Captain Williamson will thoroughly enjoy his Shetland holiday, and that he may yet experience real Shetland summer weather, and that he will be the better for his sojourn among his ain folk.
                  

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