Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-m6dg7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-04T22:41:32.919Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Scottish Kayaks and the ‘Finn-men’

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

Ian Whitaker
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Among the more obscure aspects of polar research the problem of the appearance off Scotland of kayaks of Eskimo type is one of the most formidable. A These craft, one of which has certainly survived, normally become waterlogged after about forty-eight hours in the water. How then were they brought to the British Isles, and by whom?

Apparently the earliest reference to their appearance off the Scottish coast is that of the Rev. James Wallace, Minister of Kirkwall, Orkney, who wrote about 1688 in his Description of the Isles of Orkney:

‘Sometime about this Country are seen these Men which are called Finnmen; In the year 1682 one was seen sometime sailing, sometime Rowing up and down in his little Boat at the south end of the Isle of Eda, most of the people of the Isle flocked to see him, and when they adventured to put out a Boat with men to see if they could apprehend him, he presently fled away most swiftly: And in the year 1684, another was seen from Westra, and for a while after they got few or no Fishes; for they have this Remark here, that these Finnmen drive away the fishes from the place to which they come.

‘These Finnmen seem to be some of these people that dwell about the Fretum Davis [Davis Straits].… One of their Boats sent from Orkney to Edinburgh is to be seen in the Physitians hall, with the Oar and the Dart he makes use of for killing Fish’.

Type
Research Article
Information
Antiquity , Volume 28 , Issue 110 , June 1954 , pp. 99 - 104
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd 154

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1947. Andersson, Otto. ‘Väinämöinen och Vellamos Jungfru’ in Budkavlen 1947, 4, pp. 97–132. Åbo.Google Scholar
1944. Anon. ‘The Voyage of a Kayak’, in Scottish Geographical Magazine, vol. 59, pp. 104–5, Edinburgh.Google Scholar
1900. Avebury, Rt. Hon. Lord. Prehistoric Times, London.Google Scholar
1924. Birket-Smith, Kaj. Ethnology of Egedesminde District (Meddelelser om Grønland, vol. LXVI), København.Google Scholar
1881. Blind, Karl. ‘Scottish Shetlandic and Germanic Water Tales, Part II,’ in The Contemporary Review, vol. XL, pp. 399–423, London.Google Scholar
1883. Brand, Rev. John. A brief Description of Orkney, Zetland, Pightland-Firth and Caithness, Edinburgh.Google Scholar
1952. Christiansen, Reidar Th. ‘Noai ’der og Finneferd’ in Sámi Ællin—Sameliv (1951–2) pp. 51–61, Oslo.Google Scholar
1951. Cluness, A. T. The Shetland Isles (County Books Series). London.Google Scholar
1826. Douglas, Francis. A General Description of the East Coast of Scotland. Aberdeen.Google Scholar
1873. Duben, Gustaf Von. Om Lappland och Lapparne, Stockholm.Google Scholar
1940. Evans, E. E. and Hawkes, C. F. C. ‘An Eskimo Harpoon-head from Tara Co. Down (?)’ in Ulster Journal of Archaeology, vol. III, pp. 127–33. Belfast.Google Scholar
1944. Gjessing, Gutorm. The Circumpolar Stone Age (Acta Arctica Fase. II). København.Google Scholar
1953. Gjessing, Gutorm. ‘The Circumpolar Stone Age’, in ANTIQUITY, No. 107, pp. 131–6. Newbury.Google Scholar
1952. Graham, Angus. ‘Spruce and Pine Timber in two Scottish Prehistoric Buildings’, in Archaeological News Letter, vol. 4, pp. 133–7. London.Google Scholar
1938. Holbourn, Ian B. Stoughton. The Isle of Foula, Lerwick.Google Scholar
1919. Holmström, Helge. Studier över Svanjungfrumotivet. Lund.Google Scholar
1925. Kvalén, Eivind. ‘Kva meinast det met Finnar i gamalnorsk litteratur?’ in Maal og Minne, Oslo.Google Scholar
1890. MacRitchie, David. ‘Notes on a Finnish Boat preserved in Edinburgh’, in Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, vol. XII, NS pp. 353–69. Edinburgh.Google Scholar
1912a. MacRitchie, David. ‘Kayaks of the North Sea’ in Scottish Geographical Magazine, vol. XXVIII, pp. 126–33. Edinburgh.Google Scholar
1912b. MacRitchie, David. ‘The Kayak in North-Western Europe’ in Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, vol. XLII, pp. 493–510. London.Google Scholar
1947. Manker, Ernst. De Svenska Fjällapparna, Stockholm.Google Scholar
1947. Nicolson, John. ‘Shetland Folk Tales’ in Reid Tait, E.S. [Ed.] : Shetland Folk Book, vol. 1, pp. 1–16. Lerwick.Google Scholar
1912. Reid, R. W. ‘Description of Kayak Preserved in the Anthropological Museum of the University of Aberdeen’, in Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, vol. XLII, pp. 511–4. London.Google Scholar
1951. Reid Tait, E. S. ‘Finn and Trowie Stories from Fetlar’, in Reid Tait, E. S. [Ed.]: Shetland Folk Book, vol. II, pp. 5–8. Lerwick.Google Scholar
1951. Scott, Lindsay. ‘Drift Timber in the West’, in ANTIQUITY No. 99, pp. 151–3. Newbury.Google Scholar
1935. Souter, Willam Clark. The Story of Our Kayak and Some Others (Presidential Address to the Aberdeen Medico-Chirurgical Society, 1933). Aberdeen.Google Scholar
1883. Tudor, John R. The Orkneys and Shetland. London.Google Scholar
1883. Wallace, Rev. James. A description of the Isles of Orkney. Edinburgh.Google Scholar