OS1/31/11/30

Continued entries/extra info

[Page] 30
Parish of Dunrossness Fair Isle, Shetland

[Signed]
John Durran
Sapper R.E. [Royal Engineers]

[Description continued from page 29]
run a Smack every fortnight weather permitting. The whole coast is wild and precipitous and there are only two points at which a landing can be effected.
The height of the Island makes it a sort of beacon in clear weather, but when [shrouded] in mist it becomes vey dangerous and proves fatal to many a gallant Bark. In the year [1588] one of the Ships composing the Spanish Armada was wrecked in a Creek called Swartz Goe and in 1868 during a thick fog a German emigrant vessel [went] full sail into one of the narrow Creeks which abound around [its] coast.
There is a School on the Island and a place of worship in connection with the [Established] Church as well as a small Methodist Chapel. The inhabitants as a rule are kind and obliging to Strangers but shrewd business men

[Additional notes read]
"The Lessing" She sailed into Geo Claver & jammed up the geo; the passengers were taken in boats through a natural arch to the beach at Haswalls and dragged up the slope there by ropes
[Intd [?]] J.C.M

Wesleyan
[Intd [?]] J.C.M

Transcriber's notes

Words partially obscured n fold surmised and shown in [ ].
The date 1588 confirmed from Wikipedia - the name of the vessel was El Gran Grifon.
The abbreviation "Int" in the online OED is given to the word "interjection" - "Intd" could be "Interjected".
The initials J.C.M appended to the notes probably belong to James Cosmo MacPherson, a Captain in the Royal engineers.

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ron hill

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