1869

357 vessels of 56,453 tons burden entered and cleared the port of Lerwick during the year.
A smack, registered in Norway, but otherwise unidentified, laden with a cargo of fish, wrecked on a baa near the island of Orfasay, Yell.
From the Medical Press & Circular October 15, 1869 - "Dr. Mitchell, reporting to the Commissioners in Lunacy for Scotland, states that on the occasion of his visit to Shetland he saw much stronger and deeper signs of poverty than he had ever seen before. In the parish of Unst, the year's poor rate is no less than 7s. 1d. per pound of the gross rental. When the taxes, charges, and burdens on land are added to this, he was assured that less than one-third of the rental will be left to the proprietor. All over Shetland the poor rate has been rapidly and steadily increasing during the last twenty years - the increase in some parishes being 700 or 800 per cent. In the parish of Lerwick it is said to have risen since 1845 from £40 to £900."

April

20th
Robert Jamieson (1827-1899) publishes his appeal for funds to build a new school in Sandness, as "A Cry From Shetland' in The Scotsman

Heavy snow falls during September resulted in this autumn being referred to for years as the "Snowy Hairst". The snow lay for so long that finally only the ears of corn protruding above the snow could be cut.^[1]

27th
The Nelson, a smack of and for Lerwick, carrying an unspecified part cargo, parted from her anchor in Grutness Voe and went ashore. It is not known whether she was salvaged or wrecked.