1871

First Truck Commission
Census reports population of 31,371, a decrease of 299 from the 1861 census.
Sixty-three Shetland smacks (tonnage 2,809) carried 816 men to the Faroe fishing and returned home with 370,597 fish. Twenty-one English smacks (tonnage 680 carrying 210 men) brought an additional 200,042 fish (6280 cwt.) to the Shetland curers for a total harvest of 19,434 cwt. dried fish.

February

8th
SS Pacific wrecked on Whalsay with the loss of 26 lives.
10th or 11th
Part of the bows of an unidentified vessel, estimated to have been of approx 500 tons register, washed ashore at Gulber Wick.
20th
.The nameboards of three vessels reported washed ashore at seperate locations in Shetland. The John & Gustave on the 'Island of Linga', the records do not specify which one of several islands that bears this name is being referred to, the Marys at Dunrossness and the Elizabeth H. Fry on Yell. The fate of these vessels are otherwise unknown. This is presumed to be the date the report was made.

20th
John Cheyne 2 of Tangwick, the sixth Laird Cheyne of Tangwick, married Margaret, Daughter of Archibald Simson of Commeapore Bengal.

27th
An unidentified vessel, laden with a cargo of timber (logs), persumed lost on or near Yell, after wreckage reported found on the island. This date is persumed to be the date the report was made.

12th
The vessel Flora (1871), for the U.S.A. As a result of a bottle message found near Kirkwall, Orkney on February 24th 1872, this vessel was presumed lost on or shortly after this date, at an unknown location in the Atlantic, possibly generally west of Shetland.
13th
John Bruce, who became the eleventh Laird of Sumburgh, married Mary Dalziel, daughter of Ralph Erskine Scott, C,A., Edinburgh.