My maternal grandmother Grace Ann Pottinger died in 1932. This was some 16 years before my birth. She was born close to the River Tyne in 1882 in South Shields and was named after her Shetland-born paternal grandmother (Grace/Grezzel) and her Shetland-born paternal aunt (Ann). Like many in this Pottinger family, her father Thomas had headed south to take his master mariner exams.

My grandmother’s aunt, Ann, was the youngest in a family of nine. I have spent some 40 years putting together the story of her eight seagoing siblings – all male. Here (in brief and for contextuality with the tale that follows) are the stories of those eight sons of James and Grace/Grezzel Pottinger, Duncansclate, Burra Isle, Shetland.