Based in Lerwick in the late 1980s/90s, "Laerling" was a motor launch which took sightseers and divers on excursions around the islands, operated by Jim Manson, Bernie Edwardson and Geordie Mainland. Renamed "Ny-Mini" when later sold to Denmark. Also occasionally skippered by Donald McDermott, who commissioned this oil painting of her with the Giant's Leg natural archway in the background. 24 x 18 inches

The zulu-sterned "Kildonan" was part of the Shetland fishing fleet for a short few years in the 1930s, owned by a Eunson partnership from Burra Isle. One night, after hauling the drift-nets for a fair shot of herring, the engine exploded and the boat went on fire. The men took to the lifeboat (no lives were lost) and saw the "Kildonan" become a total loss. The skipper afterwards told how the saddest sound he had ever heard in his life was that of the herring "bowws" exploding in the heat.

The 80-foot steel trawler "Karenann II" was built by John Lewis and Sons, Aberdeen, as the "Starwood" (A353), in 1981. This oil painting, commisioned by K and DJ MacRobbie, depicts her entering her home port of Fraserburgh

A picture speaking of time past on the southern tip of the island of Unst. The ruined crofthouse at Heogland is one of several in this area cleared by the landlord to make the land more profitable. This scene of desolation was repeated in other areas in Shetland, and other locations in north and west Scotland, and I feel sad when I think of the sounds of conversation, laughter and human labour being replaced by a silence only broken by the occasional bird call.

The eponymous Henry R James was an ancestor of the man who commissioned this painting from me. The ship which bore his name was built around the turn of the last century, had Middlesbrough as her home port, and was used for trading between Britain and the Middle East. She was torpedoed in the English Channel during the first World War, with loss of life resulting, although there were a good number of survivors too

The inshore workboat "Girl Rona II" steaming along near her home port of Scalpay in the Western Isles. This oil painting on hardboard, measuring 24 x 18 inches, was commissioned by the boat's owner, Donald Morrison

The Fulmar oilfield is roughly 150 miles ESE of Aberdeen, and the rig "Fulmar Alpha" has been in production since the early 1980s. This commission was by way of a birthday present for a former operative.

Owerby, Burravoe, Yell, Shetland, when it was a herring station in the 1920's