"Venus", a Shetland fourareen (with base)

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Authors: ScottishMaritimeMuseum
Cited by: 0

Abstract

Built in 1898 on [Foula](http://tinyurl.com/y6hgdtlb), one of the most remote islands in the Shetland archipelago, this traditional fishing vessel (known in the Shetland as a 'fourareen') was made from pieces of driftwood. The crofter who built "Venus" used boat building techniques that had been passed down from generation to generation and were similar to those used by Vikings on their Longboats. "Venus" would have been used by the crofter to catch fish and collect flotsam and jetsam from the sea. In 1964 it was bought by Paul Earling Johnstone who gave it a deck and tiny cabin and a Bermudan yawl rig, converting it into a yacht. He used it for long distance ocean sailing (including a single-handed trip across the Atlantic in 1965) and it remained in storage in Savannah until 1982, when it became part of the collections of the [Scottish Maritime Museum.](http://www.scottishmaritimemuseum.org/) Source: Objaverse 1.0 / Sketchfab

Fields of Study & Subjects

Maritime and Coastal Archaeology

Publication details

Journal / source
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
Publication date
22 July 2026
Language
EN
Document type
Dataset