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Figurehead that survived shipwreck 102 years ago is restored

Andrea RacekovaBBC Scotland News, Shetland
BBC The figurehead portrays a woman with her hair tied up and her head looking up towards the sky.BBC
The figurehead is known as the White Wife of Otterswick

The figurehead of a sailing ship that sank off Shetland with the loss of four lives more than 100 years ago has been restored and placed in a museum.

The German training ship Bohus was wrecked at the Ness of Queyon in Yell in April 1924 with 35 crew making it to shore, some of them rescued by locals.

Six months later the figurehead washed ashore, and it stood as a memorial until wet weather damage led to it being removed in 2021 and replaced with a replica.

Restorers in South Queensferry, West Lothian, have refurbished the original and it has been installed in Old Haa Museum in Burravoe, Shetland.

Allan C Green A black and white photo of a three masted sailing shipAllan C Green
Getty Images The figurehead is white with yellow hair. There a pieces of it that have fallen off exposing wood underneath. The figurehead is next to the sea, which is visible in the distance under a dark blue sky.Getty Images
Bohus was a three masted barque, originally built in Alloa in 1892
The White Wife of Otterswick was removed from the shoreline in 2021 after its condition deteriorated.

The figurehead, a woman clutching a bible to her chest, became known locally as the White Wife of Otterswick, a nearby hamlet.

The Bohus was bound for Chile when a navigational error sent the vessel 60 miles off course and it was wrecked off Yell.

Old Haa Museum told BBC Radio's Good Evening Shetland programme it was delighted to take the figurehead into its care, and said the replica would continue to stand as a memorial to those lost at sea.

The ship, a three-masted barque built by the Grangemouth Dockyard Company in Alloa in 1892, was originally named Bertha, after the daughter of its first owner.

It was renamed Bohus after being sold to a Swedish owner in 1917 and after the end of the World War One was transferred to Hamburg.