During the final years of the last century two types of sailing vessels dominated the hundreds which packed into Lerwick for the summer herring season. The Fifies, with their vertical stern posts, and the Zulus with their distinctive raking stern, were unique to the Scottish herring fleets.

These massively constructed timber vessels represented the ultimate development of the Scottish herring lugger. Seventy fife feet or more in overall length, they were fitted with steam capstans which enabled them to haul their nets and handle their enormous spars and sails.

When the Swan took to the water on 3rd May 1900 she represented the pinnacle of development by Hay and Company's Freefield yard and, as it turned out, was the only Fifie to be built there. She was rigged as a lugger and had two large dipping lug sails on both main and mizzen masts. But the Fifies days were numbered - the steam drifter was already pushing the sail boats out of business.