She began operating commercially in 1998 and that first year she did 40 trips and carried 450 trainees on board.

Since then she has become a familiar sight, not only in Shetland waters, but further afield also. She is commonly seen in the fjords of Norway and on the Faroese coast each year. She has also taken trainees to take part in the Cutty Sark Tall Ships Races to ports in France, Denmark, Ireland and Holland as well as around the UK.

We specialise in short sail training trips for Primary and High School pupils and now take out over 1000 trainees each year from schools in Shetland, Orkney and The Western Isles. The Swan is, however, open to all age groups and also to Special Needs Groups.

This Swan Steering Group was soon formed and money was raised from a variety of sources and a survey undertaken. Following a good report it was decided to form The Swan Trust and to make Mr. Parkes an offer which was to bring the Swan back to Lerwick again.

A delivery crew went to Hartlepool. Some repairs were done and she was made sufficiently sea worthy to make the trip to Shetland for complete restoration.

After a major restoration the Swan proudly spread her wings again on 11th May 1996 when she was relaunched in Lerwick harbour almost exactly 96 years since she first took to the water.

The Swan had several different owners after she arrived in Grimsby in 1960. She ended up in Hartlepool in 1982 and lay there neglected for some time sinking two or three times due to lack of care.

A local businessman, Keith Parkes, realised even though she was lying submerged with only her masts showing that she was a classic vessel. He bought her in 1989 and began to restore her with the intention of sailing her back to Lerwick again.

He soon realised the restoration was taking up more time than he could allow due to business commitments and offered her up for sale.

His advertisement in The Shetland Times attracted the attention of local navigation teacher, Tom Moncrieff, a keen yachtsman and expert on all aspects of Shetland's maritime heritage and also the owner of several classic boats.

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.

An interesting event took place at Freefield docks on Thursday, when a fine new boat was launched for the yard of Messrs Hay & Co.

From the membership of the trust a "Swan Return Group" was formed to make arrangements for bringing the vessel back to Lerwick. This involved a great deal of careful planning, since the vessel had to be seaworthy and had to satisfy the requirements of the insurers through Captain Elliott before she was allowed to undertake the long journey north.

A lengthy list of equipment was prepared...[and]...was taken south free of charge on Hay & Company's vessel Shetland Trader - an appropriate gesture from the firm which had built the Swan ...

The delivery crew left Lerwick on Friday 5th April, 1991. They were fortunate in having as skipper William Simpson who, many years before, had served on the Swan and whose family had owned her for most of her career as a fishing vessel. Engineer was George Sinclair of Trondra, loaned to the trust by his employers Malakoff & Moore because of his skill with engines. His knowledge was to be tested to the full on the way north. The other two crew were Tom Moncrieff and Dennis Geldard.

Under the trust deed the trustees were given wide ranging power to appeal for and receive donations, grants and legacies and to raise money "by any other means which they may consider appropriate for the purpose of accumulating and maintaining funds for the purpose of the trust."
...

The objects and purposes for which the trust was established were described as "generally of an educational nature", the aim being to:

... acquire the hull of the Shetland Fifie Swan (LK 243): to restore and re-rig the Swan as a working and sea-going sail-.fishing boat using as far as reasonably practicable similar materials and techniques to those used in her original construction and design; to ensure the continued maintenance of the Swan in her restored and re-rigged condition as aforesaid so that she may be presereved and open to the public as part of Shetland's maritime and fishing heritage.for future generations; and to encourage and facilitate interested parties and particularly young people to sail on the Swan, thereby teaching and keeping alive the techniques of sailing and working a traditional sail Fifie such as the Swan.

On the basis of (the information now obtained,) it was agreed to form the Swan Trust. At a meeting of the Swan Steering Group on Thursday 13th December, 1990, it was agreed to write a letter to Mr Parkes confirming the group's interest in the Swan and its intention to proceed with the purchase of the vessel. Robert Wishart agreed to produce a brochure with photographs of the Swan for fund raising purposes. It was anticipated that the work of restoration would cost a total of £150,000, being divided into three stages - purchase and travel, initial restoration and restoration to her original rig as a sailing smack. It was assumed that each phase would cost around £50,000.

Mr Moncrieff's letter caused a great deal of interest in Lerwick, the town where the Swan had been built, and in Whalsay, the island where she had spent most of her working life. The man who brought all the interested parties together was James Moncrieff - Tom Moncrieff's son - who was then the chief executive of Shetland Salmon Farmers' Association. He called those interested to a meeting in the association's offices at 80 Commercial Street, Lerwick. It was attended by eleven people who formed themselves into the Swan Steering Group with James Moncrieff as chairman/treasurer and Vaila Wishart as secretary. The others were Eileen Anderson, William Anderson, Alistair Hamilton, Dave Hammond, Tom Moncrieff, John Ratter, Allan Wishart, Brian Wishart and Robert Wishart.