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Peterhead harbour


  • Owner: Guest
  • Uploaded: May 22 2011 08:34 AM
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  • Category: Scotland
Peterhead harbour


    Lunar Bow PD 245 (Later went to Faroes). Lying ahead of her is the 90ft Violet Flower PD418, I think.

    johntar tt10
    May 23 2011 06:08 PM
    Near sure thats the Gleaner Cecil Finn had as CN41 his first boat, then sold to Tarbert TT2
    Brian Ward's book has her built at Sandhaven 1932 by Forbes

    driftfisher
    May 25 2011 09:18 PM
    I'm pretty sure too that is Jakie Reid's "Violet Flower" lying ahead of the "Lunar," Gee Bee; enlarge the photo and you will see that the port rail foreside of the wheelhouse has been cut down for the "rail roller" for the drifts, (as was the starboard rail), like the Violet Flower had.  Around 1970 I remember her lying in the old Torry dock in Aberdeen, for a couple of years; by then there was just her hull; the casing was off and engine out. Fairly sure she was towed to Montrose, beached on the island in the river between Montrose and Ferryden and broken up. Somebody in Montrose might confirm that.
    Could be friday/saturday as the Lunar looks as if they're  landing after a greatline trip into the market; probably a short trip from the previous "Back O' Sunday." Longer trips or short trips with big shots were usually landed in Aberdeen.
    Andra, big wooden boat in her day. She had a whaleback as I  remember her. The "cut out" toprails .. "Excelsior style"!! D'ye mind the Bren Jean, Doonie Braes, Betty Leslie? They were thumpers o' wooden boats as well.
    But fit aboot the White Heather in the foreground? Rigged for seine net, and there disna look as if there's enough room aboord her, as turn a chaw o' tobacco in yer mou'!!
    PS Far's her wheelhoose??? ( Pre-"pampered deckie" days!!)

    driftfisher
    May 26 2011 08:26 AM
    Yes GeeBee, not much spare room on the White Heather's deck and no sign of a "dodger" for the skipper. There was a guy in Lerwick went to the seinenet himself after the last war; one of the"Gamrie Lerwicks" as we called them, the Shetlanders called them "Lerrick Scotties" I think. His byename was "Dovie" and he was also called "Fishmaleen" (Fish by myself, in English) by some of the old Watchful's crew; he must have had a rigout like the White Heather. A question GeeBee. If like "Dovie," one man is skipper, deckie, driver and cook, who does the deckie swear at, "towin' ower the broad?"
    While taking my "Full and Special" at Leith in 1971, I stayed at the then Sailor's Home"(now the Malmaison Hotel); working at my car one day outside there, a man came out of the Tower bar next door, "in good trim" as Parahandy would say, came over and gave me good mechanical advice. Turned out he was an engineer from Leith and was "driver" on the Doonie Braes, then owned by an American and working as a salvage boat on the wreck of the Lusitania off southern Ireland. When I told him I knew the boat and her former owner, Bob Bruce, he quoted me the following lines
                          "The Doonie Braes, the Doonie Braes, the Doonie Braes again,
                            She's plooin' through the Irish seas, far fae her Heelan' hame.
                            A Yankee for a skipper, a Scotsman chief engineer,
                            Five lads from dear Ould Ireland, and fifty crates o' beer!"
    Bob Bruce loved that story.
    I was Bob's watchmate when I started sea, Andra. One of the nicest men you could sail with. He taught me to steer!!! No automatic stuff then. Thought I was doing well one day, makin' for the line grounds, hand on the wheel. Bob told me to look "ower the starn" .. The wake was a bit wobbly. "Boothie" he said, " ye're steerin' like a doggie piddlin' among sna'." English Version .. "You're steering like a little dog urinating in the snow"!
    He once told me he "dodged" Doonie Braes (wooden 90 footer, open decker, apart from whaleback), into the weather at Rockall for 10 days, mizzen up, boat all snug down. Cool customer. Good Christian man.
    PS .. re your question on operating a vessel singlehanded, YOU CAN ALWAYS SPEAK TO YOURSELF!!