20 replies to this topic

[quiet waters]

never got this one ourselves but did hear stories back in the late seventies about a leadlined coffin that several boats got a grip of the clyde somewhere between turnberry and the craig, not sure about  the details but i think a boat would get it and dump it on hard ground only for it to reappear on the clean a while later for another boat to get it!!! maybe james or robbie will know more about it? it was ayrshire boats that were getting it all the time for a period. worst thing we ever got over there was a bag of either puppies or kittens, stank to high heaven, you could taste it the smells was so bad.
a weird thing that a lot have got a lump of is the concrete at gigha, john T will be the very man to tell us the origins of this, i have had whole bags of cement at the grips in the past and you can see some on the shore down along the rhu, washed off a boat sometime in the distant past. one thing i did get down there which in itself wasn't weird but had a strange coincidence attached to it was a friday morning tow where i'd been told to take the boat out when i was 19, we had a tow in the flat for a nice enough mark and deciding to shorten the steam in, towed west and birled round the grips, on lifting there was a six foot section of a boats rail in the net, painted white, my uncle douglas identified it as being a bit of the quesado, a pleasure boat that had gone down in the mid sixties with the loss of several lives. when we came into the quay the ropes were caught by hamish colville a local marine engineer who i didn't know at the time had been a survivor, i went out to the pub that night with my two brothers and met up with mutual aquaintances among whom were two brothers, the coolie twins, whose father had been one of those lost, that night i met my future wife, her father had also been a survivor, nothing strange you think in a small town with a tightknit community, but weird all the same as its a subject that none of those connected ever speak about, to this day my father inlaw has never spoken about it, a more recent weird thing connected to it was clearing my mothers loft last year, i found an old scrap book of mine that i used to keep to stick newspaper clippings and photos of the band my brothers and i used to have, i was flcking thru it when my father inlaw came in and we started talking about the band, he had been a bouncer in the local victoria hall when we were about and we were recalling events of the period, i turned the page to find a copy of the local paper dated from the week after the quesada went down, complete with his picture and the story of how he had held the flares aloft to attract the attention of the local fishing boats that had gone out that night to look for the boat. i'd never seen the paper before, don't know why my mother had kept it or how it had found its way into my scrapbook? tucked inside the paper was a brown envelope containing black and white photographs of myself as a small boy with my older brother davi and my father aboard his first boat, Quiet Waters CN93, which he had bought from my father inlaw's father james McKinven and his partner Cecil Finn, all in an old scrapbook that anyone else would have thrown out with the rubbish, my father on the quiet waters had recovered the only body of those that lost their lives, him coming in with the body to be met by the police is one of my earliest memories, i can still picture what my mother was wearing, my older brother was in school and my younger brother fraser in his pram, and me standing on the esplanade holding my mothers hand watching the activity in the distance not knowing what was going on or understanding why the police were all gathered on my dads boat. spookier still, the owner of the boat had asked my father to take command of her for the trip, an outing by staff from a local garage, he had turned the offer down as he was too busy that weekend working on gear.

[johntar tt10]

That was "The Major", an American Airforce Major who was based at Prestwick during the war, he was supposed to be buried at sea in a lead-lined coffin. but in fact the undertakers put him in an ordinary one, cost cutting but they got done for fraud if I recall it made the national papers.
Up and down like a yo-yo he was till someone took him ashore after the box had disintergrated,  think it was Grieve in the Stormdrift.

Was up in the Wendy House(Harbour Bar) in Ayr yarning to the boys on the dredger one night after landing, said they had been out with a family scattering ashes in Ayr Bay, anyway when the widow emptied the urn the dredger was turning and the ashes blew back onto the deck, one of the crew said to her not to worry he would get the hose out and do the necessary, she replied "If there were not so many of you young lads here i would take down my knickers and pish him over the side, for thats all he done all his days was take the pish, if anyone was ever a the bag of piss he was!!!"

[johntar tt10]

Just came back to me, The Major was re-buried in a proper fashion in a lead-lined box and put into the sea over the "Dasher" wreck off Brodick.

[quiet waters]

good one, my old man did the same with the ashes of a local lawyer bob graham, known locally as perry mason,  went out on the sunday and scattered the ashes, douglas told me that he washed them out the scuppers on the monday morning steaming out,think it was just a year or so afor i left school. they left them on the deck at the time as they didn't want to upset the widow at the time, i think most of his ashes ended up on our front door step where my mother brushed them off the old mans claes, he had looked like a bag oh floooor had been coped ower him.
i remember the story about the american now you filled in the details. he must still be there as he hasn't been disturbed recently, must have been someone with good accurate readings, i know ours were at least 3-4 tenths out.

[quiet waters]

aww c'mon, this is the kind oh thing i fell oot wae DT ower, a topic develops and takes its own course, sometimes coming back to where it started, sometimes not, like a conversation, naw a specialised subject on mastermind. good job i've got a scotland team to shout abuse at today.

[johntar tt10]

Aye aye, the Dasher wreck claimed a few over the years, thing was you had to have a night-time Decca reading and a day-time reading as the Decca went out at night.  77 fthms she lies in standing 8 to 10 fthms  and it was best to run over her before shooting, red 22.7 and 77.5to7 purple if I remember. Was never in her myself but ran over her a few times to check on the Decca.

Mind my Great Uncle Albert telling me they could see the smoke off her when she was on fire from the mouth of Tarbert Harbour.

[quiet waters]

quite believe that, not really that far as the gull flies, tho it wid need to be pretty high to clear the tops of goat fell, i remember steaming in thru thick low lying fog the day the helicopter went down at the mull and being puzzled by the black fog rising from the top of the fog bank, it was one of those weird fogs, not lying at sea level so you could see a good mile or more ahead of you but completely blanketing the land, the nearer you got to davaar the thicker it got but you could still see the faint black smoke away in the distance above the direction of the mull, or as we thought southend, we thought it was whin bushes getting burnt. must have been at this time of year as i remember as it was a week before i came ashore so must have been last week in september or first week in october 1994. my brother inlaw was a young volunteer fireman at the time and i don't think it was the kind of sight you'd want to deal with at any age.
it never puzzled me how the helicopter came to hit the hill, if they had the same type of fog as we were getting then it would have been very disorientating, they'd be seeing the water clear as anything on a flat calm evening but where it hit the land a thick peasouper, when we got in by the light you couldn't see a thing, it was like it closed up behind us at the light, we were ten yards from the point of the new quay before the boys could see a thing, but wae pogo's eyes keeping a lookout its a wonder we never hit that too!!!

[Jammy]

not sure if they grandfather and co were the first but they certainley got the major in the Marie john,
the net came aboard and a strange shape in the cod end cant rem who pulled the string but one helluva thud on the deck and bang out pops this body wrapped in linen and a whole lot of smashed wood
will check with the old man for a more accurate story trying to get him to come on here and do a bit o conversing wiht his old friends but hes no taking the idea
going on to the carrier, call me whatever you want but always liked steamin out from troon and taking a run over the wreck just to see the picture you got on the meter never managed to pick it up on the 3d prob cause we dont have it linked to give a ground discrimination only the contour picture
no sure about who it was or if it was just a story but did somebody not think it was a spot of fish possibly herring and shoot on it only to get the ends o the wires back??

[Jammy]

we got a skull once about the mouth o the river might even had been in the river at the pelagic??,but when asked what to do with it was told give it a field goal (think the superbowl was on at thetime)
i do remember not long after i started gary voce in the marie got a skull from the carrier area with gold teeth in it

[johntar tt10]

Think Willie in the Valhalla was one of the first to get the "Major" down about the podley peak. Mind Tam getting him and laying off to Grieve about it, can't be sure who finally took him ashore though.
Pretty sure the Dasher is his last resting place.
Eoghan Smith, Destiny, got a flying boot with the foot bones in it down about the old ammo dump, scutched it so he did!!!!!!!!

[Jammy]

think it was about the sub at pladda the marie picked it up john but not sure
uncle tam was always laying off about something linty was no much different hahah
hows yir trim these days speak to willie back an fore

[quiet waters]

johns post jogged my memory about the name i couldn't remember on a post elsewhere about the CFA 50th do and who else was at the same table as me and the wife, it was podley willie.

as for the other thing, we got a torso hanging on the port door at the big wreck once, just a ribcage with the spine and the one arm hanging on the "G" i was tying up the starboard door first and by the time i crossed the deck it fell off, i was in the horrors thinking it would just wash back into the net but it didn't, don't know if it was the same one but we got a torso with a good bit flesh still on it  a wee bit further up at the lorries early that same year about feb. i only managedto say "whot the feck is that?" when the uncle grabbed the shovel and scooped it ower the side "nothing" he replied and that was that, end of discussion.

[johntar tt10]

Trims great James, Lifes good so nothing to mump about, was away on my yearly sail down to Ardmaleish slip a week past Friday and go to collect her tomorrow(Monday), just a paint up, antifoul and anodes, Willie sunning himself in Spain and back next Wed.
Pair away to try herring/sprats, and couple changed over to dredges the weekend.
Hows Dad and Linty getting on?

[Jammy]

as long as your enjoying your time ashore, willie was saying you had booked stan's for a paint up and he was off for some sun. shame about the other boat would have been a nice one done out, dad is good keeping him busy between my house sisters and his own along with his bowling he's a busy now as he was at sea hard to think thats 4 year coming hes ashore. linty moved to maybole but never hear from him. bisto away to the pair wi neilly think fox was going to the heavy metal last week or so??

[johntar tt10]

No joy at herring, two or three bags but too small, pity cos price delivered PD is bit better as last year.
Fox and Brown at heavy metal right enough. Not much doing up here with trawlers.

[Sweltered]

You forgot about the bag of dumped herring that trapper and Finn dumped at Whiting Bay. I still can't eat herring, as the smell comes back to me even now.

[quiet waters]

forgot aboot that, tho i widna had it against them, well naw in the way they had my review on the radio oh his brothers book against me, seeven years later!!!!!
write a book aboot CN fishermen and don't mention my faither? its gonna happen and merr folk listened to me as read the book!!!!! in fact you can still get me in time for xmas, free!!!!

[fincutter]

The Major was picked up first by the Spes Bona, in Ayr bay, returned to the sea forthwith only to be picked up by Tommy Anderson in Marie and towed to Pladda, where young Jackie McCall had tae poke his cheek tae see if he wuz a dummy. Naebody else would touch him! Returned tae the sea again. Podley Wullie got him next and finally brought him in tae Ayr..  I remember a story of one of the Moochers tailin prawns aff his chest on the side deck, don't know if that's true but it's a good end ate the yarn.

[quiet waters]

this started with weights in the net, moved on to the body in question so if we could get confirmation that somebody who got this coffin in the net did some damage ? then we'd have the full set

ground control, (weight) to major..........torn?

aww come on, its xmas, you'll see worse afor the new year!!!!!!

[fincutter]

If ye think the Major wiz bad Mo, wait till I get time tae tell ye aboot the Reverend...........  Pair soul. Think his heid is noo in CN museum.................    goin tae a party tonight and got tae catch next ferry so I can't hing aboot. Awra best.

[quiet waters]

theres nae CN museum noo, they turned it into cooncil offices when the library got moved to the new swimming pool, theres a display of sorts but naw half the stuff there used to be, never saw a skull there ever? they don't even have the golden eagle eggs on display, used to be a matter of pride to show them to the weans, the card below them read

"donated to the museum after a successful prosecution by the local police"

my faither, douglas, doogie, jack sprat and ticcie i think? took them from a nest when they were boys in the late forties, i loved showing them to the weans and saying "your granda stole them!!"
see and enjoy the party