Ayrshire fishing boats in Portpatrick, Dumfries & Galloway, 1960s.

Ayrshire fishing boats in Portpatrick
Ayrshire fishing boats in Portpatrick
Ayrshire fishing boats in Portpatrick
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Ayrshire fishing boats in Portpatrick, Dumfries & Galloway, 1960s.
Ayrshire fishing boats in Portpatrick, Dumfries & Galloway, 1960s.

‘Saffron’ BA182 was built in 1951 by A. Noble & Sons, Girvan, for McCrindle brothers, Maidens. She neighboured ‘Margarita II’ BA56 and ‘Investors’ BA117 and was skippered by Willie ‘Pin’ McCrindle and, occasionally, by his brother Angus.

When replaced in 1973 by the bigger and more powerful ‘Saffron’ BA172, she was sold to the Carradale brothers Matthew and Alistair McMillan (skipper) and renamed ‘Maid of Honour’ CN120. In 1977, she was sold to George Rodgers Tait, Longniddry, and became LH120.

In 1984, she was sold to Portavogie, County Down, but retained her name and LH registration.

Beyond the ‘Saffron’s’ wheelhouse, the registration BA124 can be made out. She was the ‘Watchful’ of Maidens, built by Weatherhead & Blackie, Port Seton, in 1959, and named, by Matt Sloan, her skipper, after the herring-buying steamer, ‘Watchful’, a vessel he had admired. Her neighbour-boat, ‘Wistaria’ BA208, was skippered by Matt’s brother, Billy, and they were among the most successful ring-net fishermen of their time.

One week in January 1956, while ring-netting from Oban, the brothers, with the ‘Bairn’s Pride’ BA315 and ‘Wistaria’, landed a total of 890 crans of herring, which realised £4,435, ‘believed to be a record week’s fishing in Scotland’. (Campbeltown Courier, 19 January 1956).

‘Watchful’ was subsequently ‘Majestic’ SY137 and, c 1980, became ‘Stella Maris’ (CN 158). When decommissioned in 1995 at Campbeltown, she was spared destruction and taken to Ayr harbour to become an open-air exhibit (since neglected). Her forecastle clock is on display in Campbeltown Museum.

Portpatrick was a herring-landing port during the Isle of Man summer fishery. In 1953, the Campbeltown Courier (9 July) reported that 450 crans of herring had been landed there, the bulk of which was sold for fish meal.

Postcard donated by R Galer.
The Scottish Fisheries Museum Trust Ltd
bk26 pg43
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