DONATION TO ROYAL NATIONAL LIFEBOAT INSTITUTION
The Royal National Lifeboat Institution has received through the Customs House at Ardrossan (shown below in 2007 and now demolished), a gift of two shillings from a seaman whose life was saved by a lifeboat in 1910 and who, every time he is paid off, likes to give a little to its funds. The Scotsman, 9 March 1940
Hi Irene,
thanks for that very informative post. That really is a gem. I had no idea that the fleet was so extensive.
I sailed on several of them; the Lairds Isle of course, (the photo shows her producing her typical smoke !!); the Lion (again - of course); and the Scotsman and the Ulsterman, which we took from the Broomielaw to Belfast in 1948 (my first trip to Ireland). We went out on the one and came back on the other. They were night boats. I remember thinking how exotic it was to be sleeping on a big boat. They were very well appointed boats, with some serious quality furnishings and fittings.
BURDEN OF TAXATION ON VESSEL REPLACEMENT
SHIPPING OWNER’S WORDS OF WARNING
Words of warning and gloom were uttered by a Mr M. Arnet Robinson, managing director of Coast Lines Limited in his speech yesterday after the launch of the cargo and cattle carrying motorship LAIRDSGLEN, which is building by Ardrossan Dockyard Limited to the order of the Burns & Laird Lines Limited.
It was necessary to emphasise, he said, that under the present taxation system they were faced with an almost impossible problem in replacing their assets. Depreciation was only allowed them on original values, and it was from that resources arose for replacements.
“Today our type of ship coasts about four times what it did before the war,” he added. In these circumstances where is the money to come from to replace ship for ship. That is the problem in a nutshell.
The LAIRDSGLEN, which was named and launched by Mrs Hamilton Brown, is 280 feet long, 43 feet broad, and 17 feet 7½ inches deep, and she has been built to carry 750 tons of cargo and 480 head of cattle between Scotland and Ireland.
Two Clark-Sulzer engines developing 2600 b.h.p. will give a speed of 14 knots.
Nothing is ever really lost to us as long as we remember it.
On Wednesday last, this church, with a portion of the old parish of Ardrossan, was erected by a decree of the Court of Tiends into a new parish, to be called the New Parish of Ardrossan.
The presentation has already been given to the Rev. JAMES McKAY, who, having received a unanimous call from the people, has been officially among them for some time past, with eminent success.
Nothing is ever really lost to us as long as we remember it.
The steel screw steamer BRIGADIER – 155 feet in length, 22 feet in breadth, and 12 feet in depth – built by Ardrossan Dry Dock & Shipbuilding Company Limited for Coasting Steamships, Glasgow, was launched on the above date.
[Further details of this vessel, including one photograph when later named the MANUEL, are contained in the following link:-
I remember a smallpox scare in the UK I'm guessing around 1950. It was a very scary time.
Found this account:
A seaman carried the disease
I found out later that a ship had docked at Shoreham in the December 1950, and on board was a seaman who, unbeknown to himself, had contracted smallpox. The seaman travelled to lodgings in Brighton, where he fell ill and was rushed to hospital, eventually to be taken to the Bevendean Isolation Hospital.
SPECIAL AREAS ASSISTANCE FOR SCOTTISH SCHEMES – PLOTHOLDERS’ LOANS
Lord George Nigel Douglas-Hamilton, Commissioner for the Special Areas in Scotland, announces that during February 1938, he has offered further grants in respect of schemes designed to improve public health and other service in the areas. The schemes include a Maternity and Child Welfare Centre and Toddlers’ Playground costing £4315, improvement of water services at Millglen, Ardrossan costing £4500 and the beautifying of an iron slag bing at Newmains costing £350. The Scotsman, 11 March 1938
The vessel MARQUIS OF LORNE, built by Peter Barclay & Son, Ardrossan, for Toft & Company, Runcorn, stranded at the Harry Furlong Rock on the above date.
Last edited by Penny Tray on Thu Oct 29, 2020 7:44 pm, edited 2 times in total.
Nothing is ever really lost to us as long as we remember it.
The steel screw steamer ORMEA, later named the ALFRED NOBEL, the ADAGENA, and the ADA GENA, originally built by Ardrossan Shipbuilding Company Limited for William Hutcheson, Bute, and launched on the 27th August 1888, was seized by German forces at Odessa and taken into the German naval service.
Nothing is ever really lost to us as long as we remember it.
The wooden sailing smack JANET, built by John Fyfe, Ardrossan, for Archibald Russell, Daniel Russell, and James Kerr, junior, Irvine, and launched on the 14th of June 1882, was wrecked in Clanyard’s Bay, Mull of Galloway, on the above date.
Nothing is ever really lost to us as long as we remember it.
