Mystery ship in dock

An illustration of Arbroath harbour’s inner dock which appeared recently in a Courier Country through the ages feature intrigued a regular reader. The design of the vessel to the right of centre he thought looked like a foreign-owned fishing vessel which was tied up among the small craft.

“In addition to a vibrant fishing industry over many years at the Angus harbour, coasters also appeared regularly but as ships and cargoes grew larger their visits became more sporadic and finally petered out over 20 years ago. Like an increasing number of harbours around the country, yacht marinas have taken the place of traditional commercial dock activities,” he writes.

“Interestingly, over the past weeks a Danish-owned dredger, Aase Madsen registered at Aarhus, has been at work in the inner dock and its approaches bringing back memories of the days when foreign-flag coastal shipping played a part in the town’s industrial and maritime trade and extensive surrounding agricultural hinterland. Commodities handled after the Second World War ranged from grain and potatoes across to foundry coke etc, while many years before that flax was an important import cargo from the Baltic,” he continues.

He concludes: “Perhaps an Arbroath harbour observer will be able to identify the mystery ship in the Courier picture?”