Lizzie & Annie

Many subjects have been covered by wellknown television presenter John Craven on BBC1’S Sunday evening programme Countryfile. A recent episode caught the attention of shipping correspondent John Aitken, who has a long-standing interest in

Perth harbour and the navigable reaches of the River Tay.

He tells me: “Early in the programme, there appeared a black and white ‘still’ of an old-style coaster. Not any old coastal vessel, but the veteran Lizzie & Annie which spent her twilight years working out of Perth’s upper harbour extracting sand and gravel from the bed of the Tay.

“Built by J Softley at North Shields on the River Tyne in 1877, she had been under sail, steam and diesel during her lengthy career around the coast.

“At the ripe old age of 84, she arrived at Perth from Whitby where she had been working for a building contractor for the previous two years. Prior to that she had been owned by a company for more than 30 years in the Humber area.

“She had latterly been spotted by the owner of Earnbank Sand and Gravel Co Ltd while he was at Whitby on a yachting trip. When she came on the market for sale, he acquired her to replace a former Clyde ‘puffer’.

“Press articles during her time at Perth were headed: ‘84-year-old Lizzie and Annie finds a berth on the Tay’, ‘Tough old Lizzie is pride of the harbour’, ‘There may be some life left in the old girl’ and finally, ‘End of the

line for Lizzie’. The curtain had come down for the veteran, by that time in her 93rd year, and she sailed off to the breakers’ yard at St David’s harbour on the Firth of Forth.

“The World Ship Society had asked to be kept informed of her situation, but decided not to proceed with any acquisition. However, a pilot coming upriver as she departed commented that her Swedish-built engine sounded far healthier than that of the coaster he was bringing up to Perth!

“Her scrap value was given as £500 with the breakers hoping to make a profit. The fact that she was the last iron-hulled vessel working around the coast of Britain had not increased her value.

“I wonder if John Craven would be interested to hear of the later working life of the ship he visited all those years ago?”

Jimmy Murray at home on Ann Street, Dundee. Read more in the column above.