Survivors rescued

The mention of the sale of the brass steam whistle of the ill-fated coastal paddle steamer Forfarshire in The Courier recently caught the attention of a Montrose reader. On a regular voyage north from Hull to Dundee she ran aground off the Farne Islands close to the coast of Northumberland in the early hours of September 7 1838.

“Built by Thomas Adamson at Dundee two years earlier, she was owned by the Dundee and Hull Steam Packet Company and cost £20,000 to build,” he says. “Measuring 400 tons she was powered by two 90 hp steam engines and was also fitted with sails in the form of brigantine rigging.

“The story of her demise has given long-lasting fame to Grace Darling and her lighthouse keeper father who attempted a bold rescue attempt in a basic fishing coble.

“What may not be so well-known is the fact that there were nine survivors rescued by a passing Montrose-owned commercial sailing vessel. Described by various sources at the time as a ‘passing Montrose sloop’ or ‘schooner’ or just a ‘plain sailing ship’, one of the passengers saved was a Perthshire farmer named Mr Ritchie.

“A local newspaper, however, named her as ‘Peggy and Elizabeth’ owned by Montrose businessman James Largie and sailing under the command of Captain James Simpson.

“Shipping News reported her in the weeks before and after the disaster, as being involved in the coal trade between the Tyne and Montrose.

“Among those lost on the Forfarshire were George Brown, son of a Perth shipbuilder with Montrose family connections and the Rev. John Robb, former minister of Dunkeld Cathedral. The latter had been on the voyage ‘to provide a benefit to his health’.

“However, further research of other newspaper sources gave the ‘passing sloop’ another name – Margaret and Isabella – but there was no reference to a vessel of that name in the area Shipping Movements around that time for Montrose, Johnshaven or Gourdon.”

David Millar has sent in this photograph of the Bridgend Hotel at the south end of Kinross. “This picture was taken in the early 1960s,” he says. “Unfortunately, the hotel burned down around 2001 and was demolished and replaced with housing soon after.”

“I had a drive through Glen Quaich recently and spotted a few grouse by the roadside,” says reader Angela Mitchell.