An eventful career

“Extensive remedial work is continuing on the railway viaduct across the River South Esk at Montrose,” emails a regular reader from the Angus port. “While the structure has a direct historical link to the ill-fated Tay Rail Bridge between Dundee and Fife, the result of the disaster brought a son of Montrose into the spotlight of international marine salvage.

“Thomas Napier Armit was born in the town in 1846 and educated at the local academy. He left school at the age of 17 and took up an apprenticeship with Messrs. Alexander Stephen & Sons, a firm of leading shipbuilders in Dundee.

“Thomas Armit always maintained it was the train that was blown over thus weakening the bridge structure. He masterminded the raising of 7,000 tons of metal by using a former Montrosebuilt UK-Canada sailing trader Henry.

“She had already been de-masted when his company acquired the hull and thus there was no problem in converting her to a salvage barge by fitting a 70-ton derrick. Two carriages and the guard’s van were landed at King William Dock, Dundee, while the locomotive and tender were discharged at Tayport.

“Thomas Armit later went on to perform a series of spectacular feats of salvage both in the UK on the Clyde and at King’s Lynn plus around the world from Panama to South Australia. One contract close to home was the sailing ship Letterewe which drove ashore at Boddin, near Usan, just south of his birthplace.

“She had been on a voyage across the North Sea from the River Elbe when a series of easterly gales, interspersed with blizzards, reduced visibility dramatically.

“Attempts by the Montrose lifeboat crew to reach the stranded vessel had to be aborted due to the extreme weather and also due to the fact the stricken vessel was too close inshore.

“The ship was successfully refloated and eventually fitted with a steam engine manufactured by Alexander Shanks & Sons Ltd. of Arbroath. She was reported scrapped in Spain in 1963.

“During his eventful career, Thomas Armit formed a partnership with Christian Salvesen, Hugh Rose – a merchant – and Richard Ramage, a shipbuilder, and located the resultant East Coast Salvage Company at the Forth port.”

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