Tragic circumstances

“The tragic circumstances involving both the loss of the Arbroath lifeboat Robert Lindsay and the Dundee-owned sand boat Islandmagee began on the evening of October 26, 1953 with the launching of the Broughty Ferry lifeboat,” emails Montrose Port Authority honorary archivist John

Aitken.

“She headed upriver towards Balmerino, a local resident having reported in good faith what appeared to be a ship on fire. Three hours later the lifeboat returned to base with her coxswain having seen two sand boats working under paraffin flares.

“‘Steam coming from the winches is apt to give the impression that a boat is on fire. We came alongside and checked with the crew – no one was in trouble,’ the lifeboat coxswain confirmed.

“It had been an awkward trip due to sandbanks and the radio had cut out due to the close proximity of the metal girders of the Tay Rail Bridge, preventing the crew from contacting their station.

“Earlier the Islandmagee had loaded wet sand on the Birkhill Bank and passed Dundee bound for Leith around 5pm. Passing the North Carr Light vessel she was noted as ‘making very heavy weather.’ Fife Ness coastguards then saw some red distress flares about three miles out to sea.

“The Islandmagee was built by Scott & Sons of Bowling on the Clyde in 1900 and bought by the Tay Sand Company in 1942, being engaged in the coasting trade until 1950. I saw her at Aberdeen while on holiday there in the late 1940s. She had passed her five-yearly survey only a few months before that fateful night.

“The Tay Sand Company also owned the Taybuoy and Lintie which were the reason for the initial call-out of the Brought Ferry lifeboat.

“Normally she would have answered the distress call together with the Anstruther lifeboat to provide rescue services for the area off Fife Ness.

“Several lifeboats searched for hours but could find no trace of members of the crew of the missing sandboat which had been heading for Leith on a voyage she had completed on more than 150 occasions.

“As far as the Arbroath lifeboat crew were concerned, it seemed a case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time.”