Plies the crossing A common link

“Your correspondent may be interested to know that the vessel, pictured in Wednesday’s Craigie and built at St Monans, plies the 25-minute crossing between Sconcer (Isle of Skye) and the Isle of Raasay in the Inner Hebrides making 11 return journeys each day,” emails Iain Hunter of Monifieth.

“Over the years, many and varied subjects have been recorded in the Craigie column,” writes John Aitken, Honorary Archivist of Montrose Port Authority. “Interestingly, several will overlap the 60th anniversary of the official opening of the Queen’s Bridge at Perth.

“Over the past few months, items have appeared covering sand boats, reinforced concrete and an illustration of HM The Queen, accompanied by Lord Provost John T. Young, outside the former Perth City Chambers.

“The common denominators were the sand and aggregates used in the construction of the concrete bridge by the main contractor, Whatlings Ltd of Glasgow, which were dredged from the bed of the Tay by the local sandboat Kinfauns, owned by John Dutch & Son and based at the Upper Harbour. The contractors had specified that the sandboat owners install a steel mesh screen over her hold to prevent impurities remaining in the sand.

“One of Messrs Dutch’s former sand boats, Fairyhouse, which had been partly dismembered, also acted as a pontoon during the early construction phase. Other units of the local Messrs Dutch-owned fleet around that time were the Foam which came to Perth still showing RAF roundels painted on her bow as she had formerly seen wartime service as a buoy lifting tender on the Solent.

“The Fairyhouse had also been a steam lighter for Messrs Guinness on the River Liffey at Dublin. Later, other sandboats to appear included Sir James, Aner and Foam (2), the latter an ex-Clyde puffer which had transited the Forth & Clyde Canal to reach Perth.

“Probably the oldest vessel in the post-war fleet was the Lyd, built at Leith in 1881 in Hawthorn’s shipyard as the steam trawler Annie Hope. Later she had an Isle of Man connection. Shortly after the end of the Second World War, she had a spell of several weeks aground at Perth.

On October 15 1946, The Dundee Courier reported: “Yesterday bringing an extra pump into operation, making three capable of pumping 800 gallons a minute, Captain

H. Smith, harbourmaster, and his men had the boat afloat in three hours. The Lyd is now regarded as completely unserviceable and her owners, Messrs John Dutch & Son, sand and gravel merchants, have already purchased a replacement.”

“The paths in Tentsmuir forest were very good considering the torrential rain we’ve been having recently,” says Eric Niven of Dundee who sent in the photograph.