The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Memories of HMS Mars told by Wormit author
Life and times examined of ship that saved Scotland’s poorest boys
Memories of a ship that gave thousands of homeless and destitute boys from across Scotland the skills they needed to thrive are being recalled by a Fife author.
HMS Mars was moored in the Tay at Wormit for six decades from 1869.
It provided a home away from a world of poverty and disease in the Dundee, Glasgow and Edinburgh areas, giving boys training designed to steer them away from a life of crime.
As he researched the life and times of the Mars for his latest book, Wormitbased author and musician Gordon Douglas became particularly fascinated with the story of one “Mars boy” from Lochee.
Henry Imrie was admitted to the training ship 150 years ago this week and went on to become a successful international steamer ship captain who made nautical history in Canada.
“The great-granddaughter of this boy got in touch with me via the current Mars exhibition at the Unicorn to tell me about her great grandfather,” said Gordon.
“He was the 128th boy on the ship, admitted on February 16 1870 and lived with his widowed mother, Jessie Imrie, in Loon’s Road. He was described as being in ill health and destitute at the time.
“His progress in school seemed excellent and he was described as ‘first class in conduct’ and a ‘very steady boy’.”
Gordon tracked down Henry’s discharge papers from February 16 1873, which stated he had been “discharged to employment as a teacher on shore”.
Henry’s great-granddaughter told Gordon her ancestor went on to become a captain on the Allen Line steamers.
He wrote articles and stories for the Nautical Times and won the GoldHeaded Cane Award for captaining the first vessel up the St Lawrence River to Montreal after the ice melted in 1907.
Gordon said: “By any yardstick, this was a Mars boy who made a successful life from a wretched beginning.”
Gordon, 68, a former pupil of Dundee’s Harris Academy and graphic design graduate of Duncan of Jordanstone, first wrote We’ll Send Ye
Tae The Mars: The Story Of Dundee’s Legendary Training Ship in 2008.
The book has been reissued to coincide with the 150th anniversary of the Mars launch last year.
Gordon regards his project as an “ongoing story”, with people continuing to get in touch for help tracing relatives.
He said the ship was “kind of ahead of its time” in trying to get boys off the street and give them an education. Most accounts described it as “hard but fair”.
It wasn’t without controversy, however. After the First World War it went from being a homeless boys facility to “virtually being a truant training ship” which he regards as a “fairly draconian measure”.
He hopes the book exonerates and addresses the stigma of the boys who ended up on the Mars.
“They were not the author of their own misfortune – it was certainly not a prison ship,” he said.
“The book shows Dundee life at that time as being extremely hard. To an extent you had to steal or die or go hungry.”