THE SHORE SAILOR

The town of Broughty Ferry, now encompassed by the expanding city of Dundee, was once a bustling fishing village. There was once a young lad who grew up there who dreamed of going to sea and making his fortune as a sailor.

But the boy’s dreams were dashed when he discovered that he could barely set foot aboard a boat without being overcome by the most terrible seasickness. One day, the captain had to tell him not to come back in the morning.

Heartbroken, he hid himself away in daydreams, and spent more and more time in taverns by the shore. He regaled anyone who would listen with tales of adventures on the high seas, in which he was cast as the hero. He even began to wear the traditional clothes of a seafarer – the blue jacket and gold earring. He was known to all as the Shore Sailor.

One stormy winter’s night, a group of strangers came into Broughty Ferry Harbour on an unfamiliar boat. The Shore Sailor loved a new audience, and the strangers plied him with whisky all night as he told his stories.

As he told them about his victories at sea, they thought that he must have plenty of gold and jewels in his pockets if all that was true. So when the pub closed, and the Shore Sailor stumbled off into the night, they followed him.

Once they were in darkness, out of the glow of the street lamps, they hurried behind him and stabbed him in the back. They greedily rifled through his pockets. Of course, he had nothing. The only thing of any value was the gold earring he wore, so they cut it from his ear and ran back to their boat before they were discovered.

He had no family, and the robbers had taken the only thing that could have paid for a burial, so he lies in a pauper’s grave in the old Broughty Ferry kirkyard with no stone to remember him by. But if you are walking along the shore on a winter’s night, a man in old fashioned sailor’s clothing might fall into step with you and ask if you want to hear a story.