Days gone by – the SS Handa

Iain Thornber sent in this week’s photo of the SS Handa at the head of Loch Sunart in around 1890. Iain said: ‘She was built in 1878 and became part of the MacBrayne fleet in March 1887 on the Oban- Coll-Tiree and Portree-Harris mail routes. On account of her large cargo- carrying capacity in proportion to her size, she was nicknamed “MacBrayne’s Gladstone bag”. She was sold to Thomas W Ward of Sheffield, scrap metal merchants and ship breakers, and abandoned at sea on December 24, 1917. Her dimensions were 84.2ft in length, 20.1ft in the beam, with a 9.5ft draught and gross tonnage of 146.’