Prestwick Speechmasters

Jack Quinn was chairman at the latest meeting of Prestwick Speechmasters.

The first speech by Iain Mclean was entitled ‘ A Rugby Player’ and he talked about the players who had his admiration in the position of full back, including Ken Scotland, Andy Irvine and Gavin Hastings as well as JPR Williams and Sergio Blanco.

The second speech ‘ An Engineer’ by Michael Litton included static engineers like Brunel and Telford and dynamic engineers such as Diesel and James Watt. The story no one knew was about Bradford Sewage Works, a brilliant success and one of the few projects of its kind to make money.

Arthur Maxwell rounded off the evening with a history of airships. Some were surprised to hear of zeppelin raids on Edinburgh, as well as many on the south and east of England.

His title ‘ A Dilemma’ came from the story of a fishing boat master who opted not to save the crew of a crashed zeppelin, leaving them to die as he feared for the lives of his crew if he rescued them.

The families of the fishing boat captain and some of the dead crew were brought together recently and a reconciliation took place.