Interesting illustration

“The postcard which was reproduced recently in the column entitled ‘The Docks, Dundee’, set a real puzzler,” emails a shipping correspondent in Montrose.

“The paddlers in the foreground were obviously pleasure steamers operating out of Dundee along the coast to Arbroath and Montrose, upstream to Perth and Newburgh and round to St Andrews and the Firth of Forth.

“Fortunately, I had to hand a well

thumbed copy of Ian Brodie’s concise and illustrated book Steamers Of The Tay, which shows individual pictures of the Thistle and Shamrock. Detailed captions would tend to identify the two paddlers as these vessels making the postcard’s date as 1904.

“Explanatory information beneath

the pictures states: ‘The original Thistle was replaced in 1903 by a larger and more powerful vessel of the same name and a product of the same shipyard at Grangemouth. This vessel’s passenger carrying capacity was given as almost 800 on upriver trips and just under 300 for coastal itineraries. This second Thistle was apparently sold on to German owners in 1905.’

“An interesting illustration in the book shows the Shamrock leaving Perth harbour, passing Moncreiffe Island with the face of Kinnoull Hill in the background. She was formerly the Albion, which had been sailing on the Tay in the 1890s, prior to being acquired from a Newcastle firm in 1904 by George Martin, who was said to have major licensed trade interests in Dundee and a wine merchant’s business in Newport, Fife.

“The cargo vessel in front of them looks like a former sailing ship or perhaps had been used in the fishing industry, having then been converted for commercial use. At the far side of the dock can be made out a steam-driven ladder bucket dredger, presumably owned by Dundee Harbour Trust and a predecessor of the Taycraig.

“A steam lighter or ‘puffer’ seems to be discharging into a series of rail wagons behind the Royal Arch with further dockside

activity seen towards the far corner of the dock closer to the Customs House.

“The funnel of a larger steamer can be discerned over the roofs of the warehouses in the centre of the postcard, while there would appear to be a vessel in the West Graving Dock plus some ships in the distance in Victoria Dock.

“This is an illustration full of interest.”

“As an avid reader of your column,” says Muriel Farquharson, “I have sent this contribution after seeing the feature about Lunan Bay in the weekend supplement. The image shows my father and me on the beach in 1934. The photo is not too clear, but it does show the deserted beach.”

The bright colours in this painting of a summer afternoon by Ruth Walker of St Andrews bring the hope of warmer days to come.