Long gone slipway

“The reproduced postcard sent in by Jim Howie of the steam paddler Advance attracted the attention of an Angus reader. “My interest,” he tells me, “arises from the fact that the ship was built at Montrose in a shipyard at the South Esk end of Ferry Road.

“In fairly recent times, high tides have caused some of the sloping shoreline close to the Upper Light to expose two parallel lines of dressed stones alongside a line of wooden stumps protruding through the sand. This could be evidence of the remains of a long-gone slipway once used for the construction of ships.

“This is the approximate area of the premises of Messrs A & F. J. Scot who launched the clinker-built, woodenhulled Advance in 1904 as a successor to the smaller Bonnie Dundee. Both vessels’ shallow draught made them ideal for navigating alongside the shallower piers along the banks of the Tay upriver towards Perth.

“The competitive market continued up to the beginning of the Great War when some of the fleet were requisitioned for military service, being drafted out to carry troops and supplies along the muddy rivers of Mesopotamia, now modern-day Iraq.

“From Dundee, trips were advertised to locations as far as the Bullers o’ Buchan to the north with the newly completed Forth Bridge a major attraction in the opposite direction around 1890. This trip, with a stopover at Leith, was priced at 3s.

“Other prices quoted were May Island (including two hours ashore) 2s, North Berwick 2s, Perth and Bridge of Earn 1s and St Andrews or Montrose for 1s 6d. Balmerino, shown in the postcard was available at 6d.

“The Advance was sold off in 1912, renamed Studland Belle and ran between Bournemouth, Poole and Studland Bay where her passengers were apparently landed on to a pontoon which was then pulled up the beach. Unfortunately, she was burned out at her mooring shortly after.”