The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Difficult navigation
The “Montrose Ghost” story which appeared recently in The Courier caught the attention of a shipping correspondent in the Angus seaport. He emails with the following information.
“Miss Winsome Ropner was a member of the famous West Hartlepool ship-owning family of Sir Robert Ropner, whose large fleet of cargo vessels earned the by-name ‘Ropner’s Navy’,” he explains. “Over a period from 1874 to 1997, the company had owned 205 ships despite having lost a large number in both world wars. Most of the ships carried the suffix ‘-by’ or ‘-pool’. In this case, the 1895, Stockton-built tramp steamer Hawnby provided a near-local connection.
“On a voyage from Hartlepool to Archangel on September 10 1914, she grounded close to the entrance to the harbour at Johnshaven. Before that, the Admiralty had advised British ships to sail close inshore in order to keep out of range of marauding German surface warships and U-boats.
“Obeying their lordships’ instructions, the Hawnby’s captain was hugging the coast northwards past Montrose until the unexpected onset of a bank of North Sea haar, which made navigation difficult and dangerous and the ship drove up on to the rocky foreshore.
“It was reported at the time that a local merchant had acquired the cargo of coal and sold it off locally at 6d. per bag. When he had recouped his initial outlay, he donated the remaining profit to the Johnshaven Street Lighting Fund. Some of the ship’s deck equipment was salvaged and transported by a Glasgow-owned ‘puffer’, which had been working in the area at the time and was based at Montrose.
“A second Hawnby did not last long. Completed in 1936, after only four years she was mined in the Thames estuary. In more modern times, a Ropner ship was built at the Caledon shipyard in 1954. Named Swiftpool, she was launched on a snell winter’s day when a strong wind carried her over towards the Fife shore. Tugs from Dundee were in attendance to tow her back to the fitting-out jetty.”