17049: Calbost and Marvig Fishing Boats

The following is an incomplete list of the fishing boats of Calbost. It is incomplete because some fo the earlier records were lost and some of the existing records were classified as confidential on account of details of money borrowed by the crew etc. However most the boats of the period from 1869 onwards are accounted for.

Most if not all of these boats were share-owned by the crew but they were registered in the name of the skipper and his village of residence. All the boats in Marvig and Calbost were based in the excellent anchorage at Marvig and sometimes some of the share-owning crew or the skipper might come from one or other of the two villages.

The list divides into two categories. The smaller inshore boats, under 20 feet long, participated mainly in line fishing for white fish and seasonal winter herring fishing in the sea lochs. These smaller boats were usually family owned and were hauled up on the beach at "Mol-a-gho",. Calbost. The larger off shore boats of between 25 and 80 feet long which fished mainly for herring with drift nets, were moored at the sheltered anchorage off loch Marvig.

Year Of Reg	Name of Boat	Reg No	Skipper	Length of keel	Crew	Boy
1869	Rouse About	SY 43	Norman Mackenzie	43	5
1869	Magdelene	SY 688	Norman Mackenzie	16	6
1869	Mary Kennedy	SY	Murdo Kennedy	33.5	5
1869	Marg. Kennedy	SY	Murdo Kennedy	18.5	5
1869	Norman Macleod	SY 332	Norman Macleod	17	5
1869	Catherine	SY 649	Roderick Smith	13	4
1869	Isabella	SY 650	Angus Finlayson	16	5
1869	Nancy	SY 682	Donald Mackenzie	16	5
1869	Anna	SY 683	Malcolm Mackay	16	6
1869	Brothers	SY 685	Kenneth Mackay	34	5
1869	Christine	SY 1229	Kenneth Mackay	16	5
1870	Isabella	SY 1252	Alexander Finlayson	15	5
1871	Smart	SY 1237	Norman Mackenzie	14	4
1872	Kate	SY 333	Murdo Nicolson	16	5
1873	Malinka	SY 339	Norman Mackenzie	38	5
1873	Maggie-Lizzie	SY 49	Kenneth Nicolson	42	5
1874	Janet	SY1526	John Macleod	36	5
1875	Maid	SY 1666	John Macleod	17	6
1875	Mary Macleod	SY 292	Kenneth Nicolson	35	5
1875	Isabella	SY 1252	Donald Finlayson	15	5
1878	Mary Macleod	SY	Donald Macleod	35	5
1879	Try-Again	SY 39	John Macleod	39	6
1880	Maggie-Lizzie	SY 49	John Macleod	42	6
1882	Halcyon	SY 97	John Macleod	17.5	6
1883	Crocus	SY 738	Kenneth Nicolson	45	6
1884	New-Waverly	SY 292	Donald Macleod	35	5
1886	Princess-of-Thule	SY 757	Angus Smith	16.6	5
1886	Gannet	SY 774	Roderick Macleod	14.5	5
1886	Beautiful Star	SY 787	Kenneth Nicolson	14.75	5
1886	Crofter	SY 797	Kenneth Macleod	18	5
1886	Ocean-Queen	SY 736	Kenneth Macleod	16	6
1889	Barbara	SY 14	John Macleod	16	6
1889	Annie	SY 449	John Morrison	16	5
1891	Jubilee	SY 923	Malcolm Mackay	44	6
1893	Jane-Sinclair	SY 1009	Angus Smith	44	6
1898	Clan Macleod	SY 1201	Norman Macleod	15	6
1899	Come-on	SY 840	Alexander Macleod	15	6
1899	Penguin	SY 22	Roderick Smith	14	5
1899	Sea-Rover	SY 753	John Morrison	40	6
1901	Brittania	SY 1065	Kenneth Nicolson	50	6	1
1901	Jubilee	SY 923	John Kennedy	14	4
1907	Maggie-Ann	SY 27	Murdo Campbell no.7	18	6
1912	Fearn	SY 391	Kenneth Macleod	14	4
1914	Beautiful	SY 237	John Macleod no.8	19	4
1915	Thankfull	SY 226	Murdo Morrison no.9	20	4
1915	Shamrock	SY 241	Donald Kennedy no.2	18	4
1917	St. Columba	SY 391	Alex Macleod no. 13	39	6
1920	Ribhinn Donn	SY 53	Kenneth Mackay no.7	33	5
1922	Starlight Rays	SY 460	Donald Kennedy no.2	35	5
1923	Cawdor Castle	SY 485	Donald Maclennan	73	6	1
1923	Vine	SY 477	John Murdo Morrison	77	7	1
1924	Septre	SY	Angus Finlayson	78	7	1
1928	Proceed Motor	SY 553	Angus Finlayson	67.5	7	1
1933	Proceed 11	SY 478	Angus Finlayson	72	7
1929	Honour Bright	SY 16	John Macleod no. 6	79	7
1929	Welcome Home	SY 123	Donald Macleod no.8	38	5
1935	Shamrock	SY 121	Peter Kennedy no.2	15	4
1948	Trust	SY 478	Angus Finlayson no. 10	41	5

However careful fishermen might be, the sea will inevitably claim the lives of some of them from time to time. Fortunately, however, there were no major drowning accidents in Calbost or Marvig in which most or all of a boat’s crew were lost, as there were in most of the neighbouring villages. There were however several single drownings which happened in various ways.

Roderick Finlayson, born 1877, son of Donald Finlayson 10 Calbost, was hired as a deck hand at the east coast herring fishing when he was lost overboard at Banff.

Hector Macleod, Born 1887, son of Kenneth Macleod 6 Calbost, was drowned at Lerwick where he was a hired deck hand on the Steam Drifter "Trident" in 1909 at the age of 22 years. He was swept overboard by the sail.

Iain Morrison (Donald), born 1902, son of Donald Morrison 9 Calbost and Iain Morrison (Neill), born 1902, son of Neil Morrison 9 Calbost. Both drowned on 1 November 1922 at the early age of 22 years at the mouth of Loch Shell near Lemreway on their way to resettle Steimreway with their parents and other families from Calbost. That was a very sad day in the history of Calbost when the struggle for the land cost the lives of two young men as they were transporting buiding material to Steimreway in order to escape from the gross overcrowded living conditions in Calbost, with well over 30 families living on the 14 crofts there.

As Calbost was not suitable for an anchorage in the village boats were normally moored in the sheltered anchorage of Marvig. Marvig and Calbost were the school catchment areas for Planasker School at Marvig and very often men from each village might be numbered among the crews of some of the boats that were normally based in Marvig harbour.

In the 1930s there were nine large off-shore herring fishing boats based in Marvig harbour as follows:

Marvig

Name of boat	Skipper	Crew	Boy
Maggie Macdonald	Kenneth Campbell	4	1
Trust	Duncan Macleod	4	1
Lady Marjorie	John Macmillan	4	1
Clan Maclennan	Donald Maclennan	4	1
Evening Star	Alastair Macleod	4	1

Calbost

Name of Boat	Skipper	Crew	Boy
Honour Bright	John Macleod	7	1
Proceed	Angus Finlayson	7	1
Welcome Home	Donald Macleod	4	1
Starlight Rays	Donald Kennedy	4	1

Total 42 Men 9 boys

In all, these nine fishing boats provided work for 51 people in two small villages as well as the deck-hands that were employed in other herring fishing boats.

Angus Macleod Archive