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SAILING AND ROWING WORKING BOATS FROM THE WEST COAST OF SCOTLAND

Mike Jarvis

This set of notes was assembled around 1990, based on fieldwork in Western Scotland during the 1980s. It was intended to stimulate interest in more detailed recording and preservation of small working boats in the area, but is now perhaps more useful as  a (very inadequate) record of what has been lost in the intervening time.  Note that the present tense refers to about twenty years ago.

All over Europe, traditional types of small working boats have been more or less recorded and some attempts are being made to preserve them. There are few areas richer in variety of rowing and sailing boats than the West Coast of Scotland, yet very little has been done to survey or classify them. The fine surveying work of men like P.J. Oke in the 1930s and E.J. Marsh went almost all round the British coastline, but included only two or three boats from western Scotland. There is now plenty of local interest in preserving old boats in the area, but many of them have gone – perhaps a quarter of the local types have become extinct in the past twenty years – and without some sort of a survey nobody knows quite what to preserve.

This article is a preliminary attempt to assess what is there. I have not done the sort of detailed surveying of individual boats that urgently needs to be done before there is nothing left to survey – the sort of work that was done by Oke and Anson in this country or Faerovik in Norway – but I have attempted to list the kinds of boats that could still be found within the last three decades so that anyone who wishes to survey or preserve what is left will know what to look for. Even at this superficial level I have probably missed much of the richness of the Hebridean material; but if other people are encouraged to start looking, that at least will be a start.

Group A. Open rowing boats.

A1. Transom-sterned, clinker-built rowing boats with 2-4 oars. These, the basic British type of dinghy, are so common

everywhere that little attention is usually paid to them. In Western Scotland the ‘average’ examples have some minor features that distinguish them from dinghies elsewhere in the country; a rather more raking stern and, in the earlier boats, an almost vertical stem. The reverse turn to the lowest strakes is almost always carried right to the transom. There were numerous merging types:

(a) Fishing and hiring boats for inland lochs, 12-16 ft long, rather low and lean forward.

(b) Boats used round the shipyards on the upper Clyde, about 14 ft long and very heavy.

(c) The punts carried by the Clyde Puffers, about 12 ft long, very heavy and strongly built, with full sections forward for towing.

(d) Small yachts’ dinghies, very varied in size with the average about 9 ft, light by comparison with the working boats and usually well finished.

(e) Longer dinghies and gigs for large yachts, up to 18 ft or more, built to the highest standards.

(f) Racing four-oared ‘Scotch gigs’ used by the professional rowing clubs up to 1939, very long and light with outriggers.

(g) a type with a very long raking stem used as river ferries on the upper Clyde in the 19th century.

There are plenty examples around of (a) and (d). Type (g) is certainly extinct and (b) and (c) may well be. A few of type (e) are left and are so beautiful that they are likely to be well looked after. For example  a family of boathirers in Dunoon had a well-kept one around 1980 which they used on Jura. The Scottish Maritime Museum in Irvine has one of the two or three surviving examples of (f).

A2. Skiff-sterned rowing boats with 2-4 oars, clinker-built. The skiff stern is very much a part of the West Scottish tradition and, provided the boat is big enough to carry a rudder it is always straight in profile, even when coupled with a well curved stem. It is interesting that this feature goes back to the medieval West Highland galleys and distinguishes them from the other branches of the lineage of the Viking ships.

Types (2a)-(2c) correspond to types (1b), (1d) and (1e) respectively of transom-sterned rowing boats; there is little difference apart from the shape of the stern and the fact that the point of maximum beam is a little further aft to give a properly balanced hull with the skiff stern.

(d) Light single-scull skiffs without outriggers usually 14 ft or 16 ft long, built for hiring (to more experienced rowers) or for the coastal rowing clubs. The photograph below shows D Nolan (Clydesdale ARC) winning the singles final at the Royal West regatta. His time over 500m gave a speed of 6.1 knots

Type (2a) is probably extinct; my father had one around 1930. The others are all now rare. Type (2c) is the most commonly preserved and there are probably quite a number remaining, including the pretty little McGruer dinghies affectionately called ‘pudding-basins’. A beautifully-built cradle in Culzean Castle, Ayrshire is based on this type. The Royal West of Scotland Rowing Club at Gourock have four of type (2d) and I have what is probably the only other surviving one.

A3. Salmon cobles, mostly only 14-16ft on the West Coast although sometimes much larger in Eastern Scotland. It is difficult to say how long ago cobles first arrived in Western Scotland. They are certainly associated with the salmon fisheries of the East Coast rivers and may have been introduced from there to the West Coast at some time in the past, perhaps along with the associated methods of netting salmon. I have a print showing a heavy-looking coble on the upper Clyde estuary about 1820 (see on right). The Scottish cobles, like their seagoing cousins in Yorkshire and Northumberland, are clinker-built but from a non-Norse, probably Celtic constructional tradition with unusual frames and no conventional keel. They are decreasing but still not rare. There are plans of an East coast example in McKee.

Group B. Small open rowing/sailing boats.

There is no clear distinction between the purely rowing boats of type A and boats that can be sailed, but as the size and weight increase it becomes increasingly common to see the hull become deeper, especially aft, and the reverse turn to the after garboard strakes is carried towards and past amidships. It is a distinctive feature of the West Scottish boats in this size range, of almost every type, that the draught is much greater aft than forward. They share this feature with skiff-sterned boats in Cornwall and with the Hookers of Western Ireland, but it is hard to distinguish influence from coincidence when the Scottish tradition is so many-stranded.

B1. Transom sterned, clinker-built boats with straight stem and standing lug rig, 12-18 ft long, merging with A1. There are many local types around the coast, not different enough to classify. A large number were built by MacKenzie of Portree and many of these are enthusiastically raced at Plockton, while others are in use at Breakish (Broadford) and Culduie (Applecross). Boats of other types within this group have been seen since 1980 by the author at Tobermory, Crinan and Tiree.

B2. North Ayrshire skiffs (Largs skiffs). Between Ardrossan and the Cloch Lighthouse the coastline is more suitable for boats that can be hauled up a beach and a light, shallow type of skiff evolved there. They had a straight stem, fairly upright skiff stern, and were typically about 18 ft long and clinker-built. There were two at Portencross around 1978 but I have not seen any since. Edgar March has published a good set of plans by P.J. Oke.

B3. Hebridean skiffs. These very variable boats are mostly 16-20 ft long, with a moderately raking skiff stern, broad beam, fairly light clinker construction and standing lug rig. They are mostly deeper than type B2 but still fairly shallow for occasional hauling out.

Type (a) has a straight stem, almost semicircular stern at the gunwale and fairly light construction. They are deeper aft than forward but much less so than the Loch Fyne skiffs. The Gairloch Museum, Wester Ross has preserved one boat of this type and a similar but larger half-decked vessel. They were both locally built and much of their history has been put together. I have seen other intact examples of this type in various states of preservation at Camas a’Chois (N. Ballachulish); the head of L. Scridain (Mull); Plockton; Toscaig (Applecross), where there were two, maybe the best preserved; and  Sconser (Skye)

Type (b) has the stern less raked and much finer, with not much more fullness at the gunwale than at the waterline. They are considerably heavier. This type is hard to tell from a small East Coast Fifie but has more beam and weight. I have seen examples afloat and in use at Port Ellen (Islay) in 1984 and Kyleakin (Skye) in 1988.

B4. Raking-stemmed skiffs. These types have a long history and very similar boats are carved on the tower of the sixteenth-century church at Rodel in Harris, and on a panel of similar date at Caelaverock Castle, Dumfries. Possibly they have evolved from Norse ancestors on more than one occasion in the past.

Type (a) has a heavily raked and rounded stem and stern and widely spaced heavy frames, is very Norwegian-looking and is presumably descended from West Norwegian imports during the 18th and 19th centuries. There is a drawing of one in McKee (the Barra Head Lighthouse tender). In the nineteenth century they were not restricted to the Outer Hebrides, where the few surviving examples can now be found. A number are clearly shown in a photograph of Martyr’s Bay, Iona dated 1856 (Paterson, 1986), and on a print of Tarbert, Loch Fyne in the author’s possession dating from the 1820’s. The larger, deeper and heavier Ness Sgoths developed from this type at the North end of Lewis. One of the Sgoths has been restored by the Ness Historical Association and John Macleod has built a modern replica by traditional methods (McKee).

Type (b) has a lightly raked and slightly rounded stem and stern, similar to the boats illustrated in the North Coast section of Washington Report on the Scottish Fisheries, and maybe originating from North Sutherland: the author has seen only two examples, both at Plockton in 1988, the small sailing skiff “Circe” and a much larger boat upside-down on the beach.

Group C. Half-decked sailing boats, sometimes rowed for short distances.

Again, there is little to distinguish these boats from the smaller type B apart from the possession of a small foredeck, and types B and C grade into one another so far as hull form, rig and construction are concerned.

C1. Transom-sterned Clyde smacks. These were the principal type of local boat involved in the Clyde herring fishing before the advent of the Loch Fyne skiffs in the second half of the last century. The traumatic change from drift netting to ring-netting, and hence from the smacks to skiffs that at first were much smaller, has been graphically described by Angus Martin. Small smacks were also used for all sorts of general purposes on the Clyde Estuary. They were clinker built with the stem almost straight to slightly rounded, a transom stern with moderate rake, deep draught aft and heavy construction. The half-decked boats were 18-30 ft long and mostly rigged as gaff sloops or cutters, although some of the  smaller boats carried lugsails. Probably none built as working boats now survive but many yachts were built on similar lines, though often finer, narrower, deeper and sometimes of carvel construction e.g. “Ayrshire Lass” about 1870. The Clyde restricted-class yachts of the 17/19, 19/24 and 23/30 ft classes evolved out of this type of boat in the 1890’s, but in the hands of designers like Fife and Mylne their hull shapes rapidly metamorphosed into something completely different. There are still some nice small clinker-built cruising yachts with more or less the original hull form, dating from around the turn of the century.

C2. The Loch Fyne skiffs. These are perhaps the best-known of all the small boats of the West Coast of Scotland, yet there is an urgent need for a good example to be preserved before they disappear. They were clinker-built at first, later carvel. The normal length increased to 30-34 feet early in their history but some examples were as small as 18 ft. McCaughan has discussed the evidence that, like the Manx nobbies and similar boats built in Ulster, they were derived at least in part from Cornish luggers following the West Coast herring fishing. The Loch Fyne skiffs are distinguished by a heavily raked (45^o) skiff stern and a nearly vertical stem with a well-rounded, shallow forefoot. They are very deep aft. Sometimes they are called Zulu skiffs because the profile is like the great Zulu luggers of the East Coast, but their origins and detailed hull shape are completely different. The Loch Fyne skiff has a much fuller stern above water, as full as type B3(a) but shouldered rather than semicircular at the gunwale. The maximum beam is slightly forward of amidships although the bow is quite fine at the waterline and the stem profile is more rounded than a true Zulu. Relative to the size of the boat the construction is much lighter than the Zulus. The Loch Fyne skiffs have a standing rather than dipping lug rig, with a large jib set on a longish bowsprit. They are well documented on paper, with published plans by P.J. Oke and others, but preservation is urgently needed. The Scottish Maritime Museum has a nice small skiff but it is not of the Loch Fyne type. There were plenty around a few years ago but they are decreasing very fast, like all small boats of the Southern half of the West Coast. There was a small carvel one in good condition at Ardrishaig about 1982. The yacht “Neighainn Donn” is a good example of a carvel skiff with the original rig. I know of none of the early clinker ones except one hidden in the trees at the head of Sailean Mor (Ardnackaig, between Crinan and Carsaig, Argyll), in a fairly disintegrated condition.

Group D. Decked sailing vessels.

It is a tragedy that there is not one survivor of all the little trading sailing vessels that kept the communities of the West Coast of Scotland in touch with the outside world. There are not even any detailed plans, although some documentation and good photographs have been collected by Simper. There is still room for some surveying work on the wrecks that exist now, but a little effort even a decade ago could have given us a fascinating heritage to preserve for the future.

Type D1. Trading smacks. 35-60 ft, with a straight stem and usually a counter stern. They had  moderate draught aft but with flat enough floors amidships to take the ground nearly upright, and heavy construction to make this possible. They were rigged as gaff cutters. Trading smacks were found everywhere but were particularly associated with the Isle of Arran, where the local museum has a good photographic record of their history. The wrecks of at least four smacks are decaying in the river mouth at Brodick, Arran, but only the centerline timbers and some of the lower frames and garboards are left.

D2. Trading ketches and small schooners. These were built in all sizes from about 45 ft upwards, and the larger vessels traded regularly to England and Ireland and sometimes overseas. They were often similar in hull form to the smacks but sometimes, especially in Ayrshire and Solway-built vessels, double-ended with a vertical stern, well rounded at the deck. Wrecks of a trading ketch survive at Wreck Bay, Kyles of Bute and of a schooner at Scarinish, Tiree, but not much is left of either. I have a photograph of the Scarinish vessel taken by my father in the 1930s when she was still intact.

D3. Gabbarts. The gabbarts were a unique Scottish type, quite similar in hull form to the puffers that replaced them; they were very full and double-ended, and had a great carrying capacity while remaining compact enough to pass through the locks of the Crinan and Forth and Clyde canals. Latterly, around the end of the nineteenth century, they were rigged as gaff sloops without bowsprit or topsail, but I have a print of one about 1830 with cutter rig, long bowsprit, tall topmast, squaresail and square topsail. Could they have evolved from a square-rigged type like the Humber keels? A large clinker-built vessel that looked like a gabbart was used as a lighter at Lochinver and was still intact about 1982, but not long after that she was moved when the pier was rebuilt and she disintegrated in the process. What is left of her is in a gully outside the pier. A lighter said to have originated as a gabbart was one of two or three boats laid up and later sunk opposite the S. end of Newshot Island, Erskine. They are partly visible at low water but the Clyde Port Authority does not permit access to them.

D4. Ferries. The Ferries used at the narrow crossings of Connel, Ballachulish and elsewhere until the 1960’s were directly descended from the type used prior to the introduction of engines and had a very  similar hull form. A turntable and wheelhouse were added with the machinery. The West Coast ferries were low, flat and full-ended, usually with counter stern although I think some may have been double-ended. Two are laid up at Stromeferry, Wester Ross. Very similar rowing ferries were used in Norway in the 1800’s. There are some photographs in Weir but not all are correctly captioned.

Partial Bibliography

Bowman, A.I. (1983) Kirkintilloch Shipbuilding. Strathkelvin District Libraries and Museums.

Charnley, B. (1994) Iona and Staffa via Oban. Clan Books.

Faeroyvik, B & Faeroyvik, O. (1979) Inshore Craft of Norway. Conway Maritime Press.

Gilchrist, I.G. (1946) Scenes and Sails in the Firth of Clyde. Windward Publications.

Gillies, F. (1992) Life with the Coal Tar. Famedram.

Gray, M. (1982) George Washington Wilson and the Scottish Fishing Industry. Aberdeen University Library.

Hamilton, F. (1986) Kipper House Tales. Michael House Press.

Johnson, R. And Thomas, A. (1985) Tarbert Lochfyne. The Story of the Fishermen. Ann Thomas Gallery

MacAulay, D. (1984) George Washington Wilson in the Hebrides. Aberdeen University Library.

MacDougall, D. (1994) As Long as Water Flows. Celtic House.

March, E.J. Inshore Craft of Britain in the Days of Sail and Oar. Vol. 2. David & Charles (1970).

March, E.J. Sailing Drifters. David & Charles (1969).

Martin, A. (1981) The Ring-Net Fishermen. John Donald.

McCaughan, M. (1978) Irish vernacular boats and their European connections. Ulster Folklife 24: 1-22.

McGrail, S. (ed.) Aspects of Maritime Archaeology and Ethnography. NMM 1984.

McKee, E. (1983) Working Boats of Britain. Conway Maritime Press.

Parsonage, G. (1990) Rescue his Business, the Clyde his Life. Glasgow City Libraries.

Preston, R. (1994) Days at the Coast. Stenlake, Ochiltree.

Simper, R. (1974) Scottish Sail, a Forgotten Era. David & Charles.

Weir, M. (1988) Ferries in Scotland. John Donald.

Weyndling, W. (1996) Ferry Tales of Argyll and the Isles. Sutton Publishing.