Oban Times From Our Files - 26.12.24

TWENTY FIVE YEARS AGO

Thursday December 23, 1999

Islands’ lifeline air service grounded

 

Islanders on Tiree and Barra have been left high and dry without mail or newspapers after their lifeline air service was grounded.

 

A combination of bad weather and technical problems with the Twin Otter aircraft has recently plagued the service.

 

The ageing aircraft operates on the route as it is suitable for Barra’s beach landing strip.

 

Tiree resident Fiona MacLeod said: ‘We’re trying to run a small business here and we don’t know where to turn to. This has been going on for a long time but in the last few days it has got beyond a joke.’

 

She added: ‘Because there are so many technical problems, people are getting frightened to use the plane.

 

Mrs MacLeod said islanders wanted a plane that worked and adhered to a proper timetable. ‘We just don’t know when, or if, it is going to arrive.’

 

Community chairwoman Mabel Macarthur said there had been ‘tremendous technical problems’. 

 

She said that islanders hoped matters would improve when the contract was renewed as Tiree and Barra will no longer have a joint service.

 

‘It has been dreadful for the last few years, she said.

 

Ivor Robertson, customer services manager for operators Loganair, said the airline had done its best to minimise disruption by laying on alternative planes to Tiree when the Twin Otter was out of service.

 

He stressed that there was still life in the Twin Otter which he said was ‘incredibly reliable’ for a single aircraft operating on a route.

 

Mr Robertson said that, although Tiree was suitable for a conventional aircraft there were not many available of the appropriate size, other than the Twin Otter.

 

‘Clearly we can’t hold the whole of a Twin Otter in bits in a store and from time to time there will be bits which are not available and we have to source them from other areas,’ he said. 

SEVENTY FIVE YEARS AGO

Saturday December 24,1949

Trawlers reach open for repairs in aftermath of the gales

 

In the gathering gloom of Tuesday evening three trawlers steamed into Oban. All three had been at sea during the gales of Sunday and Monday and all were damaged in some way. 

 

First came the Fleetwood trawler, Andradite, next the Milfordhaven trawler, Milford Viscount, and finally another Milfordhaven boat, the Milford King. 

 

Skipper Lloyd of the Andradite said: ‘I have been at sea for 2l years and during that time I consider that I have seen some rough weather, but never before have I seen anything like the seas we went through over the weekend. I was 42 hours on the bridge without once coming down for rest. 

 

‘We had been going towards St. Kilda to fish when the weather got really bad and we turned meaning to take shelter in Tobermory Bay.

 

‘The seas were breaking over us all the time and I could only see ahead for a few seconds at a time before the spray blotted out everything.

 

‘The deck sprang a leak and to make matters worse at the same time our pump broke down and I had to have the men down in the fish holds bailing out by hand with buckets. I calculate we bailed over 2,000 buckets.

 

‘When we finally reached Tobermory Bay it was little better. We dropped anchor and sixty fathoms of cable but still she would hold. The ship would be still for perhaps a minute and then I would feel her dragging astern. Altogether we had to weigh and drop anchor six times.

 

‘The spray was so bad that I could not see the anchor party on the bows from the bridge and a man had to stand half-way to relay my orders. When the anchor was up I had to go full ahead and even then she barely moved forward, although normally that would give us a speed of 12 knots.

 

‘We are in Oban to have the deck repaired. The pump is alright now having been repaired by the ship’s engineers.’

 

The Milford Viscount’s captain, Skipper Clark, who, by coincidence, has also been 21 years at sea, said: ‘I have never seen any weather to compare with the weekend.

 

During the worst of it we were struggling off Barra Head. Practically every fitting on the upper deck has been lost and a complete trawl (110 feet of net) was swept over the side from a bracket about 20 feet above the waterline and tangled in the propeller. We are in Oban to have this removed by diver.’

 

Skipper Beckett of the Milford King, had a similar tale to tell. 

 

‘I have not been at sea as long as the other two skippers but with me also it is the worst weather I have ever seen.  I consider that all three of us are very lucky to have managed to weather it. There were times when I was sure we could not last and that the ship would break her back.

 

‘My ship developed a list and to try to straighten her I had the hands down below trimming the coal to one side but even that did not help much. We, too, lost a lot of gear from the upper deck and half a trawl was swept overboard and tangled in the screw.  Like the Viscount we require attention from a diver.’

 

The Milford Viscount is two years old and one of the latest type of trawler. In the fish holds there is refrigeration plant which will keep catches fresh for three months if necessary. There are shower baths for the men and throughout the ship is ventilated by electric fans and warmed by electric and steam heaters. She carries direction-finding equipment and four echo-sounding depths instruments. 

 

The Milford Viscount’s run is to St. Kilda and her sister ship, the Milford Duke, to the Canary Islands.

 

Severe storm strikes West Coast

 

Since Tuesday Burgh workmen have been employed clearing up the wreckage along the Esplanade caused by one of the worst storms to be experienced in Oban in living memory.

 

It is estimated that damage to municipal property will be in the region of £1,000 though that figure may well be increased when a fuller and more detailed assessment is made.

 

The damage to private property from broken windows, broken slates and smashed rhones is expected to amount to many hundreds of pounds.

 

The full severity of the gale was felt in Oban about 5 o’clock on Monday morning.

 

The wind which had sprung up a few hours before was then at its height.

 

Huge seas pounded the Esplanade, which with the high tide and the wind blowing from the southwest was awash from end to end. In places the water was two feet deep on the roadway, and the Fire Brigade were called out to pump water from houses in Alexandra Place, which were flooded. Another call was received from the Station Hotel.

 

The spray, as waves dashed on to the sea wall, was driven over the tops of the buildings and householders even in the upper flats were kept busy mopping up the water that was being driven into their houses through shuttered windows.

 

Two large metal buoys which had been swept from their moorings in the bay were washed on to the Esplanade and came to rest on the grass at the end of Columba Terrace.

 

They struck the iron railings in front of the Great Western Hotel, smashing them as if they were made of match wood. A gangway was blown from the North Pier and smashed on the seawall at the Corran.

 

A 15 foot wooden pile torn from the North Pier was later found at Dunollie bay, where a huge metal tank had also been cast ashore.

 

The previous night it had been on the shore at Ardentrieve Bay, Kerrera.

 

At Port Beg six small boats were severely damaged, and two boats belonging to Mr John McDonald, boat builder, were lost.

 

When daylight came the scene Esplanade was one of desolation. The wind had only abated very slightly, and waves were still breaking over the seawall, sending huge showers of spray across the roadway, which was a covered tangle of seaweed and wreckage.

 

In front of the Great Western Hotel a hundred yards of the railing had been smashed, and most of it was lying on the roadway. Here the seaweed was at least two feet thick in places and by the garden wall of the hotel lay a dead sheep. It is presumed that it had been blown into the sea somewhere along the Sound of Kerrera, and washed ashore over the Esplanade by the high seas.

 

Around it were pieces of driftwood, broken planking from small boats, an oar, branches of trees, and other jettison.

 

Other dead sheep were found washed up along the coast. 

 

A five foot concrete block, which forms the platform to one of the stairways to the shore, was lifted from its setting by the force of the sea and moved several inches. The seawall does not appear to have been undermined, but several large pieces of concrete were wrenched from the parapet and thrown across the road-way. 

 

At the Corran strips of Macadam were lifted by the high wind from the verge of the roadway and blown away. The pavement surface opposite Chalmers’ Tweed Warehouse was undermined by the wind and the water.

 

At Ganavan three groups of the bathing boxes were smashed, and one set had been blown from its foundation. Part of the beach at the north end has been badly damaged by the storm, which has removed much of the sand and left in its place a mass of shingle and stones. On two occasions during the day trees blocked the Ganavan road, but were quickly removed.

 

In the town considerable damage was done to house property, and many slates were reported to have been loosened or blown away, and many chimney cans broken. In George Street a plate glass window was smashed in the grocer’s shop of A. M. Porter Ltd., and on the opposite side of the road a large number of tiles were stripped from the roof of the Cinema House. A window in the former St Columba Church was broken. A number of wooden and corrugated palings were blown down, and a large lean-to shed at the corner of Burnbank Terrace, opposite the Burnbank Hotel, was completely demolished.

 

About eight o’clock in the morning the water supply in parts of the town was interrupted for a short time through debris blown into loch by the wind blocking the outlet pipes.

 

During the morning William Goodbrand (77), Dalintart Drive, an elderly roadman, who was working on the Esplanade, was injured when he was blown off his feet with a strong gust of wind. He was conveyed to West Highland Hospital suffering from a dislocated shoulder.

ONE HUNDRED YEARS AGO

Saturday December 27, 1924

Oban Parish Church choir social

 

Oban Parish Church Choir held their annual social gathering in Kennedy’s Tearooms on Friday evening, 5th inst. Theme was a full turnout of the Choir and friends.

 

Among those present were Rev. Hector and Mrs Cameron, Mr David Stewart and Mrs Stewart,  Duncan Cameron and Mrs Cameron, Mr and Mrs Walter Ness and Mr J. B. Lawson. 

 

The company that filled the hall enjoyed to the full the varied programme of dances which occupied most of the evening; Mr. Angus Sinclair was an able and genial M.C., while a most efficient band under Miss Campbell provided the best of music. 

 

Tea was served at intervals during the evening, and the service left nothing to be desired.

 

In the course of the proceedings Rev. Mr Cameron, on behalf of the Managers and Choir members, handed to Mr Stewart a handsome mahogany clock on which was the following inscription: ‘Presented to Mr David Stewart by the Managers and Choir members of Oban Parish Church, December 5th, 1921.’ In making the presentation Mr Cameron said Mr Stewart had put the congregation under a lasting obligation by giving his services as organist freely and gratuitously as well as teaching the Choir during the vacancy. 

 

This was by no means the first time that Mr Stewart had kindly served them, and he had promised that if the occasion arose it would not be the last.

 

He (Mr Cameron) assured Mr Stewart that the best wishes of the congregation, and particularly of the Managers and the Choir, went with him.

 

Mr Stewart in accepting the gift said the work he had done was truly a pleasure to him, more especially since they were such a warm-hearted, kindly and agreeable people.

 

He need not tell them that he would cherish their beautiful gift. It was actually his first public presentation, and that itself enhanced its value. He was very grateful to them all and especially to Mr Cameron for his kind words.