An early success for Operation Groundtruth came on 3rd August 2002
with the discovery of the intact wreck of an 80ft "Zulu"
class sailing fishing vessel off Foyers.
This was identified by
ROV as the Banff registered "Pansy" (BF 1327) built in
1903 and although the owner's family have been found, there is no
record of how the vessel sank in Loch Ness.
In 1909 she was one
of the first of the Whitehills boats to be fitted with a 48hp Thornycroft
auxiliary motor. Fifty people came aboard to see the results of
her trial run. However, the motor had banished the crew to the bows
of the boat and a contemporary account records complaints that they
"suffered a good deal from excessive ventilation during the
winter owing to the foremast projecting through the forecastle and
leaving a big aperture when lowered, as is always done when the
boat is riding to her nets!"
The top picture was taken at
Tobermory in 1911 and shows the owner James Lovie and his crew including
his son Peter. It was Peter's grandson David who provided us with
the photograph in 2003 at which time his own son and grandson were
still fishing from Whitehills.
This page copyright Shine, LNP
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