Scotland

° Aberdeen ° Dundee ° Edinburgh ° Glasgow ° Hebrides ° Inverness ° Shetland and Orkney Islands ° St. Andrews ° Unicorns

International Harbors

A story of Scotland by travel writer
Captain Edgar L. Wakeman, 1891

The recorded history of Scotland begins in the 1st century AD, when the Romans invaded Britain. The Romans added southern Britain to their empire as the province Britannia. They were unable, however, to subdue the fierce tribes in the north. To keep these tribes from invading Britannia, Emperor Hadrian had a massive wall built across the island from sea to sea. The Romans called the land north of the wall Caledonia, and they called the people Picts -- from the Latin piclus, meaning "painted" -- because they painted their bodies. Parts of Hadrian's Wall still stand on the Scottish border.

In the 5th century Celtic immigrants from Ireland, called Scots, settled north of the Clyde. The Scots were already Christians when they left Ireland. In the next century St. Columba converted the king of the Picts to Christianity. In the 9th century Kenneth MacAlpine, king of the Scots, added the Pictish kingdom to his own. In about the 10th century the land came to be known as Scotland.

The former Kingdom of Scotland (until 1603) is today one of the four constituent nations which form the United Kingdom, it occupies the northern third of the island of Great Britain.

The nation shares a land border to the south with England and is bounded by seas and oceans on all other sides. The country consists of a mainland area plus several island groups, including Shetland, Orkney, and the Hebrides.

Patriot, February 8, 1849, London, United Kingdom

CALIFORNIAN EMIGRATION. -- While the American papers state that the Califonia emigration mania has considerably subsided in the States, it is going ahead methodically with railway speed in England and Scotland. Last week, and the beginning of this, a barque was lying at the tail of the Bank, Greenock, bound for Valparaiso, with a cargo of goods and 150 passengers; the goods are to be landed at Valparaiso, and the passengers afterwards taken on to the gold-finding regions.

The principal part of the passengers are Latter-day Saints, going out to join their Mormon brethren in California, and there engage in the grand search for gold-dust on the Sacramento River, besides other matters connected with their peculiar doctrines. The passage money by this vessel is 25L., while that to Australia, double the distance, is 16L.

~ Scottish Guardian.

Dundee

Not for many years have the shipbuilding marine engineering trades been so depressed in Dundee as during the past year, and as regards the future the prospects are very gloomy. The year opened during the continuance of the strike at the various ship yards against a reduction of wages, and as the strike lasted for a considerable time, this to some extent accounts for the small aggregate tonnage of vessels built. But, apart from this, Dundee, like all other shipbuilding ports, had even before the beginning of the year begun to feel the dullness which was setting in in the shipbuilding trade, and which has since continued to increase until the yards may now be said to be practically empty. During the year twelve vessels, of an aggregate tonnage of 12,062, were put into the water, as compared with twenty-one vessels, with an aggregate tonnage of 25,276, in 1883, showing a decrease of nine vessels, or 13,215 tons. In the amount of work on hand the falling-off is much more alarming than at this time in 1884.

At that time our four shipbuilding firms had orders for eleven vessels, of 12,543 tons, while at pre sent they have only five vespels, of 3,755 tons, on hand, one of which, a sailing barque of 1,375 tons, is being built for sale. There is thus a falling off in the amount of work for 1885 as compared with the past year of six vessels, representing a tonnage of 8,788. Of the vessels launched six have been of steel of 9,259 tons, and six of iron of 2,813 tons ; while of the vessels on hand there are three of steel of 2,365 tons, one of iron of 710 tons, and one of wood of 710 tons. The past year has also witnessed an unusual depression in the marine engineering trade of Dundee, this department continuing naturally in thorough sympathy with the state of the shipbuilding industry at the port. During the year three firms have turned out fifteen pairs of engines of 1,980 nominal horse-power, against twentyseven pairs of 3,870 horBe-power of last year. At the present time two firms have on hand seven pairs of engines of 66 horse-power. Twelve months ago there were on hand fourteen pairs of engines of 1,935 horse-power, so that the prospect for the coming year is far from bright.

Edinburgh

London, April 29th. The Lord Mayor gave a ball and banquet tonight. Among the guests were tbe Prince and Princess of Wales and Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh. The city is brilliantly illuminated.

January 21, 1885

A Collection for Scotland.

M. E. Mather, who has been a life-member of the Royal Agricultural Society of England for fifteen years and has studied farming in all its branches in England, Scotland and Germany, is going home to Edinburgh on business and is taking a complete collection to be exhibited at the office of J. &. H. Lindsay, 81 Princes street, Edinburgh, who do a large shipping business, and who are the Scotch agents of California. Mr. Mather has taken a homestead in the foothills twelve miles due west of Lancaster, in Antelope valley, Los Angeles county, and thinks there is no reason why. it shonld not eventually be brought to as high a state of cultivation as the older parts of the State.

February 5, 1888

High Prices for Old Wines. London Truth.

A well-known private cellar of wines was sold at Edinburgh on Saturday, and some very high prices were realized. Lafitte of 1864 went at 135s per dozen, Margaux of 1870 at 130s, Latour of 1864 at 240s, Haunt Brion of 1870 at 110s, Perriet-Jouet of 1865 at 240s, and Dagonet of 1874 at 120s.

Glasgow

In 1768 a sequence of dykes was built along the Clyde River in Glasgow narrowing the channel and greatly increasing the flow of water, which in turn scoured the bed and deepened the river. The Clyde’s entry into the world of shipbuilding could begin and The Comet Europe’s first sea-going steam ship was launched at Port Glasgow in 1812.

CLYDEBUILT is an expression from the days when Scotland was the greatest shipbuilding nation on earth and was once a byword for quality, synonymous with solidity and reliability. The banks of the Clyde from Greenock to Glasgow were lined with shipyards, where tens of thousands of men built great ocean liners and warships, towers of steel rising majestically against the sparkling waters of the west coast.

The Pride Of The Ocean: Cutty Sark
Montague Dawson

The Cutty Sark was designed by the Glasgow firm of Scott and Linton and launched at Dumbarton; its design incorporated the midship attributes of Firth of Forth fishing boats, creating a hull shape stronger than any before it and allowing the ship to take more sails and be driven harder than almost any other clipper. In the late nineteenth century theCutty Sark become one of the fastest sail-ships in the world, making record times between Britain and Australia.

March 17, 1893, IRON, London, United Kingdom

The Glasgow warrant market has been quiet on the whole, and after a little spurt prices have gone back again; the business is of a somewhat jobbing nature, and it would seem as if very few outside orders were being executed; if the market should fall to about 40s. or less there would probably be more investment buying, but there is still an uncertainty as to the holding of the socalled London syndicate. . . . Hematite warrants are still neglected and unchanged in price. . . . Makers' iron is also quiet, with an easier tendency in prices, but we are now entering the spring shipping season when more ought to be doing, and already the shipments for Italy and Australia are improving.

A new era was around the corner, and the dawning of the twentieth century saw the Clyde shipyards producing a new generation of ocean liners; ships like the SS Persia and the Lusitania.

Shipyards and Shipping on the Clyde
V. Dutertre.

The Persia was built at Greenock in 1900. She clocked in at 500 feet in length, weighed over 8,000 tonnes and could achieve a maximum speed of over 30 MPH; speed and tonnage which eclipsed anything achieved by wooden sailboats like the Cutty Sark. ThePersia herself was to be dwarfed only six years later by a new ship under construction on the Clyde. When the Lusitania was launched in the summer of 1906 she became the largest ship afloat: almost eight hundred feet long and weighing 31,550 gross tonnes she was designed to be the last word in speed and luxury offering passengers a swift trip across the Atlantic in five star comfort.

In May 1915 the Lusitania was on her way back from New York, and had the coastline of Ireland within sight, when she was torpedoed by the German U-Boat U-20. The great ship went down in 18 minutes, taking 1,195 lives with her; among them were 123 Americans and the tragedy undoubtedly hastened US entry into WWI. Then, just six months later, on the day before New Year’s Eve 1915, the SS Persia was sailing 71 miles south east of Crete when at 1.10 pm, just as many of the passengers were sitting down to lunch she was struck on the port bow by a German torpedo. Minutes later the port boiler exploded and the ship sank so rapidly that only four of her lifeboats escaped. 334 of the 500 passengers went with the ship to the bottom of the Mediterranean ten thousand feet below, along with a great quantity of gold and jewels belonging to the Maharaja Jagatiji Singh.

By the end of the 1920’s one of the next generation of liners, and one of the most iconic vessels in history, was under construction at John Brown’s shipyards in Clydebank, Glasgow. At over one thousand feet in length, weighing in at 80,000 tonnes, and with a top speed of over 30 knots, the Queen Mary would dwarf the ships that had gone before her and reassert Britain’s dominance of the Blue Riband.

Iron, February 28, 1890, London, United Kingdom

Orkney Islands

May 31, 1892, Cedar Rapids Evening Gazette, Cedar Rapids, Iowa, USA

A Mermaid on View.

A strange story of the mermaid comes from Birscay, Orkney. The other day a farmer's wife was down at the seashore there and observed a strange marine animal sitting on the rocks.

As it would not move she went for her husband. When she returned with her better half they both saw the animal clambering among the rocks, about four feet of, it being above water.

The woman, who had a splendid view of it, described it as "a good looking person," while the man says it was "a woman covered over with brown hair." At last the couple tried to get hold of it, when it took a header into the sea and disappeared. The man is confident he has seen the fabled mermaid, but people in the district are of opinion that the animal must belong to the seal tribe. An animal of similar description was seen by several people at Sheerness two years ago.

---

The Seven Celtic Nations

The seven original Celtic Nations:

• Eire (Ireland): Ireland is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island in the world. A Norman invasion in the Middle Ages gave way to a Gaelic Resurgence in the 13th century.
• Galicia (Spain): Galacia is in northwest Spain, and descends from one of the first tribes of Celtic heritage in Europe. The name Galicia comes from the Latin name Gallaecia, associated with the name of the ancient Celtic tribe that resided above the Douro river.
• Kernow (Cornwall): Cornwall forms the tip of the south-western peninsula of Great Britain. It was occupied in the Iron Age by Celts. Cornwall was a division of the Dumnonii tribe—whose tribal centre was in the modern county of Devon.
• Mannin (Isle of Man): The Isle of Man is located in the Irish Sea between the islands of Great Britain and Ireland, within the British Isles. It began to be influenced by Gaelic culture in the AD 5th century and the Manx language, a branch of the Gaelic languages.
• Breizh (Brittany): Brittany occupies a large peninsula in the north west of France. Its land area is 34,023 km² (13,136 sq mi). After the Neolithic period, Brittany became home to several different Celtic tribes.
• Alba (Scotland): Alba is the Scottish-Gaelic name for Scotland. It occupies the northern third of Great Britain and it includes over 790 islands. Groups of settlers began building the first known permanent houses on Scottish soil around 9,500 years ago, and the first villages around 6,000 years ago.
• Cymru (Wales): During the Iron Age and early medieval period, Wales was inhabited by the Celtic Britons. A distinct Welsh national identity emerged in the centuries after the Roman withdrawal from Britain in the 5th century, and Wales is regarded as one of the modern Celtic nations today.

The history of the Celtic cross goes back to a time before the Christian conversion of Scotland, Ireland and Wales. It’s believed by some that the four arms of the cross represents the four elements, earth, air, fire and water. They also represent the four directions of the compass, North, South, East and West. And finally the four parts of man, mind, soul, heart and body. The horizontal line of the cross symbolizes earth and the vertical portion symbolizes heaven.

Sources: The Celtic Crier, Gaelic Forge

---

1899. World's Fleet. Boston Daily Globe

Lloyds Register of Shipping gives the entire fleet of the world as 28,180 steamers and sailing vessels, with a total tonnage of 27,673,628, of which 39 perent are British.

Great Britain	10,990 vessels, total tonnage of 10,792,714
United States	3,010 vessels, total tonnage of 2,405,887
Norway	2,528 vessels, tonnage of 1,604,230
Germany	1,676 vessels, with a tonnage of 2,453,334, in which are included her particularly large ships.
Sweden	1,408 vessels with a tonnage of 643, 527
Italy	1,150 vessels
France	1,182 vessels

For Historical Comparison
Top 10 Maritime Nations Ranked by Value (2017)

	Country	# of Vessels	Gross Tonnage (m)	Total Value (USDbn)
1	Greece	4,453	206.47	$88.0
2	Japan	4,317	150.26	$79.8
3	China	4,938	159.71	$71.7
4	USA	2,399	55.92	$46.5
5	Singapore	2,662	64.03	$41.7
6	Norway	1,668	39.68	$41.1
7	Germany	2,923	81.17	$30.3
8	UK	883	28.78	$24.3
9	Denmark	1,040	36.17	$23.4
10	South Korea	1,484	49.88	$20.1
Total		26,767	87.21	$466.9