Archie's Love Of Sea
PAINTER Archie Robertson of Ardrossan is staying in touch with his first love - the sea! For 75-year-old Archie has been painting seascapes ever since retiring from a life spent on board ship. He was employed on the Irvine tug "Garnock" for over 19 years and previous to that had been in the merchant navy sailing the Mediterranean and North Seas. From his home at 1 Weir Road, he told the 'Centre Page': "I used to paint when I was at sea.
Very few artists that I know seem to have a knowledge of the outline of a ship. As that was my life's work I started doing seascapes." In the 13 years since his retiral he has painted almost 60 pictures, all featuring the sea in some shape or form, and as a member of Cunningham Arts Club has sold his works through various local exhibitions. He has been known to get "lost when he is in the middle of creating something in oils on canvas. So what does he get out of his painting? "A person has to do something when they are retired. If you don't the next stop is the bath chair!"
Thanks Bonzo, Below is part of the story from that site about the explosion under the tug back in the 1980s - there is more details at the site you mentioned. Archie Robertson's son-in-law, Bob Slessor up in Brisbane shared the cutting. I'd imagine there would be a wealth of such information in all those old ICI newspapers that would interest locals. I see it was Published for the ICI in Ardrossan by Arthur Guthrie, publishers of the Ardrossan and Saltcoats Herald.
One of the jobs that the ship had was to dump boxes of expired nitroglycerine explosives in the deep water channel west of Ardrossan. While doing this in February 1984 there was a serious incident that ended the ship’s working life. Unknown to the crew, a box of the explosives had drifted back under the stern and when the engines were started up to move off, the propeller smashed into the box causing a large explosion under the water.
These regular NG dumping procedures were called "drownings" and the channel was closer to Arran than Ardrossan. I was in Nobel's at the time and close to the people who organised vessel movements but have no recollection at all of this incident.
meekan wrote: ↑Mon Jul 04, 2022 9:33 am
An oral history of local maritime events can be found on Irvine maritime museums u tube channel including the explosion on ICI tug “ Garnock”
