Ardrossan - On This Day In History

Published stories from each town's past.
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Re: Ardrossan - On This Day In History

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GLASGOW HERALD
13 JANUARY 1937

WEST OF SCOTLAND SNOOKER CHAMPIONSHIP

E. McLeod, Elderslie, was compelled through illness to scratch to J. CUNNINGHAM (Ardrossan), who goes forward to the second round.
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Re: Ardrossan - On This Day In History

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GLASGOW HERALD
14 JANUARY 1901

ROYAL NATIONAL LIFEBOAT INSTITUTION

The annual meeting of the Ardrossan Committee of this institution was held on Saturday afternoon in the offices of Messrs John Emslie & Guthrie, solicitors.

The annual report, submitted by the honorary secretary, Mr. Thomas Guthrie, contained a reference to the service rendered by the lifeboat on 8th November last, when the steamship EMILY, of Chester, went ashore on the Longcraigs, and the crew were successfully brought off.

Reference was also made to the death of Mr. Emslie, who acted as honorary secretary for many years.

The financial statement showed an increase in the funds, and particularly in the amount of subscriptions received.

It was agreed to remit the sum of £30 to the parent institution.
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Re: Ardrossan - On This Day In History

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GLASGOW HERALD
14 JANUARY 1902

GENERAL SHIPPING ITEM

The BIDASSOA, which was lately stranded on the rocks on the west coast of Bute has been successfully floated by the British Marine Salvage Company, and taken to Greenock for repair.

The salvage operations were under the superintendence of Mr. John Templeton, Ardrossan.
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Re: Ardrossan - On This Day In History

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GLASGOW HERALD
14 JANUARY 1903

STEAMER STRANDED OFF ARDROSSAN

The steamer RACHAEL, of Glasgow, struck Eagle Rock, off the coast of Ardrossan, during a heavy fog yesterday afternoon.

The RACHAEL came from Troon, and was on her way to Greenock for cargo.

Eagle Rock is situated about a quarter of a mile off Ardrossan, but so dense was the fog that the vessel could not be seen, and it was not for some considerable time after the vessels truck that the mishap became known at Ardrossan.

The captain and crew are safe, and the vessel is reported to be only slightly damaged.

The vessel is said to have a carrying capacity of about 100 tons. It is expected that it will be floated at high tide.
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Re: Ardrossan - On This Day In History

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GLASGOW HERALD
14 JANUARY 1905

BIRTH

DOW: At the Constabulary Station, Ardrossan, on the 12th instant, to Mr. and Mrs. Dow; a son.
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Re: Ardrossan - On This Day In History

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GLASGOW HERALD
15 JANUARY 1895

Sir,

THE ARDROSSAN LIFEBOAT

Mr. George B. Main, in his letter in your issue of the 12th instant, appears to be so anxious to disparage the crew, the inquiry, the officials of the Lifeboat Institution, the officials and committee of the local branch, the harbourmaster, the captain of the Glen Rosa, and the Provost of Ardrossan, and has made such misleading and inaccurate statements, that, as honorary secretary of the local branch, I feel called upon to trouble you with a reply.

From what Mr. Main says of the crew it might be inferred that they lacked bravery and made no strenuous endeavour to reach the wreck. Now this is nonsense. A number of the men are constantly engaged in smallboat work here, attended with no little danger, and the coxswain, Captain Murphy, has to his record the saving in a ship’s boat, in the Bay of Biscay, a vessel’s crew, sustaining a permanent injury at the time. For his bravery on that occasion he was awarded a medal and a sum of money from the Board of Trade.

Braver men then he and the crew he had with him on the occasion of the wreck of the LOVEN you will find nowhere, and that they should be branded as otherwise by an ignorant critic is unbearable.

The work asked them to try and accomplish was arduous and dangerous, as lifeboat service usually is – witness the occurrence with the Irvine lifeboat the other day. They battled under oar and sail in the teeth of the storm, and in narrow waters, for fully an hour to get round to the north end of the north breakwater, their object being to get to windward of the wreck, but failed as the Troon neighbours did in somewhat similar circumstances a week later.

By the way, it is strange that the failure of the Ardrossan boat has been so much in the mouth of the public and that of the Troon boat so little. Having failed, they came to anchor in the expectation of getting the assistance of the tug, which, so far as they could observe, was about ready.

The coxswain has been faulted for not making a trial under sail out of the south end of the breakwater. His critics have had no experience of the place, while he, in his capacity of pilot here, has much; and it was his opinion that to have ventured in that direction would have been to court destruction to the boat and its crew on the rocks south of the lighthouse.

So much for the crew; and now about the inquiry. Who initiated it? Mr. Main should have made himself aware that it was the Local Committee, seconded by the parent institution; and there is no excuse for his not knowing, or concealing, that the public were invited by advertisement to come to it and give evidence; that Captain Graham, whose conduct of the inquiry was admirable, asked at the beginning of it that questions should be put through him; and Mr. Main is guilty of a gross misstatement in saying that the public were prohibited from either submitting or asking any questions and were therefore wholly unrepresented, and that the witnesses consisted of the lifeboat crew, the fact being that six of the witnesses had no connection whatever with the lifeboat.

He errs too, when he minimises the distance of the wreck from the harbour to be within shouting distance, it being nearly three-quarters of a mile away, and likewise he errs in saying that the harbourmaster, Mr. Shields, has charge of the lifeboat. Captain Shields, however, was most assiduous in giving all the assistance he could on the occasion to the coxswain who has charge, and together they conferred with me, as honorary secretary of the lifeboat branch and manager of the harbour, not deputy harbourmaster, as Mr. Main puts it, on what might be attempted in the way of lifeboat assistance so soon as it was observed that there were men to rescue from the wreck. For the harbourmaster I have to say that his zeal to assist the boat with the tug that was locked in the Old Dock could not have been exceeded.

For Captain Williamson, of the Glasgow & South-Western steamers, I take it that the master of the Glen Rosa has given him very good reasons for his attitude as regards that vessel’s boat on this occasion.

And for the Provost of Ardrossan, it is but right to mention that, in the capacity of chairman of the Lifeboat Committee, the other day, he was made aware that the Lifeboat Institution was likely to make an award to the crew of the small boat. £9 has been awarded them since – and it was also then resolved that each member of the committee should be provided with a sheet to try and get subscriptions for them.

To the public and subscribers – I think it due to say that the parent institution has placed a splendid boat here; that the local committee, a large and representative one, did, with the institution, most carefully consider when the boat was sent how it could be best utilised; and that they were convinced that the conditions here are such that, without the assistance of the tug, the service of the boat in a storm will he attended with great and possibly insurmountable difficulties, as it was on the recent occasion. I go further, and say that in violent storms, when people are being blown off their feet, it may be quite impossible to render lifeboat service even with the tug.

I have to add that Captain Graham intimated at the close of the inquiry that the institution would consider if a small auxiliary boat should be added to the branch to meet an emergency, and that if this is done it may be possible to handle the smaller boat when the larger one cannot be used.

The ideal lifeboat is a powerful steam one, always afloat, with a crew in frequent exercise at call. To make this realisable the public have to subscribe to the funds more liberally than is done, or the Government will have to take the work in hand. Until this happens opprobrium should not be showered on brave men when they fail to render assistance from no fault of theirs, or on officials and a committee who, besides subscribing to the funds of the institution, have for years given gratuitous service to what, in spite of occasional failures, they feel to be a noble cause.

I am &c.
JOHN CRAIG.
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Re: Ardrossan - On This Day In History

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GLASGOW HERALD
15 JANUARY 1898

NEW LIFEBOAT FOR ARDROSSAN

The annual business meeting of the local branch was held in the Eglinton Arms Hotel, Ardrossan, yesterday afternoon. Mr. John Craig, Ardrossan Harbour (Chairman of the Branch), presided.

Mr. Emslie, solicitor, secretary and treasurer, submitted his annual reports, which were found satisfactory.

The financial report showed that the income of the branch to be considerably in excess of any other in Ayrshire.

Mention was made of the probability of a more powerful lifeboat being placed on the station, it having been found that during hurricane weather the lifeboat at this station depends upon the assistance of the tugboat.

It was stated that what was wanted in Ardrossan was a good sea-boat that would be able to boat out of the harbour against strong headwinds.
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Re: Ardrossan - On This Day In History

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GLASGOW HERALD
15 JANUARY 1900

Sir,

THE WAR – BRITISH LOSSES

From time to time you publish statements of the killed, wounded, and missing – now about 8000, of whom about one-half are wounded. We learn today that before Colonel Dick Cunnyngham received his fatal injury he was twice wounded, and I presume he was twice entered in the list of wounded.

How many of the wounded recover? They have the best medical advice, nursing, and applications, and it would not surprise me if at least three-fourths of them recover and return to duty.

The numbers can be ascertained from the books kept, and it would be well if the list, with names, could be published.

Why not?

I am &c.,
T.K.
Ardrossan.
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Re: Ardrossan - On This Day In History

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GLASGOW HERALD
15 JANUARY 1903

STRIKE AT ARDROSSAN HARBOUR

The strike of labourers at Ardrossan Harbour continued yesterday. Some of the strikers have expressed themselves in favour of accepting the Harbour Company’s terms regarding gratuity for overtime on Saturdays, but any stop in this direction is vigorously resisted by others, who hold that if they yield on that point they are giving away their whole case, as the strike originated over a quarrel about gratuity.

The men are unanimous in thinking they are entitled to an additional halfpenny per ton for transferring ore from the ground to waggons, and it has been suggested that a deputation be formed for the purpose of discussing the matter with the Harbour Company.
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Re: Ardrossan - On This Day In History

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GLASGOW HERALD
15 JANUARY 1906

DEATH

ALLAN: At Parkhouse, Ardrossan, on the 12th instant, Robert Allan, farmer, in his 70th year.
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Re: Ardrossan - On This Day In History

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GLASGOW HERALD
15 JANUARY 1908

ARDROSSAN UNITED FREE PRESBYTERY

At a special meeting of the Ardrossan United Free Presbytery was held at Ardrossan yesterday afternoon – Rev. G. McMurray Ross, Dalry, presiding – to consider the appeal on behalf of the dispossessed congregations.

After discussion it was agreed, on the motion of the Rev. R. M. Adamson, to record their hearty adherence to the resolution passed by the General Assembly in 1905, 1906, and 1907 with respect to the obligation resting upon the Church at large to aid in the providing of dispossessed congregations with necessary buildings, and a committee was appointed to devise proper means of bringing that before the congregation.

It was also agreed that a deputation from the Special Buildings Committee be asked to attend at the next meeting of the Presbytery, and that the office-bearers throughout the Presbytery be also invited to be present at the meeting.
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Re: Ardrossan - On This Day In History

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GLASGOW HERALD
15 JANUARY 1909

DEATH

CAMPBELL: On the 13th instant, Jane Niven Smith, aged 63, widow of James Campbell, writer, Saltcoats. Funeral on Saturday, 16th instant, at 2.15 p.m. from Lauriston, Ardrossan.
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