Scottish Flotsam from the Hebrides

I imagine the first question anyone will ask is what is a column called "Scottish Flotsam". I guess we will have to begin with what is "flotsam". According to the among the definitions of the word are "things washed ashore" or "miscellaneous trifles". Well, we believe you can find some great treasure on the ocean shore. But -- you will never know what you will find or its value. So we decided that is what this column is - flotsam. We wanted a place to put things that didn't fit anywhere else and might be of interest. Each item could be a column itself and might be some day but for now it will be the flotsam which washes our way.

LOCH SUNART'S FLOATING PULPIT Ships, ships, ships. So many mighty and magnificent vessels have undergone their baptism rites along the banks of the Clyde, but surely none was more outlandish than the floating church of Loch Sunart. The last living link with the strange vessel was broken in November 1949, with the death, at the age of 88, of crofter Alexander Macphee.

After the Church of Scotland split apart in the Disruption of 1843, many landowners denied property or potential building-sites to those thousands who had opted for the breakaway church. This was the situation at Ardnamurchan in Argyll where Sir James Riddell refused to have anything to do with the Free Kirk. As a result, there were regular open-air gatherings - winter and summer - at Strontian with congregations of 500 and upwards, and in excess of 2,000 attendants for the summer Communion.

Eventually, the worshippers raised Ł1,400 and launched an incredibly imaginative plan. Shipbuilders in Port Glasgow were commissioned to build a vessel, a timber frame on an iron hull, complete with pulpit, vestry, gallery and packed mews. After construction it was towed around the Mull of Kintyre and headed north to Loch Sunart.

Ironically, the most suitable anchorage lay directly under the windows of Sir James's mansion, but tactfully, it was decided to use a mooring a couple of miles along the shore.

Inside the vessel there was seating for 750 worshippers, and for ten years rowing-boats conveyed the congregation to and from services. It was said that for every hundred worshippers the church sank an inch in the water so an accurate count of the churchgoers was always available.

It was finally blown ashore in a storm but remained in use for some time thereafter. It was on board the floating church of Loch Sunart that old Alexander Macphee had been baptised.

Among those who greeted Bonnie Prince Charlie on his arrival in Scotland at the start of the 1745 Uprising, was the Gaelic poet and Ardnamurchan school-teacher, Alasdair Macmhaighstir Alasdair. His employers at the Society for Propagating Christian Knowledge, which ran the Ardnamurchan school, didn't see his patriotism in favourable light and sacked him.

View from the Pew

When John McVicar, preacher at Inveraray in Argyll, found he was unable to persuade large numbers of his congregation to embrace the Reformed faith he struck on the neat idea of a double-bowled stone font. In one he baptised Presbyterian members of his flock, while the other contained holy water for those who had kept to the old faith.

Front pews were highly prized in the Dumbarton church of the Revd James Oliphant who was famed for his asides during scripture reading. His classic came during the reading of a passage on Peter who was declaring he had given up everything to follow Christ. Oliphant muttered, 'Aye boasting, Peter, aye bragging - what had ye to leave but a crazy boat and maybe three rotten nets?' Bishop Robert Leighton, an Edinburgh-born cleric, had often said he would like to die in a public house. Unlike most folk he got his wish pegging out in The Bell in London's Warwick Lane in 1684. So popular was the original version of Dr Finlay's Casebook in the 1960s, that the Church of Scotland considered rescheduling evening services to avoid a clash.

What are some of the events that occurred in November.

1884 - Nov. 8
Crofter agitation in Skye resulted in an armed police unit being set up by Inverness-shire constabulary. They were drilled in the use of revolvers, by only for protectin

1523 - Nov. 17
Parliament of Scotland witnessed a stand-up row between Regent Albany and the nobility over the conduct of the nation's affairs.

1773 - Nov. 22
Dr. Johnson, having completed his famous tour of the Western Isles and visited James Boswell's father at Auchinleck, left Edinburgh for England.

1908 - Nov. 26
Passengers for Islay, Jura and Gigha were stormbound for two days on board the Pioneer in Ardpatrick Bay, Argyll.

1623 - Nov. 30
About 9:00 pm, with the moon shining brightly in the east, folk in Central Scotland noted a strange nocturnal rainbow which appeared in the western sky.

Source - Scotching the Myths by Jim Hewiston can be found in the History Book Section of Scottish Radiance.

It is time to stop combing the library but we can not quit without some quotes from Quotable Scots another great History bookshelf resident. Lets see what quotes we can find!

ACTION

It is the mark of a good action that it appears inevitable in the retrospect.
Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-94), writer

I have spent a long life in improving the arts and manufactures of the nation. My inventions at present, or lately, give employment to the best part of a million people.
James Watt (1736-1819), engineer, assessing his achievements

The active car is much easier to drive, and when it hits a bump the car settles very quickly.
David Coulthard, racing driver, explaining his preference for a car with active suspension, Scotsman, 1994

When we came to the end of the agenda and I handed them the letter saying I was going, there were tears in my eyes.
Wallace Mercer, chairman of Hearts, Scotsman, June 1993

Attitudes only change when we see the horrific consequences of our inactivity.
Kaye Adams, writer criticising the reluctance of governments to give cash to Third World countries, 1992

The tension was released when one of the more intelligible Scottish officers spoke to them. So one friendly fire incident was averted.
Col. Robert Anderson, Royal Army Medical College, describing a Gulf War incident in which a plane load of Scots reservists narrowly avoided being shot down by American fighters, Scotsman, 1994

You can find more articles in the archive under Scottish Flotsam.

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