History in more ways than one.

Fraserburgh has had a local lifeboat on service since 1806 which was run privately by the local Harbour Board until the first RNLI operated station opened in 1858. This was the first official RNLI station opened in Scotland. Throughout the 20th century, Fraserburgh suffered three lifeboat disasters. First, in 1918, the 'Lady Rothes' capsized while assisting H.M. Drifter Eminent. Coxswain Andrew Noble and Acting Second Coxswain Andrew Faquhar drowned. Second, on the 9th February 1953, six crew members lost their lives when the lifeboat capsized while escorting fishing vessels to the harbour. On this occasion Coxswain Andrew Ritchie, Mechanic George Duthie, Bowman Charles Tait, Assistant Mechanic James Noble and Crew Members John Crawford and John Buchan all lost their lives - the only survivor was Charles Tait. Lastly, on 21 January 1970 while on service to the Danish fishing vessel Opal, the lifeboat The Duchess of Kent capsized with the loss of five of her crew of six. Those killed were Coxswain John Stephen, Mechanic Frederick Kirkness and Crew Members William Hadden, James RS Buchan and James Buchan.^[6] In 2009, a local campaign was started to raise £40,000 to erect an official monument to the 14 men who lost their lives whilst serving on the Fraserburgh Lifeboat. Coxswain Victor Sutherland announced in June 2010 that the total had been achieved. The monument was unveiled by Flora Fraser, 21st Lady Saltoun, in August 2010.

Heres the monument.

Jane Whyte - Our own local Grace Darling

Jane Whyte lived in a cottage at Waulkmill, on the shore of New Aberdour bay with her husband and 9 children. On the morning of the 28th of October 1884, she spotted the wreck of the steamer "William Hope" of Dundee. Its engines had failed during a storm and it had been driven aground on the rocks during the night. It was now mostly submerged, sitting on the rocks.

Jane could see 15 sailors were clinging to the rigging. A rope was thrown by the sailors towards the shore. Jane waded out through the raging surf to reach the rope and bring it ashore. All 15 survivors then pulled themselves to the shore and safety.

She was awarded the silver medal by the RLNI and £10. ( equivelent to 3 months pay for a top rate labourer ).

Not much now remains of her cottage. A plaque there commemorates this daring feat of heroism.

Webhistorian.co.uk.

Nine children?  She was probably escaping.  I frequently did and I only had four.

THURSDAY, 31 JANUARY 2008

Aberdour Beach. Twenty minutes away.Spooky caves.

Severe weather warnings, I hear on the radio that lorries are blown over and the road bridges are either restricted or closed. We have blue skies, gentle breeze, and its 4 degrees. So a bit chilly out there, definitely a hibernating day, but beautiful to look out on!

Hundreds of geese going over the house to their feeding fields.

Our garden feeders are emptying rapidly with greenfinches, tree sparrows, blue and great tits, chaffinches, a robin, starlings, crows. Feeding them costs more than the t.v. licence, but they are far more interesting to watch than the rubbish on the 'box.'

Now heres a turn up!  Googling Aberdour Beach so as to appear very knowledgeable I came across my first ever blog!  Greenbrae Farmhouse Bed and Breakfast.  

Theres chunks of my life on Google!!!!  Really must be more careful.

Back to today.  Calm down.  

I have been asked to paint a friends house.  No not the big bucket, and big brush, in this weather?

The outside of the house has harl on it (like pebbledash) and I had the idea of using salt in the paint to give the effect.  When I read up on this it did warn about the salt exploding.  Exploding?  What damage could exploding salt do?

Well it makes it look mouldy!

Some people think history is mouldy, but I dont.  Away off to read what I got up to in 2008.