Today's auction house artefact is this charming and rather Old Testament early 1960s advertising poster for the Clyde Shipping Company (incorporated in Scotland). the-saleroom.com/en-gb/auction-…
The name on the bow of the ark is "Tuskar", in reference to the (then) new Clyde Shipping motor vessel MV Tuskar, built for the Liverpool to Waterford service - despite its name, most of Clyde's business was on the Liverpool to Ireland routes.
The Tuskar, named after a lighthouse like all of Clyde Shipping's vessels (in this case Tuskar Rock off the southeast coast of County Wexford) was built for the Waterford run in 1962, by Charles Connells at Scotstoun on the Clyde (pic = Ships Nostalgia shipsnostalgia.com/media/tuskar.2…)
But Tuskar didn't last long, the downturn in traditional coastal shipping as it was replaced by containers, roll-on-roll-off ferries and cheaper flights meant that it was out of service and sold off by 1968, sold to Yugoslavia as "Brioni".
Clyde Shipping were one of the first steamship companies, with a history going back to 1815, operating steam tugs and luggage vessels on the eponymous river and firth. The house flag, featuring a Scottish lion and Irish harp, was changed in 1924 due to the political environment
The new flag featured a lighthouse and the letters CSC and was based on a suggestion by a "Miss Blakiston-Houston." I believe the Blakiston-Houstons were Northern Irish gentry with shipping interests. (credit National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London, Pope Collection.)
Tuskars main purpose was to have carried live animals from Ireland to the English market, and it was noted in 1967 she carried 1,000 pigs to Liverpool after a "bacon strike" had caused a dockside buildup. Perhaps that's why the poster artist chose the ark.
Such was Clyde Shipping's focus on the Irish market that in 1912 they bought the Waterford Steamship co. and built a fine quayside office in that city, with much ornamental shamrocks and thistles in evidence.
While they remained important on the Clyde itself as a tugboat company, it was the Irish services that made them their money and featured prominently on advertising materials.
This 1894 passenger handbook shows the older house flag, of a Scottish lion rampant and an Irish harp, in a very Victorian and Britannic fantasia scene.
The Clyde Shipping tugs later took "flying" names, e.g. here is Flying Duck in the 1960s flickr.com/photos/glasgow…
And here are Flying Mist, Flying Spray +1 in 1975, in the house colours of orangey-brown upperworks and dark navy hulls and funnels. flickr.com/photos/gillfot…
And into the early 1990s, here are Flying Childers, Flying Fulmar and Flying Phantom at Greenock. flickr.com/photos/seapige…
Tragically Flying Phantom - by then under different ownership - capsized one foggy December night in the Clyde in 2007, with all 3 crew losing their lives. This was the result of a string of safety failings on the part of the operators and Clydeport bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotla…
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🧵It's been a while, so I thought I would take a dive into the placename books and have a look around Gorgie and Dalry. The pic is the wonderfully 80s neighbourhood branding that some of the streetsigns got for reasons I don't know of.
Gorgie? It's very old name, records go back to the late 12th century when William "The Lion" I of Scotland was on the throne and it was "Gorgine" on charters of Holyrood Abbey
The land was a Royal Manor, with a Provost in charge. The earliest recorded owner was "Serlo", a burgher of Edinburgh. Serlo is a Norman name, from Norse.
I saw a tweet yesterday about how an SUV was "as big as a Sherman tank", and I wasn't sure it was, so I decided to find out. The answer is "not quite. But getting there".
What about is a Wankpanzer as big as a Panzer? Again, "not quite, but getting there".
And what about the best of British? Once more, not quite but nearly.
It's fairly well known just how few statues there are in Edinburgh of named women (2!). My attempt at an A-Z of city places named after women further highlighted to me just how few there are (and of those, many were done so by men of property for reasons of their own).
But there is a place that's not that well kenned about that has topical relevance and is always worth thinking of. Many attempts have been made to try and tell its back story or to raise it's profile. That place is Muschat's (or Muschet's) Cairn.
The cairn is unusual in that not only does it commemorate a woman, but it commemorates a woman who was the victim of male violence. Ailie (or Eilidh) Mushet, was murdered by her husband Nicol Mushet of Boghall near this spot on the night of October 17th 1720
Scotland's JFK moment; impossible not to remeber where you were when you heard it. I was in RE class, first period after lunch. The teacher came in and had been, was still, crying, and explained to us what she knew. She had been at the shops at lunch time...
...a woman in John Menzies at the Gyle had come up to her, crying, and told a random stranger the terrible news. I don't recall how I felt at the time. But I can picture exactly where I was sitting in Miss Campbell's room...
My Mum is a life long primary teacher. As such, many of the family friends were also teachers. Little else was spoken about, on hushed tones children weren't meant to hear, for a long, long time afterwards
ESPC Big Friday Night In carpet and ceiling tiles of the day. (With bonus pottery owl and mid century mirror/light-shade/anglepoise/magazinerack/poufé)
This kitchen... 🤩 The lemon yellow. Those Tiles. The cooker. The kettle. The Utensil Rack. The Serving Hatch. Perfect in every way. Scoop it carefully out and put it straight in a museum.
A fabulously 50s (?) bathroom, that looks like someone' carefully and considerately added a walk-in shower to.
Plug protected as suggested. Grommet sliced to get it over the cable.
Instead of 1 big 16mm hole, I drilled 2 side-by-side 11m holes. Head and cover went through no bother. Fins on the grommet gripped the hole nicely. I'll finish it with no-more-nails tomorrow