A Christmas Tragedy (1827)

On Christmas Eve of this year, one of the Main families from Portlethen Village suffered the loss of three brothers whilst fishing about three miles off the coast when their boat was taken by a sudden squall and overturned. There were five family members in the boat, and the brothers John, William and Robert were immediately lost, leaving two of their sons clinging to the wreckage. To quote directly from the Aberdeen Journal at that time: 

“There were five men in the boat, three of whom immediately found a watery grave; and the other two were with difficulty saved, having, for some time clung, in a most perilous situation, to the bottom of the boat, from which they were rescued by the crew of another boat, which had witnessed the accident. The three sufferers were brothers, of the names John, William, and Robert Main; and what a painful aggravation of the catastrophe is; all were married men, leaving besides their bereaved widows, large families, in all nineteen in number. If any thing could add to the affecting circumstances of the case, it was the agonising feelings of the survivors, sons of two of the men, on seeing their parents torn from them in a moment, without the possibility of their rendering any assistance. One of the families, consisting of eight children, is left in a state of utmost destitution.”