Escaping the Brunt of the Storm (1881) |
One of the most prolific storms seen on the coast of North East of Scotland occurred in March 1881. The headlines from the Aberdeen Journal of the 12th March told its own story; “Disastrous Storm on the North-East Coast”, “Thirty Three Vessels Wrecked”, and “Over 150 Lives Lost”.
Considering the size of this storm and the amount of
destruction to both life and property, our coastal villages escaped
quite lightly with most of the casualties occurring north and south of
our stretch of coast. However we didn’t come through this storm
completely unscathed as one vessel did appear to founder with the loss
of life.
From the safety of the beach the Findon fishermen had observed a brig in danger about one and a half miles offshore Findon and immediately sent a message to the coastguard based at Cove Bay and the life saving apparatus was sent for but given the state of the sea and the weather conditions, which were blinding and drifting snow, not much could be done. It was believed that the vessel must have foundered at some point soon after she had initially been observed. No further details of the vessel name, numbers of crew, or her ultimate fate were mentioned in the press.