Bessie Ellen

There were a wide variety of boats in Oban this afternoon including an enormous luxury yacht and other sailing yachts, several ferry boats, fishing boats including a couple now converted for tourists, cargo boats, the local lifeboat and the Bessie Ellen.
The Historic Ships Register records the Bessie Ellen as being built in 1904 in Plymouth as a sailing ketch for carrying bulk cargo. The first cargo was 18 tons of manure and after WW1 it was contracted to take surplus barbed wire from Gloucester to Briton Ferry to be melted down. By 1947 it was no longer viable for the home trade so sold to a Dane who used it for transporting scrap iron. Then for years it was laid up until it was converted and renovated back to a traditional West Country ketch.
Now it is used for charters and today was setting off on a 10 day voyage to St Kilda and some remote islands of the Hebrides. The living quarters must be very different from those of over 100 years ago.
Earlier we had revisited the marvellous NTS Arduaine Garden which is spectacular at all seasons but especially now with the rhododendrons. The extras show the White Skunk Cabbage flowers (Lysichitum Camtschatsense) which is not such a nuisance as the yellow variety which is noted as being an invasive species. As soon as the flowers mature they are removed to prevent them from seeding and spreading. A surprise as we walked through a bamboo glade was to see the panda who I believe has been hiding there since Maurice left as Head Gardener.

(I regret that I have had difficulties getting wifi so have not yet had the chance to look at or comment on your blips)