Moray Explorer

The old boats out beyond the pier are a sad sight.

The Moray Explorer, a wooden hulled trawler, has had a long and interesting life. It was built in Denmark, in 1967. In 1978 it arrived in Scarborough and as 'Cassamanda' fished the North Sea, travelling as far north as Shetland.

After a short spell in the ownership of a fishing company in Hull, its next port was Buckie where it was used for prawn and whitefish trawling and was renamed the Moray Explorer.

Later, working in the Moray and Pentland Firth, it was rigged for scallop dredging.

In 1998 it came to Orkney and from 2002 was used as a diving boat.

Seeing it in such a delapidated state one wonders why it hasn't long ago been broken up, but I'm actually glad it hasn't. I think there will have been many other folk who, like me, are fascinated to see it and who take to the internet to find photos of it in its heyday and discover the twists and turns of its life before it came to a final resting place here in St Margaret's Hope.