Haunted_-_Issue_24_-_All_About_Ghosts_2019

Largo harbour around 1880

Gillies of Largo in which he re-registered it under his name, and
it was given a new Kirkcaldy registration of KY39! It seems I had
found Brian’s Phantom boat!

The boat was based in Largo (where I originate) Largo has only
two crab boats that work out the miserable harbour confines
today. But in 1883 there were 36 fishing boats of all sizes using
the harbour. KY39 was renamed “Brothers” and was a two-mast
schooner. It had a crew of 7 and aptly named as The Skipper
Mr Gillies had his two sons on board as did David Wishart and
another largo man John Johnstone made up the fishing crew.
It was one of two boats owned by Mr Gillies; he owned another
registered as KY4. It was 47-foot long, two mast fishing boat
identical to KY39. The catch they were after was Mackerel. It
was line caught. There
were no nets used, the
method of catching
the Mackerel was to
trail a line of hundreds
of hooks baited with
muscles from the boat
and drawn the line
in by hand putting
the caught fish into
barrels. A tedious
hard labour for sure
it was managing the
tempest of the sea with
hundreds of baited
hooks going overboard
that could easily snare
the fisherman and pull
him into the depths.

“A fisherman

always had to be

fully focused, there

were many unseen

dangers on a sea

boat.”

“I managed to piece together a

very sad tragedy. A tragedy that

happened over a hundred years

ago and to some astonished

sailors, is still happening now!”

Skipper Samuel Gillies in 1882

On the night of 30th March 1886, the fishing

boat “Brothers” with The Skipper Samuel Gillies

in charge was seen about 50 miles East of the

Island of “the Bass Rock” by the boat “Jane and

Minnie”. Everything seemed fine and the boat

Skippers excepted greetings from each other from

distance. By the 31st of March “Brothers” hadn’t

returned to the Largo harbour as was expected.

By April the worst fears were known! The boat had

gone, not a trace was found of the seven men or

any debris of the fishing boat. It was to be another

statistic of the perils of the North Sea, where

many ships and lives had gone into the watery

depths never to be found again. It was thought

the boat had opened its two hatches to release

the coils of baited hooks. The purpose was to drag

the hooks in a line, so they could cover a bigger

area saving entanglements and maximise the

catch. With the hatches down, you are acceptable

to swamping the boat with any change in the

tides tempest. It was thought a sudden storm had

created a squall which quickly overcame the boat.

There were no survivors.

The dead were Samuel Gilles 45, his sons John 23

and Alexander 21. David Wishart was 47 his sons

David 22 and James 22 and John Johnstone 22.

It seems at the right tide and right time,

“the Brothers” fishing boat still sails the

North Sea today.