The mysterious drowning of a seaman as skilful and
well-known as Roderick MacPhee clearly gave rise to a whole host of rumours and
speculations in the islands. This was especially the case at a time of the year
when Barra was bursting at the seams with outsiders – fishermen, coopers, and gutting
women – involved in the rapidly expanding herring industry, then newly
established in Castlebay. An item in the Inverness
Advertiser on 14 June states that nearly 900 fishing boats were in the area
at the time, with at least 40,000 barrels of herring despatched from the island
during the week ending 11 June, conveyed on twenty steamers to Glasgow,
Liverpool, Leith, and other ports (incidentally, the Glasgow Herald on 18 June states that 19 cargoes of herring had been
despatched from Stornoway that week ‘for various parts of the Continent,
chiefly Stettin, Hamburg, and St Petersburg’). The Inverness Advertiser article declares that ‘20,000 strangers’ were
employed in the fishing: we’re not entirely sure about this number, but there
certainly must have been more than 2,000!
The Glasgow Herald’s
article of 4 June drew the following immediate response:
The Boat Accident off
Barra Head.
4th June.
Sir, – I am astounded to see the loose
statement, copied in your paper of to-day, with regard to the Barra Head
Accident. It is evident that the writer, whoever he may have been, was not
aware of the circumstances, or he would not have made misstatements which can
only cause anxiety to relatives and friends. To show how ridiculous the whole
paragraph is, allow me first to state that the gentleman who hired the boat was
safely landed at Pollockawe [‘Pollacharra’ must have been the original] in
South Uist, that it was on the return journey that the crew of two men and a
boy were lost. The statement of ‘a few hours afterwards … the boat was found,’
is totally without foundation, as it was not till the following morning (Sunday[
29 May]) that the accident was known to have taken place. The last sentence of
the paragraph only makes confusion worse confounded. I may further state that
Rory MacPhee was not the lighthouse keeper, but only the man who had charge of
the Lighthouse Commissioners’ boat. A little reflection might have shown that a
lighthouse keeper could not be cruising about in a boat and attending to his
duty at the same time.
And now, Sir, to
justify my remarks on this subject, and to show that I have good cause to be
annoyed at the blundering account given in your paper, allow me shortly here to
state that I was one of the gentlemen who crossed in Rory MacPhee’s boat on the
day of the accident, and am acquainted with the particulars. – I am, &c., B.
A more accurate report was printed in the Inverness Advertiser of 14 June, and
excerpted in the Scotsman the
following day:
Melancholy and Fatal Boat Accident at Barra.
– A melancholy occurrence took place off Barra Head light-house on
Saturday, the 28th ult., by which three persons were drowned – viz., Roderick
Macphee, the light-house ferryman, upwards of 40 years of age; Donald Macneil,
about 38 years of age; and John Macneil, about 16, both of the latter boatmen.
On the return journey with two gentlemen tourists, who had crossed the sound
between Barra and Vatersa, the boat appears to have foundered in the surf near
the rocks, as it was found a few hours afterwards with keel up, and sail set,
but no trace of the unfortunate occupants. Both of the deceased men have left
wives and families, who were dependent on them for support. Some contributions
have already been received in their aid; and it is to be hoped a generous
public will not overlook this unfortunate case.
But who was the mysterious gentleman ‘B’ who had written the
letter to the Glasgow Herald? His surname
is given in the following report in the Inverness
Courier of 16 June:
The Boat Accident at Barra. – A
correspondent sends us particulars of the sad occurrence at Barra, on the 28th ult.
On that day the Barrahead lighthouse mail ferryboat, manned by the ferrymen –
Roderick Macphee, Castlebay, Barra, aged 35 (an able and careful seaman, and a
most obliging and respectable man); Donald Macneil, Island of Minglay, aged 38;
and John Macneil, Elen [i.e. Glen], aged 16, with two gentlemen who had been
visiting Barra-head, sailed from Castlebay by the east coast of the island, and
across the Sound of Barra to South Uist. After landing the gentlemen there, the
boat, with its crew, returned to Castlebay by the west coast of Barra, the wind
blowing a stiff breeze from the east. Nothing further was heard of the boat
until Monday, when some lobster fishers found it out at sea under water, with
the sails set, about two miles to the west of the entrance of the sound,
between Vatersay and Barra. They secured the sails and bowsprit, but as the day
was stormy they abandoned the boat. None of the bodies have been found. It is
believed that in sailing over one of the sunk rocks at the entrance of the sound,
a sea broke, filling and capsizing the boat. Macphee has left a widow and five
children. Immediately on hearing of the occurrence, Mr Brown, one of the
gentlemen who had taken his passage in the boat from Barra, sent the widow and
children £5. It is hoped that the public will not overlook this unfortunate
case.
As we shall read in the next blog, the two gentlemen ‘had
been on a scientific excursion through the Southern Isles of Barra’. ‘Mr Brown’
must be the well-known naturalist and ornithologist John Harvie Brown (1844–1916),
who had not yet added a hyphen between his two surnames. His companion was
Captain Henry Wemyss Feilden (1838–1921), 4th King’s Royal Regiment,
who led a rather extraordinary Victorian life worthy of (a heroic) Harry Flashman and who was
later described by his friend Rudyard Kipling as ‘the bravest man I ever met’. On
27 September 1870 a paper by Captain Feilden was read to the Glasgow Natural
History Society, ‘part of the journal of a tour in the Outer Hebrides made by
Mr Harvie Brown and Captain Feilden during the summer [of] 1870. The paper
contained many interesting ornithological notes, and descriptions of shell
mounds visited by the author.’ Excerpts were printed in the Proceedings of the Natural History Society of Glasgow, ii (1869–75), 58–60. Embarking upon a paper about the
antiquities of Uist, Alexander Carmichael would reminisce:
In the summer of
1870 Captain Feilden of the [ ] made
an ornothological [sic] tour through the Outer Hebrides. I had the pleasure of
his acquaintance and his subsequent correspondence upon subjects of mutual
interest. [CW429 fo.1]
Carmichael had also embarked upon a long-lasting
correspondence with John Harvie Brown. Letters from Carmichael in the latter’s archive,
now in the National Museums of Scotland, date back to at least March 1871, when
the ornithologist asked Carmichael to prepare ‘a list of the Gaelic names of
birds.’
References: CW429 fo.1.
Feilden, Capt. H. W. 'Journal of a Tour through the Outer Hebrides in 1870', Proceedings of the Natural History Society of Glasgow, ii (1869–75), 58–60.
Glasgow Herald, 6 & 18 June 1870; Inverness Advertiser, 14 June 1870; Inverness Courier, 16 June 1870; Scotsman, 15 June 1870.
Images: J. A. Harvie-Brown, one of the last two men to see Roderick MacPhee and his crew alive.
