Police at Aberdeen board deep sea trawler MOUNT SORRELL after an incident in Faroe Islands

Storms disrupt sailings of Burns & Laird' "Lion"

From: Ardrossan & Saltcoats Herald Dated Friday 6th February 1970

STORM HOLDS UP FUSILIERS

A party of 150 men and 25 vehicles of the 1st Battalion, the Royal Highland Fusiliers, were due to sail from Ardrossan to Belfast on Tuesday, but had to postpone their departure for 24 hours when the ferry ?LION? was unable to dock at Ardrossan due to rough seas.

The soldiers were the advance party of the regiment who will fly to Northern Ireland next month. They had driven down from Fort George, Inverness, and stayed overnight at Dundonald Camp, Troon, where they had to remain two nights instead of one.

The main party of 100 men and 35 vehicles will sail from Ardrossan tonight by special overnight ferry. This is the first time since wartime days that the transport element of an infantry battalion has embarked from a Scottish port for active service - and carries echoes of D-Day, which had to be postponed for similar reasons.

The ?LION? was unable to dock at Ardrossan due to gale-force winds and high seas which lasted over Monday and Tuesday, and only on Wednesday morning at 0515 hrs, 30 hours late, did the Burns & Laird vessel eventually tie up at Ardrossan.

She was due on Monday night at 2045 hrs, but despite repeated attempts to dock, she was forced to take shelter off Arran for that night. She had 50 passengers on board.

The following morning further unsuccessful attempts were made to dock at Ardrossan and the ferry eventually had to tie up at Greenock about 1700 hrs that afternoon and allow the passengers to disembark, but there are no facilities at Greenock for cars to be driven off so that operation had to be carried out at their correct destination.

Scribe Tango

P & O liner ORONSAY leaves Vancouver (Canada) after a three week quarantine for Typhoid

Seven Russian Naval vessels pass Gibraltar towards damaged Russian submarine off Melilla

February 1970 advert by Bell Line Limited for a "Jill of all trades" for their new Glasgow office

Ardrossan man drowned when Burns & Laird's "Lairdsfield" capsizes

From "The Ardrossan & Saltcoats Herald" dated Friday 13th February 1970.

ARDROSSAN MAN LOST AT SEA

An Ardrossan man was among the crew of the Scots coaster "Lairdsfield" who were lost when it capsized at the mouth of the River Tees last Friday night.

Mr. William Flood (35), whose home is at 26 Lawson Drive, Ardrossan, had been at sea most of his life.
At the age of fifteen he followed in his father's footsteps and first served on the Burns & Laird Lines' "Lairds Loch."
Later he was on board many of the large ships of the Cunard and Castle Lines, sailing all over the world.
He rejoined Burns & Laird about ten weeks ago.
Nine years ago, off the coast of Zanzibar, he vainly attempted to rescue a shipmate who had gone overboard into the shark-infested waters.

Mr. Flood, whose parents still live in Ardrossan, was married with a four year old daughter.
Three years ago, his elder daughter was killed after being knocked down by a bus near their home.

The coaster - a frequent visitor to Ardrossan - is reported to have suddenly turned turtle as she sailed from Middlesborough to Cork with a 600-ton cargo of steel plates and piling bars.

Ellerman's CITY OF DURBAN leaves London for South Africa, Lourenco Marques and Beira

Port Complex At Ardrossan As An Alternative

From: The Ardrossan & Saltcoats Herald dated Friday 13th February 1970

PORT COMPLEX AT ARDROSSAN AS AN ALTERNATIVE

A plan for an integrated port development at Ardrossan was outlined by a West Kilbride civil engineer at the Hunterston inquiry at Ayr on Wednesday.

Mr James M. Morton, Hillside, West Kilbride, was the final objector to give evidence at the inquiry.

He suggested that such a development could supply the different needs of Chevron, Murco, the British Steel Corporation and the Clyde Port Authority and would replace the four small port facilities proposed by them.

Mr. Morton claimed it would be extremely short sighted to allow Chevron to build a refinery in Portencross area. He felt the deep water of the Clyde should be developed to the benefit of the community.

Referring to earlier suggestions about underground storage tanks, he said these were now being investigated in connection with the proposed refinery at Invergordon and were being used on the Continent.

Apart from the amenity point of view, underground tanks would be much safer.

He claimed that to allow the present proposals to proceed ?would be tantamount to allowing the very lowest standards of planning to prevail?.

Mr Morton said the Clyde offered the only water deep enough in North Europe to take the million ton tankers and multi purpose ships of the future, Scotland should seize this
opportunity now, he added.

It would be logical to provide a single multi purpose terminal and he suggested that Ardrossan provided the ideal site for such a development.

Better Situated

Geographically, it was better situated in relation to the main centres of population. The rail connections up the Garnock Valley to Glasgow and Central Scotland were good and road connections would be equally good with the implementation of the proposed urban road structure.

After referring to the build up of Ardrossan as a port, Mr Morton said maximum degree of flexibility must be included in a port layout.

What was the future of Ardrossan? If the present policy of the Clyde Port Authority continued and the present proposals were allowed to proceed there would be an inevitable decline in the use made of Ardrossan.

He declared: ?Ardrossan desperately needs a new user port complex; Hunterston does not?.

Mr Morton claimed that if the proposed steel complex eventually went ahead at Hunterston, the North Lanarkshire steel industry would have to close down and its workers transfer to Ayrshire.

By using a pipeline to carry the ore from the proposed Ardrossan terminal the Lanarkshire iron industry could be kept viable and the Ayrshire coastline would be preserved.

INDEPENDENT

He suggested the Reporter should recommend to the Secretary of State that an independent assessment of his proposals should be carried out.

Earlier, Glasgow businessman Mr James Marshall referred to the trend towards amalgamations throughout industry. ?It appears to me that the result of this is nearly always the removal of management from Scotland and its concentration in South East England?.

?I believe that this is bad for the nation of Scotland, leading to an unbalanced population - plenty of manual work and the routine administration which goes with it; but with the top management lacking?.

He said the policy of the Scottish Council had been successful in bringing industry to Scotland but the work provided had up to now been at operative rather than managerial level. ?As a result, Scotland is deprived of work for those who should be the leaders of the nation accustomed to taking orders if the trend is allowed to continue?.

Mr Marshall warned: ?If we allow the Hunterston area to be turned into an industrial area, we lose an irreplaceable asset of Scotland in attracting the management of industry. Scotland needs the management of her industry as much as she needs the industry itself?.

He concluded: ?And so I ask, for the sake of Scotland as a whole, spare the Seamill coast?.

Mr Alan Coleman, Old Monkcastle, Kilwinning, an executive in the computer industry, said it was ?irresponsible? of Ayr County Council to entertain the ultimatum of Chevron that they were only prepared to develop at Portencross.

He suggested that the developments would be far better sited on the hinterland and at the higher elevation.

?Let us plan for improvements. Let us not repeat the mistakes of the past?, he said.

A physicist at Hunterston Nuclear Power Station, Mr Ian Kennedy, 23 Glenside Road, West Kilbride, disputed some of the earlier evidence on the effects of pollution.

He later told the Reporter that if the industrialisation was to come about he would make every effort to get away from a country ?incapable of looking after its own best interests?.

Scribe Tango

Docker John Muir dies in Harbour accident

From "The Ardrossan & Saltcoats Herald" dated Friday 20th February 1970

FATALITY AT HARBOUR

An Ardrossan Docker was fatally injured when he lost his balance and fell under the wheels of a tractor at Ardrossan Harbour last Friday.
Mr. John Muir (58), 33 Clyde Terrace, Ardrossan, had been working on containers in the Burns & Laird Lines car park when he fell in front of a tractor being driven by his son John (29), who lives at 98 Glasgow Street.
He was killed almost instantly.
A Police spokesman said later: "It was a million-to-one chance."
*********
From "The Ardrossan & Saltcoats Herald" dated Friday 29th May 1970.

FORMAL VERDICT AT INQUIRY INTO HARBOUR DEATH

While men were loading containers on to the M.V. Lion at Ardrossan Harbour last February, an Ardrossan man fell under the wheels of a tractor driven by his son, and was killed.

John Muir, a 29-year-old docker of 98 Glasgow Street, Ardrossan, told a fatal accident inquiry at Kilmarnock Sheriff Court on Monday that he was driving his tractor slowly forward in the Burns & Laird Lines car park when he heard a shout and felt a slight bump as if he had gone over something.
"I jammed on my brakes and when I turned round I saw my father lying on the ground."

His father, John Muir (58), docker, 33 Clyde Terrace, died instantly from a fractured skull.
He had been standing on the trailer of another tractor, joining the shackles of the gantry crane onto the trailer when his son drove his tractor alongside and the accident happened.

Another witness, Mr. William Walker (57), 35 Oak Road, Ardrossan, who was one of the men working at the ferry said that after he had secured his shackles to the trailer he jumped to the ground.
"The next thing I heard was someone saying : "Oh God, John Muir has been run over."

The jury returned a formal verdict.

British Customs at Leith find a package of Cannabis in a hold of Liberian registered SANGEATANO

   A British Customs & Excise rummage squad at Leith Docks made a significant discovery when they found a large package containing around 30lbs weight of cannabis in a hold of the cargo ship SANGEATANO, registered in Monrovia, Liberia.

   The ship had brought about 10,000 tons of bauxite from Takoradi in Ghana, West Africa, and was originally expected to dock in Burntisland, Fife, but was diverted to Imperial Dock, Leith.

   SANGEATANO has a multi-national crew of 24, comprising Italians, Spaniards, Yugoslavs and a West African.

Harrison Line's CUSTODIAN closes at Birkenhead for Lobito, Durban, Beira and Lourenco Marques

Harrison Line's CUSTODIAN closes at Birkenhead for Lobito, Durban, Beira and Lourenco Marques

Harrison Line's CUSTODIAN closes at Birkenhead for receiving cargo for west, south and east Africa

Coaster JACINTH arrives at W. H. Arnott Young & Company Shipbreakers at Dalmuir for demolition.

CITY OF OTTAWA closes at Glasgow for receiving cargo for West, South and East Africa via Birkenhead