Glasgow And Ships Of The Clyde

Injured seal in Eglinton Basin

From "The Ardrossan & Saltcoats Herald" dated 21st January 1972

There were quite a lot of people at Ardrossan Harbour on Sunday to see an unusual visitor.
The visitor was an injured seal which was swimming around near where the M.V. "Lion" usually docks.
The RSPCA were informed and sent representatives to try and catch the injured animal but the seal evaded them and swam away.

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A follow up~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

An opinion from the ?Hunted?...Mr Seal.

What a day I had yesterday being chased around the dock by these guys in yellow clothes and a boat, they looked unfriendly and spooky.
What?s their problem? It?s only a dock, and it?s not as if I was touching anything.

Can?t they see I?m injured, and having problems eating and breathing?even in my poor condition, their sea skills were inferior to mine.
I didn?t hang about and escaped?? Morons.

The next day, I was still no better with my breathing, a big effort to catch a fish, really exhausted, I decided that after the Arran ferry sailed, to take a wee rest under the loading ramp

After 10 minutes? I saw 3 guys in a AHC Landrover coming along the quay towards me with a large fishing net with ropes at the end of it.
I wonder what they are doing ???
Next thing I knew my world was upside down?. I don?t believe this
A big fishing net was below me and I was being lifted to the surface.
Again, they were no match for me so I again escaped, but they had about six more futile attempts.

I was now really brassed off and exhausted, then one of the guys started to whistle towards me?.this sounded a friendly gesture.
Maybe he had a wee fish for me so I headed towards him, not one of my smarter moves.

All went dark as I had this big net flung over me and trussed up like a turkey for roasting and now being dragged ashore over the bloody sharp rocks

I tried in vain to bite the b******'s, think I scared them, cos I saw their eyes widening as I snapped at their hands
To add insult to injury one of them now started pushing his fingers into the 360 deg cut around my neck, it was about an inch deep, it was hurting like hell, now he starts cutting with his knife

I thought?
Im done for this time, my life was going to end here on this rocky patch
Next thing I experienced was, a rush of air?.. I started to breathe like never before, out from the open wound came a loop of parcel string which I had been wearing for years, like a necklace, and over the years as I grew, it was becoming tighter.

All went still for a minute, I was till trying to get my head round this assault.
Then unceremoniously I was rolled out of the net and into the sea, my breathing was back to normal.
I scuttled into the sea incase they decided to have another go
I swam about for a minute, looking back at them and their odd behaviour,
I vanished into the deep, don?t think I will go back there again.

Names
(Withheld to protect the guilty.)
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Hi
In response to Mr Seals confused side of the story,
(Yes it was a male, and no, it?s not that obvious)

We were not impressed with the previous day?s efforts of him being chased around the dock to the point of exhaustion by other well meaning guys.

And felt we could ?do much better?, then on hearing the animal was having a wee snooze at the Arran ramp,
the 3 of us set off with our ?much better plan B?

I can?t remember how we knew the seal had a ligature round its neck, but I had made up a metal hook to penetrate the wound
Ok the weighted net under the beast didn?t work very well?in fact it was a miserable laughable failure.

My pal said he had hear that whistling to them would bring it ashore, well we all got a laugh at that one (Sealed with a Kiss? maybe)

As he whistled, I couldn?t believe it when it lumbered ashore, so not wasting any time we ran into the cold shallow water and tried to get the net over him.
Mr Seal wasn?t too happy about all this and tried to have a bite at us, someone
(a local know-all ) told us that they dont bite.
He?s probably right, unless you decide to attack one

He was a ton weight and slippy to bring ashore, but when trussed up he lay quite still, mind you we were astride him.

The steam was coming out of the wound, and with the hook it was easy to get at the hairy parcel string.
I can imagine how he felt as I pulled it through the wound.
After all this, he lay quite still, big eyes staring, so we rolled him out of the net, he wasn?t in too much of a hurry and just ambled down into the water and swum around.
Although we were soaked and freezing cold, it was a good result in the end.

The guilty
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