Why on earth would you cut hundreds of small circular holes into the hull of your boat? Only to painstakingly plug them all again?
That was a question we pondered in 2015 when we first visited Gibbhill in Kirkcudbright Bay and saw this old wooden trawler resting on its starboard side, exposing the holes which riddle the lower planking. Kirkcudbright Bay is a good natural anchorage, and has a long history as a harbour and more recently as a commercial fishery port, but this boat was particularly intriguing.
Thanks to the expertise of Steve from the Nautical Archaeology Society, we learned that this is a wet well trawler. Water flowed freely through the holes in and out of the hull below the waterline, flooding the central compartment of the boat. Watertight bulkheads at either end of this compartment contained the water, keeping the bow and stern buoyant. This wet well allowed the fishermen to keep the catch alive, ensuring it arrived at market as fresh as possible. However in this case, each small hole had later been individually plugged with wooden pegs.
Not only is this boat unusual, it’s also very fragile and deteriorating fast. So to record it in detail we teamed up with the Galloway Glens Landscape Partnership, local volunteers, the Solway Firth Partnership and the NAS.
Meanwhile, local historians contributed what they know of its story. David Collin recalled its name, the Fauna, originally a Belgian boat which visited the Solway coast from Fleetwood in the 1970s, fishing for sole. While sitting at the quay, the Fauna was caught between a larger boat and the quayside, damaging the hull. After being laid up, the engine was eventually salvaged before the Fauna was finally discarded. It’s common for vessels that have reached the end of their working life to be abandoned on the banks of the river out of the way of the busy harbour, and Gibbhill has long been used as a boat graveyard – convenient for towing unwanted hulks to, but out of the way of the bustling port and working vessels.
David Collin’s photo of the Fauna languishing at Kirkcudbright soon after the accident in the 1970s
With Steve’s expert eye for guidance, we gleaned details of its construction and use from the disintegrating hull. These suggest that before the Fauna came to this sad end, it had a long life of use, modification, adaptation and upgrade.
It looks like it was originally a sailing trawler, as suggested by a small mast step near the bow. Although we don’t know exactly how old it is, this may suggest a build date in the early 20th century. Later, it was converted from a wet well to a conventional fishing boat, when the holes were plugged to make the hull (mostly) watertight and some of the original planking was replaced. Further upgrades followed when first one and then a second, larger, engine were retrofitted. This required significant alteration to the stern and rudder to accommodate the propeller.
The stern post was cut and reshaped for the propeller, and a new mounting created for the rudder, which has fallen off but still lies nearby
Another mystery was presented by the construction of the hull. The bow is very sturdy with double frames and an enormous timber stem post. However, the central wet well section is much more lightly built, with widely-spaced frames. This more flimsy structure may not have mattered too much. The shallow, beamy shape shows that the Fauna was built for rivers or estuarine waters rather than to ply the open sea. The massively-built bow also looks like it may once have been further reinforced. A long patch of iron staining marks the waterline and follows a line of tiny wooden pins in the planking which seem to have attached something, perhaps textile cushioning between the timber and metal armouring? All this led us to speculate whether it may have been an ice breaker when working on rivers in cold continental winters.
Lines of tiny holes, some with minute wooden pins still in place follow the iron staining along the waterline
This photo taken in June 1995 by flickr user Rob Steward (Rob-33) shows the remains of metal sheeting around the stem post, which may have originally covered more of the hull and strengthened the bow
Our detailed examination of the wreck threw up many more questions than answers about the fascinating, complex biography of this long-lived old boat. Curiouser and curiouser was the repeated mantra of the weekend.
One thing is clear, though – the remains are in poor state and their deterioration is accelerating.
This photo taken by Steve in October 2019 from almost the same angle as Rob’s photo shows how much the Fauna’s condition has changed in the past 24 years
Regular monitoring visits are needed. As the hull disintegrates, more details may be revealed that will add to the Fauna’s story.
David Collin shared this photo from 2010. In just 9 years, the Fauna has deteriorated badly.
Excellent work, and it’s brilliant that these decaying craft are being investigated and recorded. Fascinating and enlightening!
Cheers,
Marc
Moder Dy CIC
Could the remains be preserved and moved to the main harbour as a feature, I’m sure a local crowdfund would get the required funds to cover the costs.
Hello and thanks for your comment. The remains are a great historic feature of the river landscape, but are almost certainly too fragile to be moved – intervening would probably destroy what’s left (and it would be extremely expensive!) It’s sad to see the Fauna deteriorate, but we think the best approach is to monitor the site regularly and learn what we can about the boat as more is revealed. There are a couple of other abandoned fishing boats along the bank at Kirkcudbright (including the Wellspring) which feature in a lot of local art and photography and are highly valued by the local community
My uncle Joe Kennedy was the skipper of the boat and he beached it where it lies now. I only found this out recently. Do you know who is now responsible for the remains of the fauna?
Richard, that’s amazing, thank you for getting in touch. We’d be really keen to learn about any more information you might have. The boat was dumped so probably nobody wants to claim responsibility for the remains, but the riverbank is probably in the ownership of the Crown Estate as they own most of the foreshore.
joanna, looking at some of the info here my uncle probably didnt beach it where it lies ( going by the photo of it next to the old jetty) but i only found out this year that he was the skipper of the boat when it ended its service. i did remember a story from years ago when someone told me he had sailed the boat back into the bay when it was partially sinking. I believe he used to sail it up from fleetwood and that the owners of the boat wouldn’t pay for repairs so he had to limp it back into kirkcudbright and leave it where he could.
Sugges that you have a word with Donald Tait, I’m pretty certain that he was caulking the hull at one point with a view to putting back into service. He’d have been an obvious candidate for moving the engine.
Anyway he lives in Kirkcudbright so should not be too hard to find.
Thanks, Brian, we’ll look into that
Fauna was built in Denmark … oak on oak, most likely as a jagt … cutter-rigged craft that sailed between the Danish islands carrying passengers, mail, light cargo. Many became fishing boats … some equipped with a wet hold for holding the catch, including eels. The small nails around the nose mentioned somewhere in the blog are a leftover from when she will have carried copper ice sheeting. Trad wooden Danish fishing vessels still have this feature. I remember Fauna fishing and then stumbled across her many years later, quietly falling apart
Hello Jeremy, thank you for all this information. Apologies for taking so long to get back to you (we were furloughed through June and July). We’d be delighted to learn anything more you know about Fauna’s history, particuarly your memories of the fishing around Kirkcudbright prior to it being dumped. How did you find out about its earlier history? We’d interpreted it as originally a wet well later converted to a conventional vessel, rather than the other way around, but Danish origins fit with another suggestion someone else made about potential Baltic origins. Thanks so much – and would you mind if I emailed you to carry on the conversation? Ellie (elg5@st-andrews.ac.uk)