With 10 days to go until Largo Arts Week, here is a rather nice piece of art dating back around 75 years. Featuring boats tied up at Largo Harbour, the old salt girnel (later net house) can be seen in the background to the right, with fishing nets hanging up to dry alongside it. The drying nets and net house also featured in the older painting featured in a post last November (shown below). 

Coming back to the watercolour above - this was painted by James MacLaren. According to various on-line sources, MacLaren was "an accomplished oil painter and watercolourist" based in Glasgow, who exhibited mainly between 1881 and 1917, including 17 works at the RSA. He produced many harbour scenes and serene landscapes and showed "a sincere understanding of light and composition". 

A note on the back of the painting states that a former owner "watched the artist painting this". If the early 1940s date is correct then this painting would have been painted late in the life of the artist. Perhaps it was painted a little earlier. Largo has of course long inspired artists and the upcoming Arts Week shows that it continues to do so. If you have the chance to visit between 20th and 28th  July, why not go along and discover the talented local artists of today?

www.largoartsweek.com

The above engraving by Frederick Borders featured in the 1860 book "The Handy Book of the Fife Coast" by Henry Farnie. The same book had a full page advert for the the 'marine villas' that were being built in the village as part of the ambitious plans set out by the Standard Life Assurance Company at that time. At first glance the engraving is not particularly recognisable as Lundin Links. However, zooming in on the centre detail (below) reveals 'Fir Park' standing proud in front of Largo Law, plus a scattering of houses. Colour has been added below to highlight these features, which are tricky to make out in the original.

Further to the left of the engraving is a representation of the newly-created railway station and a passing train - see below. The shack-like temporary station building that briefly existed between 1857 and 1858 before it was replaced with the permanent station building can be made out. As the book 'The Leven and East of Fife Railway' by Hajducki, Jodeluk and Simpson states:

"Provision was made for the situation where, if after five years from opening, the traffic generated was not sufficiently remunerative for the railway company, then the obligation to keep the station open was no longer binding on them. Lundin Links station was opened along with the rest of the line in August 1857 with a temporary building but in September 1858 an agreement was reached between the East of Fife company and Standard Life that the station was to be completed as a permanent structure. Standard Life contributed £450 out of a total of £800 for the station and its approach road and would also undertake to construct four villas by the station."

The villas named 'Homelands' and 'Haworth' were duly built but, aside from several other homes built on Crescent Road, further development was slow. The permanent station building had a distinctive design - quite unlike others in the vicinity. It seems likely that James Campbell Walker had a hand in its design, which had echoes of 'Homelands'. The opening announcement and the original timetable are shown below (from 13 August 1857 Caledonian Mercury).

Frederick Borders the engraver behind these images was born in London around 1827. By 1851 he was employed as an engraver is Islington but by the time of the 1861 census he was in Edinburgh working as a wood engraver. He had probably completed the Lundin Links engraving 3-4 years prior to that. He was still in Edinburgh in 1871 and the next year married Helen Wight in Edinburgh before relocating to London. Their first child Frederick was born soon afterwards, followed by Samuel, Helen and Alice. The 1881 census finds Frederick senior in Wandsworth Prison as a 'debtor' but ten years later he is back working as a 'draughtsman and engraver on wood' in Southwark (the place where he died in 1894).
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Just three months after the unveiling of the Robinson Crusoe statue in Lower Largo, the village experienced one of its darkest events when seven local men lost their lives while fishing. The men were the crew of the "Brothers" fishing boat (registration KY. 39), skippered by Samuel Gillies, pictured above. They had set off on 29th March 1886 - along with six other deep sea fishing boats - and had been due to return on 31st. However, on 30th March, about 50 miles east of May Isle, they were caught in a squall. One of the earliest newspaper reports on the incident (2 April Aberdeen Evening Express below) reports the boat as missing.

Over the days that followed, many newspapers picked up on the story, speaking of growing fears for the crew. By 6th April, the Dundee Evening Telegraph reported that "all hope is now abandoned of the safety of the fishing boat Brothers". The piece continues...

"The master of the boat Jane and Minnie reports being close to the Brothers at one o'clock on Tuesday afternoon, 50 miles east of the May Island, and that she was then engaged shooting her lines; but shortly after a blinding shower hid her from view, and she was not seen again....She had a splendid crew, and had weathered many a storm. It is the general opinion that she had been swamped by a heavy sea while her hatches were off, as they would necessarily be while the crew were hauling their lines. The calamity has cast a gloom over the place, and has made a large blank in the village, and there is hardly a family but is connected with the lost ones by some degree of relationship. Samuel Gillies, the master, was a man of amiable disposition, and had all the pluck and daring essential to his calling. He was a model skipper and much liked by all who knew him."

The Brothers was built around 1882 and was 47 feet in length. In the same year, the Ocean Bride (registration KY. 4) was built for William Gillies. Ocean Bride is pictured in the centre of the Largo harbour scene below, captured around 1885 by photographer Erskine Beveridge. [Note that this was one of two 'Ocean Brides' operating out of Largo around this time - the other was registered KY. 7 and was owned by Robert Gillies before he was drowned at sea.] It seems likely that the Brothers would have been a similar looking vessel.

The men who perished on 30th March 1886 were:

Samuel Gillies, aged 45, husband of Agnes Kirk, with whom he had four children*
John Gillies aged 23, unmarried, son of Samuel
Alexander Gillies, aged 21, unmarried, also son of Samuel
David Wishart, aged 47, husband of Ann Ballingall, with whom he had ten children (some grown up)
David Wishart, aged 22, son of David senior and husband of Margaret Smith with whom he had three children
James Wishart, aged 22, also son of David senior, and husband of Janet Dowie, with whom he had 5-month-old twins
John Johnston, aged 22, unmarried, son of Andrew Johnston and Margaret Sharp

* Samuel had previously been married to Agnes Simpson with who he had seven children before her death in 1874
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As the Dundee Evening Telegraph remarked, "No accident of so serious a nature has ever occurred to any boat belonging to Largo". Apparently, 27 years earlier, a yawl was lost and three of a crew of four were drowned. A subscription list opened by Rev. David Malloch raised £500 locally to support the bereaved families. Once this had been almost exhausted, additional funds were secured from the Royal Relief Fund (see below from 25 August 1886 Fife Herald). For the families of the seven men, life had to go on and today the many descendants of the lost crew still think about this tragedy of 132 years ago and how deeply it affected those left behind.