Loch Ness Project Find - Zulu Fishing Boat -The Pansy

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The Zulu Fishing Boat "Pansy"

An early success for Operation Groundtruth came on 3rd August 2002 with the discovery of the intact wreck of an 80ft "Zulu" class sailing fishing vessel off Foyers. This was identified by ROV as the Banff registered "Pansy" (BF 1327) built in 1903 and although the owner's family have been found, there is no record of how the vessel sank in Loch Ness. In 1909 she was one of the first of the Whitehills boats to be fitted with a 48hp Thornycroft auxiliary motor. Fifty people came aboard to see the results of her trial run. However, the motor had banished the crew to the bows of the boat and a contemporary account records complaints that they "suffered a good deal from excessive ventilation during the winter owing to the foremast projecting through the forecastle and leaving a big aperture when lowered, as is always done when the boat is riding to her nets!" The above picture was taken at Tobermory in 1911 and shows the owner James Lovie and his crew including his son Peter. It was Peter's grandson David who provided us with the photograph in 2003 at which time his own son and grandson were still fishing from Whitehills.


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