Seeing Double
ANYONE who was passing Campbeltown’s Old Quay on Tuesday evening could have been forgiven for thinking there was something wrong with their eyesight, as they would have seen not one lifeboat, as is usual, but two identical boats together.
However, there was no question of there being a mass attack of double vision, as Tuesday saw the visit to the town of the new Mallaig lifeboat, which is identical in all but a few details to the Campbeltown boat, both being Class vessels.
The new Mallaig boat – which, with a top speed of 18 knots, is twice as fast as her predecessor – is to be named ‘The Davina and Charles Matthews Hunter.’
Five Mallaig lifeboatmen – including the second coxswain/mechanic, Mr Tommy Ralston, from Campbeltown – travelled to Poole, in Dorset, recently to train with their new vessel.
And, under the supervision of Mr Mike Vlasto, the Royal National Lifeboat Institution inspector for the south of Scotland, they sailed their charge from Dorset to Mallaig, arriving home today, Friday.
When the new vessel arrived off Campbeltown on Tuesday afternoon, she was met by her sister ship, the Campbeltown lifeboat ‘Walter and Margaret Couper’, who escorted her into Campbeltown Loch, the two vessels trying up alongside at the lifeboat pontoon at the Old Quay.
