A serendipitous meeting and a connection with the Zulu War

I was playing golf last week in the North of Scotland with a ex Fishing skipper, now well into his eighties, who scores below his age. My grandfather was also a fisherman in the same village, though he died years ago, so we were talking of the history of fishing in the area. The heyday of fishing was drift netting herring around the belle epoque using Steam Drifters of which my grandfather was well aquainted, being a Drifter skipper. Then, conversation turned to the previous type of boats used of which there were many, but the "Prince" of types was the sailing boat introduced in 1879 by a Lossiemouth yard which was the "Zulu" design, reputed to be very fast sailers. My partner then added that the first boat he went to sea on as a fisherman was a "Zulu" albeit old and re-engined with a marine Diesel, this would be immediate post war, when many boats were still commandeered by the RN for harbour of lightering duties or not yet returned to the fishing fleet. The boats of course were named after the Zulu as is probably well known by readers. But it did strike me that events do have long and unexpected echoes down the years, and I had just heard one.

Here you are Tig a bit more info for you about these boats

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Aberdeen Press and Journal - Tuesday 27 November 1934