Flotilla in Wick Bay will mark Black Saturday anniversary
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ONE of the worst disasters in the history of Caithness will be commemorated this month with a spectacular maritime event in Wick.
A flotilla of boats will gather in the bay on the afternoon of Sunday, August 18, for a wreath-leaving ceremony as a tribute to those who died during Black Saturday in 1848 and in other tragedies over the years.
The Seafarers Memorial Group is among those organising the event. The group is raising funds to erect a memorial at the town’s Braehead in memory of all seafarers lost at sea from or in the WK registration area.
Black Saturday occurred on the morning of August 19, 1848, and was described in reports at the time as a “fearful calamity”. In Wick Bay alone, 37 fishermen from Caithness, the Western Isles and Orkney lost their lives, with many others perishing around the coasts.
For each of those lost, grieving families were left behind.
Black Saturday accounts for only a small proportion of the total number of seafarers lost to the sea along the Caithness coastline. The memorial group was established with the aim of creating a lasting place of remembrance.
From 2pm on August 18, a flotilla led by the Wick Society’s historic Isabella Fortuna will leave the harbour and assemble in Wick Bay where a wreath will be laid in the waves.
With the support of the RNLI and a number of locally based boats, the ceremony will include a two-minute silence and the reading of the names of those lost on Black Saturday 171 years ago. Flags, both onshore and on the boats, will be lowered to half-mast.
Members of the public are invited to take up positions on the Braehead, the North Head and, where safety allows, on the north and south river piers.
The tragic events of Black Saturday unfolded after the boats had left port as usual on the Friday afternoon. By that evening, the beginnings of a colossal storm had become evident.
Many of the vessels began to head for home but in the early hours of the morning the severity of the storm caused boats to crash against each other as they tried to gain the mouth of the harbour.
