Looking Back – news from the John O'Groat Journal of yesteryear
Fishermen's strike at Aberdeen
From the Groat of April 6, 1923
Local fishermen were following with interest the strike by their Aberdeen counterparts who were protesting at German trawlers being allowed to land their catches at the north-east port.
It was reported that "the situation is developing into one of disorder at the quays".
The previous Monday, "three thousand fishermen invaded the fish market and showed active hostility towards the three German trawlers which had put in with catches of Icelandic fish, and pelted the crews with lumps of ice. Four German trawlers were set adrift, but three were berthed later. The police reinforcement quelled the disturbance. Daily since then similar and even more exciting scenes have been witnessed
"Crowds of strikers assembled on both sides of the harbour and attacked the German trawlers with stones as they proceeded to sea on Tuesday; and on Wednesday further disorders occurred when the fishermen came into contact with the police. Stones and pieces of coal were thrown at the police, who were forced to make baton charges."
Related: More archive stories from past editions of the John O'Groat Journal
In Wick, the thought that German ice and salt boats would arrive prompted only concern about the unsuitable state of the river harbour.
At a meeting of Wick Harbour Trust, Mr A Cormack said there would be no accommodation for these vessels because "there was not enough water to allow a steamer to go into the river harbour" and he said that without being dredged the harbour was "useless".
Concorde test flights to resume
From the Groat of April 6, 1973
Local MP Robert Maclennan asked his constituents to report instances of disturbance to him as it emerged that test flights for Concorde were to resume on a flight path along the west coast of Scotland.
Advance warning of the individual flights was to be given to people living locally through the press and radio, according to Cranley Onslow, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Aerospace.
Test flights in the west of Scotland were announced in 1970 and since then 20 flights had been made, but none since January 1972.
Mr Onslow told Mr Maclennan that the "British assembled pre-production aircraft has just completed and extended period of preparation and modification, including the installation of the quieter and cleaner production engines. It is now returning to the flight development programme."
It was expected that six flights would be undertaken in this latest series, beginning the following week, with the plane flying at 45,000 feet between Mach 1 and Mach 2.
Over the coming year there would be another dozen flights to "establish the aircraft's performance at its limits".
Meanwhile, in Thurso a number of council houses had been sold to tenants. A motion before Thurso Town Council, that the houses be sold below market value but with a five-year pre-emption clause to prevent them being immediately resold at a profit, was defeated.
Boys' black ice device
From the Groat of April 10 , 1998
A design idea for an environmentally friendly, economic and innovative device for detecting black ice on roads had earned three local lads a place in the finals of a national engineering competition.
Michael Doig (13), Ben Allan (13) and 16-year-old Calum Sutherland were to join 23 other teams from throughout Scotland at the Young Engineers' Clubs Scotland annual competition
The standalone device, which used solar and wind power, monitored road temperatures and lit up a warning sign when the temperature dropped below freezing.
The idea had been hailed as innovative and imaginative by Northern Constabulary.
Pat Kieran, leader of Thurso Young Engineers' Club, said he was delighted that the team had made the final of the competition, adding: "The three boys have worked extremely hard and I am pleased to see their efforts rewarded."
Elsewhere, local firms had hit out at Caithness and Sutherland Enterprise (CASE) after it used a Moray-based removal team to flit offices in Thurso.
The enterprise company was shifting from Scapa House to Tollemache House and used nine staff from the Forres base of the nationwide White and Co plc group.
Two far north removal firms said they would have been interested in undertaking the work had they been invited to tender, and maintained that they expected CASE to get in touch with local firms first about work it wanted carried out.