50 years and counting: Silver Cloud II WK 80

With just two owners since her launch from Gerrard Brothers of Arbroath, this 1972 build is going strong

George Carter was born and bred in the Caithness village of Lybster, by the harbour, and he fished straight out of school, getting his skipper’s ticket in 1956 at the age of 21. His father Hugh was a fish curer with small creel boat, and his grandfather had always been keen to say that he’d never earned a penny on dry land!

The Carter family have gone down in history with two record catches with the seine-net. In 1964, George’s brother Jack landed a record of 240 boxes of cod in a single drag in the Freswick grounds in the north of the Moray Firth aboard the Maid of Honour WK 30, which was built in 1950 by David Howarth of Scalloway (of Shetland Bus fame). Then George, aboard the Silver Cloud, landed 378 boxes with two drags in 1966.

The 47ft Silver Cloud WK 207 was George’s first boat, which he purchased in 1962. That vessel was built at Bolson’s yard in Poole as an Admiralty MFV, and by 1951 was owned by John Watt of Fraserburgh, re-registered as FR 313. In 1952 she was sold to Tom Scott Goodlad of Scalloway and re-registered as LK 217. Tom tragically died onboard in May 1958. His brother John then took the boat.

A drop in fish stocks in the early 1960s led a number of the seine-net boats to change over to lobster fishing, which pulled them out of a very sticky time. The Silver Cloud was rigged and ready to go in December 1961 when John Goodlad also died. The boat was sold on to George Carter soon after.

George re-registered her as WK 207 and worked the seine-net successfully as stocks improved, landing his record 378-box catch in 1966. In a recording by the Wick Society he talks about how that came about and how catches of cod, haddock and plaice were good, saying that it was relatively easy to make a good living in those days.

Consequently, in 1971, he decided to upgrade and commissioned Gerrard Brothers of Arbroath to build the Silver Cloud II as a seine-netter. The Gerrard brothers, David and Andrew, along with their father, also Andrew, set up their boatbuilding business alongside Arbroath lifeboat station in the 1950s; their first build was, I believe, the Bairn’s Pride AH 27 in 1955. The yard survived up to 1994 when the company went into receivership, following the decline in the fishing fleet in the town. It built at least 46 fishing vessels over that period.

Silver Cloud was sold to John Duncan and John Ross in 1972 and renamed Firecrest WK 207. By 1978 she was owned by Alexander Gunn, and disappears from the Olsen’s Fisherman’s Nautical Almanac the following year. Today, she survives as Red Moon, running cruises around Skye. Silver Cloud II was launched in 1972. George Carter registered her as WK 80. She was slightly bigger than her predecessor at 51ft, and was powered by a Gardner 250hp. She also had a gutting machine onboard, which I’m told George soon got rid of! It seems that with bigger nets, the catches were even larger, and he fished the seine-net successfully with her until converting to trawling in 1989.

She was sold on in 1992, at which point George retired, disheartened with the way the fishing was going, what with quotas, new restrictions, and the fact that the fish was there but fishermen weren’t allowed to catch it. Once the cod quota was caught, they’d go and catch haddock, but if the haddock wasn’t there, they were in trouble. On top of that, black fish was being landed in quantity, which George said was depressing the market. So he sold up.

The Silver Cloud II was sold to John Mackenzie of Gairloch, where she’s been fishing ever since. John – known better as Iain Shondan – fishes prawns, mostly landing into Gairloch, and chose the boat because he thought she was the right size and had the looks for that fishery. She’s never been to the clams, he told me. He obviously made a good choice, seeing how she’s still at it.

In 1996 he changed the Gardner for a 249hp Daewood, because he felt the Gardner was getting tired. Then, in about 2021, she was re-engined again with a 300hp Baudouin.

I asked him about his overall opinion of the boat. Is she a good platform to work a trawl off? Is she a good sea boat? To both he confirmed a quick ‘yes’, being a man of a few words.

I recall being up in Gairloch a couple of years ago and seeing the Silver Cloud II moored inside of the Mackay boat Charisma BF 296. I was just about to get out of the van and walk down the quay – there were several other vessels in – but the heavens opened, so I decided against getting soaked as it was late in the evening, and drove on. Now I’m kicking myself for not having had a look. All I got was one photo with raindrops smearing the image!

Iain hasn’t been running the vessel for a while due to his health, and temporarily handed over the running to one of his crew, Graeme Maclennan, over the summer. But when I spoke to Graeme, he had just spent a week aboard the Prosperity UL 250. When I asked why, he said it was simply down to the lack of crew. The Silver Cloud II needs three or four crew – they had four for the summer prawns – and there just aren’t the people wanting the work. A familiar story…

The boat, he said, is pretty basic. “Other than the engine, she’s not been updated really since she was built – although she’s sound. No problem with the hull at all. She’s just original. But she’s now up for sale because of Iain’s health and the lack of crew. Such a shame.”

One can only wonder whether there’s the demand for a 51-year-old boat. However, with only two owners and no change of name or PLN throughout her career, there’s certainly provenance in what the buyer gets!

Furthermore, given that she spent time on the shiplift in Fraserburgh in June this year and emerged looking ‘awesome’ – ‘a cracking design of a boat’, in the words of someone who knows – I reckon there’s still plenty of life left in the old girl yet!

Thanks to Iain Shondan and Graeme Maclennan.

This story was taken from Fishing News. For more throwback and nostalgic reports on the UK and Irish commercial fishing sector, subscribe to Fishing News here or buy the latest single issue for just £3.50 here.

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