1 minute read
Obituary: Mr James Mowatt, Boat Builder, Gourdon Boat Builder of the “Maggie Law
APPENDIX 4
Advertisement
Words and music by Sue Briggs, Community Education Officer, folk musician.
The poem, written in 1998 on the steps of the Tolbooth, Stonehaven, reflects on the decline of fishing in North East harbours, the traditional way of life swept away by “this thing they call progress” a fate that has already overtaken many harbours from Gourdon to Gamrie
… there was a time when these harbours moved to the tune of the seas and the skies but now – where there once was a fisherman’s future lies the untold decay of our times …
so think of the changes our lifetime has brought us as you sit with your conscience forever on hold and think of the living once tied to these places where the fishing boats fade with the day ... with the day…
the sea laps the berths of those ships sailed for pleasure that fill up the harbour in summer and spring but the working man’s boat was his sole way of earning a place for his life on this shore ... on this shore … on this shore … on this shore …
we are swept by the wave of this thing they call progress as history sinks to the deep rolling sea it’s the price we pay for the times that we live in where fishing is lost to the tide ... tide of change … tide of change … tide of change …
