We are grateful to Darren Purves of the Isle of Man who has written this history of the Campbeltown-built Steadfast LH 90 (Yard No. 4).
The Steadfast was the first boat I went to sea on, in 1997. I was 11, she was owned by my step-dad, Frankie Horne. I spent a lot of weekends and school holidays on her, the pictures below are a mixture of ones I’ve taken myself and ones I’ve gathered up over the years. I have a full photo album of her that I built up until now and have newspaper reports from Fishing News and Commercial Fishing magazine.
Campbeltown Shipyard launched the Yard No. 4, Steadfast LH 90 for Eyemouth Skipper, John Horne, in late 1970. She was built with a Kort steering nozzle and a had transom stern, fitted with a Cummins NH-250-M 194hp main engine. She was designed to single and pair trawl for white fish and she paired at one point with the Silver Viking LH 267. She was sold to Wick Skipper, Donald Sutherland, in the early 1980’s and re-registered as Steadfast WK 20. She was then sold to Danny Neill of Peel, Isle of Man in 1983, where she was rigged for scalloping and re-named Sustain PL 25 and skippered by his brother, Tony. In 1986 she was bought by Douglas Skipper, Denny Moore and re-named Peter-M PL 25 and modernised with the addition of a whaleback at Holyhead Shipyard. Her steering nozzle was also welded in place and a rudder fitted. Skipper Moore fished the now pale blue hulled vessel until 1994 when she was bought by Peel Skipper, Frankie Horne, who fished the vessel for scallops and “queenies” around the Isle of Man and the Western Isles of Scotland.
In 1999 she was damaged by fire at Ramsey Shipyard while undergoing a galley extension and she was then extensively rebuilt. She was bought by Billy Caley in 2000 and skippered by Alan Woodbridge of Ramsey who fished the vessel around the Isle of Man and the East and West Coast of Scotland for scallops. After a lay up in Ramsey, she was again rebuilt, her bow was chopped and shortened to get her under 15 metre, re-engined and new winches fitted and painted red by Ramsey Skipper Charlie Boyce, fishing around the Isle of Man for Scallops and “queenies’
Darren Purves
No Comments, Be The First!