24469: Speedwell

The Speedwell was purchased by the Laxay Grazings Committee in the 1950s. She was broken up to enable her timber to be used to fence the Laxay common pasture. The boat was owned by Malcolm Nicolson, a well-known Stornoway fisherman and was bought for the sum of 30. Thw wooden vessel, a Zulu type sailing drifter later converted to motor, was registered as SY 319 in the name of M Mackenzie and others (Bayble). Her weight was given as 45 tons 7 cwts, so the grazings committee were paying less than 1 a ton for prime timber.