Tex Geddes, Hebridean Sharker

[dgadee]

This book was out of print for years and prices were always astronomical when second hand, but I noticed a few days ago that it had been reprinted. My copy arrived this morning, so looking forward to what's supposed to be a very good read.

Some details at:

http://desperatereader.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/hebridean-sharker-tex-geddes.html

 

[bikedaft]

thanks for that

 

[Robert Wilson]

I anchored in Soay in July. Walked to his house. Inspected the old "whale boiling plant"
Worth a trip if anyone's in the area. DO FOLLOW THE LEADING MARKS and watch the bar!

 

[Marakei]

My dad used to holiday in Soay as a boy and teenager and knew him.

He had a wooden Newfoundland ketch called Traveller that my dad sailed on and has various stories about.

 

[dgadee]

Finished the Tex Geddes book and thought it was interesting, but covered much of the sort of thing Gavin Maxwell had written about (I suppose that's what you should expect if the title is 'Hebridean Sharker') so I think there is still a book to write about Geddes himself.

I had bought Ian Mitchell's The Isles of the West at the same time (suggested by Amazon) thinking it was a sailing book,when it's actually much more. He met Geddes and tells part of a story of Lilian Beckwith (the authoress) hiding behind a wall with a pitchfork intending to attack him. Main thrust is about the problems for the Hebrides caused by the conservation movement.

Mitchell's argument focuses on the RSPB and claims it is not very effective at what it says it does (e.g. saving the corncrake); that in order to keep money flowing in (from the SE of England) it cannot be effective in the western isles - e.g. shooting geese/foxes; that it is dangerous to have such a powerful single goal organisation in a complex environment; and that its PR machine consumes large amounts of money making friends in Edinburgh.

I don't know the situation in the Hebrides but it does appear a feasible argument. It seems to have been a controversial book when it was written and - from the comments on Amazon - continues to be so. Worth a read given that anchoring is perhaps coming under attack from the conservation movement.

 

[dgadee]

I have just finished Ian Mitchell's second book (on the northern isles), continuing his critical views of the conservation movement and its negative economic impact upon peripheral regions of the UK and note that the current issue of YM has raised the issue of prohibitions of anchoring in Wales for conservation reasons.

Perhaps we sailors should pay a bit more attention to what's been happening over the past few decades before it's too late for ourselves?

 

[dunedin]

I anchored in Soay in July. Walked to his house. Inspected the old "whale boiling plant"
Worth a trip if anyone's in the area. DO FOLLOW THE LEADING MARKS and watch the bar!

Must have been there around a similar time. Wouldn't take my boat in though - took the rubber duck and still grounded the prop in the entrance

 

[skip50]

Yes, you do need to work the tides to get in!

SWMBO and I were there in 1973 (I think) with my father on his boat. SWMBO and I went ashore for a walk, across on the other side were a row of houses. There was a chap standing outside one of them, (I had read Gavin Maxwell's book about their shark fishery), I said to him: Are you Tex Geddes? He looked us up and down, and said, 'Do you fancy a dram? Come in.'

We had the most amazing evening, I just wish I could remember any of the stories he told us.

 

[myquest]

I'm slightly biased in that I knew Tex but his book is a good read. I enjoyed Tex's book more than Gavin Maxwell's, but it really does irritate me that Maxwell is blamed for wiping out the basking shark population single handed, when it was far more likely to have been the Norwegians with a fleet of purpose built boats. I learnt to sail in Soay harbour in a gunter rigged clinker dinghy. My sister and I sailed many an imaginary voyage in the abandond "Traveller".
Another point of interest (probably only to me!) is that my Dad's boat is in one of the pictures.

 

[Tim O]

Maxwell's book, like all of his, is a fantastic read.....some brilliant evocations of the Hebrides. There's no way I believe he would have had any significant impact on basking shark populations....most of the time they seemed to have struggled to catch any !!!

 

[dgadee]

Maxwell's book, like all of his, is a fantastic read.....some brilliant evocations of the Hebrides. There's no way I believe he would have had any significant impact on basking shark populations....most of the time they seemed to have struggled to catch any !!!

I think it was after Maxwell that the Norwegians took an interest and moved boats down to the Minch. Geddes gives more information on them.