Undiscovered Scotland

 

Standing on a grassy area in Wick's Braehead and overlooking the harbour and Wick Bay is what is said to be the first new statue erected in the town in a century, since the town's war memorial. The Seafarers Memorial is a bronze statue on a plinth surrounded by lecterns and memorials. Including the plinth, the statue stands five metres tall and the surrounding landscaping is mainly of Caithness stone.

The statue's figure represents the sea and has one hand raised holding a fish and the other pointing down to the memorials below. It was designed by Scottish sculptor Alan Beattie Herriot and was cast at Powderhall Foundry in Edinburgh. It was unveiled on 20 May 2023. (Continues below images...)

 

As one of the surrounding lecterns puts it: "This Seafarers Memorial is the result of a strong community desire that those who were lost in the wild seas around our coast deserved to be symbolically remembered with a dedicated memorial. There are too many names to mention individually however here, at this place of reflection, their names are forever held by the sun and moon that rise and set over Wick Bay."

It goes on to say that drawings on the surrounding lecterns were done by pupils of Wick High School and the site works were completed with support and assistance from local businesses and the community at large. The way the pupils' drawings have been transposed onto the metal lecterns is one of the many impressive and touching aspects of the memorial.

While many of those who have died in the waters around these coasts are not individually remembered, those who lost their lives on "Black Saturday" do have their names on the memorial. As it says: "On the evening of Friday 18th August 1848, 800 fishing boats had left Wick Harbour for their fishing grounds. In the early hours of Saturday morning a terrible deadly storm struck... Official records state that 37 lives, as recorded on this memorial, were lost while their families and friends looked on from the shore in horror."

The Seafarers Memorial is a beautiful and poignant reminder that while the sea gives with one hand it also takes away with the other.