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A flotilla in Wick Bay will provide a fitting backdrop this weekend to the unveiling of a striking new statue commemorating lost seafarers.
Songs of the sea performed by Wick’s Arion Choir and a specially composed tune by a local pipe band member will also add to the sense of occasion at Saturday’s Braehead ceremony.
The unveiling represents the culmination of a five-year campaign by the Seafarers Memorial Group, a committee of volunteers, to raise more than £100,000 for a monument honouring all those lost at sea from or in the WK registration area – stretching from Talmine in the west across to Stroma and down as far as Golspie.
Sculptor Alan Beattie Herriot was selected to create the statue at a site near Wick’s Pilot House, overlooking the harbour and bay. Rising to a height of five metres, the solitary bronze figure will symbolise how the sea “gives with one hand and takes away with the other”.
It will be the first major public memorial in the town for 100 years and members of the public are invited to attend (1.30 for 2pm).
The Wick and Longhope lifeboats will lead a procession of small boats out into the bay, weather permitting. If conditions are not favourable, the boats will gather in the outer harbour.
Small-boat owners have been invited to join in and have been asked to drop a flower into the water at the same time as wreaths are being laid at the memorial.
The Arion Choir will sing the Skye Boat Song and the Mingulay Boat Song.
Wick RBLS Pipe Band will play up until 2pm to welcome guests and will perform a specially commissioned tune towards the end of the ceremony. The piece – WK Seafarers Memorial – was composed by Ivor Mackay, a pipe band member and also a patron and committee member of the Seafarers Memorial Group.
Mr Mackay captains one of the support vessels for the Beatrice offshore wind farm and previously was the master of the Hamnavoe ferry. His tune captures the rise and fall of the sea.
Ahead of the unveiling, members of the Seafarers Memorial Group were joined by Wick Paths Group volunteers on Saturday and Wednesday to weed the paths at the Braehead. Edging was straightened and strimming carried out, while a litter-pick was also done.
John Bogle, secretary of the Seafarers Memorial Group, said: “The suggestion for a memorial in Wick to those lost at sea came originally from Allan Tait, who at the time was chairman of Wick Paths Group, because there was no such memorial in the north, unlike most other seafaring towns around the coast.
“A public meeting was called in April 2018 and a committee formed. We were lucky that Willie Watt agreed to be chairman.
“Our first task was to raise funds. We thought it might cost in the region of £70,000 to £100,000 – this was based on some very helpful information we received from Ronnie Hughes, who had led the successful project to raise a fishermen’s memorial in Pittenweem.
“We also started collecting images of various memorials from around the world.
“Fundraising went very well, with substantial amounts promised by Beatrice and the Caithness and North Sutherland Fund. We also received lots of donations from businesses large and small with connections to the sea – this was largely due to the contacts of Willie Watt and another of our patrons, Andrew Bremner.
“We were also very humbled by the generosity of individuals both near and far, many of whom had family connections with the sea.
“When we felt we had sufficient funds to proceed we advertised for potential artists to design the statue and drew up a short list of five. We subjected their bids to a scientific benefits scoring system.
“We then invited the top two to Wick to present more details and to answer questions. One artist, Alan Beattie Herriot, blew us away with his depth of experience, his professionalism and his previous works and he was duly appointed.
“We found Alan very easy to work with and his suggested design only required minor tweaks before he set to work on it.”
After a lull due to Covid, Mr Herriot presented his proposals at a well-attended public meeting in Wick in June 2022. The sculpture was completed by the artist on time and handed over to Powderhall foundry in Edinburgh.
Mr Bogle said: “The statue will sit on top of a 2.5m high stainless-steel column. We wanted to include local materials where possible and decided to surround the base of the column with large Caithness stone slabs that have been engraved with details of Black Saturday in 1848.
“These slabs are surrounded by granite setts from Wick harbour, then a Caithness stone path finished again with harbour setts. We also included four Caithness stone benches, two with backs detailing all the harbours in the WK vessel registration area and two without backs.
“We added five stainless-steel lecterns with tops detailing such things as safety at sea, fishing and Black Saturday. Three of these tops were designed by pupils at Wick High School.
“The groundworks were carried out by local contractors, led by Willie Watt.”
Mr Bogle added: “We are enormously grateful to everyone who has made this memorial possible – those businesses, grant-giving bodies and individuals who have donated funds, the local contractors who have donated materials and loaned equipment, and everyone who has helped in any way.
“I would particularly like to thank our chairman, Willie Watt. Without his leadership, drive and commitment this memorial would never have come about.
“He has a huge circle of contacts and the technical knowledge to project-manage the whole concept. He has also been very much hands-on at the site. His wife Valerie must have the patience of a saint!”
Saturday’s ceremony will be a standing event, although some seating will be available for those who are less able.
Alan Beattie Herriot’s other works include Aberdeen’s Robert the Bruce sculpture, the fishermen’s memorial in Pittenweem and a statue of a Black Watch soldier that was unveiled near Ypres to mark the centenary of World War I.
