The Talking-up Scotland fund raiser primarily to enable the recruitment of some research assistance, in order to take pressure off me [74 in June and tiring] and hopefully to further improve the blog, has made a good start. To contribute, only if you can (!) go to: Talking-up Scotland - a Politics crowdfunding project in Ayr by Professor John Robertson

By Professor John Robertson OBA, former Faculty Research Ethics Chair, UWS

This just popped up in a search for related ferry matters.

In July 2017, before the ‘ferry fiasco’ narrative really got going, I thought, BBC Scotland had this:

CalMac ferries lifejackets were involved in fatal Louisa sinking – Ferry operator Caledonian MacBrayne has confirmed the lifejackets used on its vessels are of the type involved in the loss of three fishermen last year. The Louisa sank as it lay at anchor in calm seas off Mingulay.

An investigation by the Marine Accident Investigation Branch (MAIB) found the lifejackets the men were wearing did not function as they should have done. CalMac said it was seeking guidance from the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) on its lifejackets. The survival aids involved are understood to be widely used.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-40753886

They never returned to this story and to this day have never had a ferry death to report on.

Had they operated in the Canadian region of British Columbia where in an economy twice as affluent as Scotland, with a similar island archipelago to serve, but in milder, less stormy waters, BC Ferries have been a bit more newsworthy. There, in addition to numerous injuries, there have been three ferry-related deaths in 1985, two in both 2000 and in 2006, one in 2011 and one in 2020.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_BC_Ferries_accidents_and_incidents

Safest in the world? Anywhere East or South of Greece has regular ferry sinkings and mass loss of life. Greece had one case in 2023 where the crew push a latecomer to his deaths in the screws.

The only other comparable large, archipelago-serving ferry service is in Washington State USA. In 2024 alone, their notoriously under-staffed ferries, have seen three deaths due to incompetent management of vehicles leaving ferries.

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