John and Donald MacDonald with a sunfish on Gott Bay pier
Photograph of John and Donald MacDonald with a sunfish on Gott Bay pier.
Courtesy of Dr John MacDonald
John MacDonald of Heanish and his son Donald were photographed with a sunfish on Gott Bay pier in the late 1920s or early 1930s. The ocean sunfish, Mola mola, is the most massive bony fish in the world and can grow over three metres in length.
Sunfish feed on jellyfish, plankton and small fish. They stay primarily in open waters, but can often be seen near kelp beds, large expanses of which surround Tiree. Its name ‘mola’ is Latin for ‘millstone’ which the fish is said to resemble in shape, colour and texture.
They propel themselves by flapping their large fins from side to side. Sometimes they are seen floating sideways in the water and it is commonly thought that they are basking in the sun. They are more often to be found further south in the waters round Cornwall and Wales.
Black and white photograph of John MacDonald on Gott Bay pier in the 1920s.
L-R: John `Nonian` MacDonald of Heanish and his son Donald with a sunfish on Gott Bay pier in the late 1920s or early 1930s. Donald jumped ship in Australia and lived there. (Donald is the brother of Jean MacEwan.)
Audio cassette recording of Maggie Campbell talking to John George MacLean in Scarinish on 11/1/2000.
Maggie Campbell talks to John George MacLean in January 2000 about the pay and conditions of the workers building piers in Tiree, the lighter taking cargo to the steamers, the sling and crane used to lift livestock, the railway tracks down Gott Bay pier to the stores, the pier at Heanish, the coal puffers and the ‘Mary and Effie’, pier masters, and the Scarinish Hotel and shop. Tha Mairead Chaimbeul a’ bruidhinn ri Iain Dheòrsa Mac ’Ill ’Leathain a Sgairinis anns an Fhaoilteach 2000 mun phaigheadh agus shuidheachadh luchd-obrach nan cidhe Thiriodh; an geòla a giùlain luchd gu na bàtaichean-aiseig; an crann a thog beathaichean; an rathad-iarainn air a’ chidhe; cidhe Hianais; bàtaichean-guail agus am Mary and Effie, na maighstirean-cidhe; taigh-òsda Sgairinis agus Bùth Dhan.
Photocopied extracts from the County of Argyll Fifteenth Annual Report by the Medical Officer of Health Dr Roger MacNeill, pp 38-41.
The building of the Isolation Hospital at Heanish and four cases of diptheria; tables of the numbers of cases of infectious diseases between 1892 and 1905.
