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rescue launches towards the close of the war, and to the only cargo ship which arrived during hostilities, the Manx coaster Goldseeker. The firm, which had designed boats specifically for local beach use, but had sent the vast majority of its output elsewhere, ceased to operate in recent years, after a reputation for construction of high quality held since the latter years of the last century. In 1950 the County Council imported chippings in small, handy motorships. The last ship to use the port was on the same mission. The Lady Sophia arrived and sailed without a pilot aboard or a hobble boat on the water. Let this be remembered by those who decry the harbour as so silted as to be commercially ineffective. In point of fact, the increased manoeuvrability and lesser depth of modern motorships offsets any result from change in the harbour surface. From the point of navigation the harbour, when existing erosion will be cleared as planned, will be as accessible to contemporary coastal shipping as it ever has been. During the entire period under review, only one ship would appear to have failed to leave by the same fortnightly tides which allowed her arrival. This was the Hamburg motor-ship Dickie with the exceptional cargo of 580 tons of bricks in May 1928. Demurrage seems to have kept well out of the picture, and in contrast, smaller vessels as late as 1950 arrived on neap tides when rise and fall of water is minimal. The mate of this last visiting ship, John Garden, had to be recalled by many hoots of the siren, as the Aberdonian enjoyed his brief visit and hoped to return when he was given his first command. In point of fact I had hoped to accept his offer of a holiday, and was astounded to hear that his body was washed ashore at Ferryside when his first command was lost with all hands later in that year. Since then there has been negotiation by potential shippers, and this will probably continue as overcrowding increases on land routes. But negotiations will probably fail unless a company installs its own mechanism on the quay to discharge ships, with presumably a mobile employee to work this at intervals. No other man would want to down tools for two days to unload any ship even if its visits were comparatively regular. The bare costs of shipment would appear to be competitively attractive, according to my replies from Mr. Cowan in December 1958. As regards the Harbour Authorities, their position is that the certain- ty of letting sheds in a town sorely pressed for parking space helps to balance the burden of the harbour's loss, shouldered by the ratepayer. This should be viewed as a material loss only, for the energetic rate- payer has in the harbour the medium of space for his outlets much the same as in a playing field. Any serious request by traders for space for