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The
architect of modern Scalpay was the late and gifted
Captain Roderick Cunningham, who was the head of a locally
based shipping-company, Roderick Cunningham (Scalpay)
Ltd, which traded all round the coast of Britain and
on occasion to Europe. Boats like the Isle of Rona and
the Isle of Lewis puffed about the United Kingdom carrying
coal and bricks and similar heavy cargoes, and the company
still operates in the West Highlands today, specialising
in the transport of Calor Gas and high explosives.
Captain
Cunningham was a shrewd businessman and able master,
and after the war he helped rebuild a fishing industry
in Scalpay. He invested his own money in boats and harbour
facilities, granting loans on generous terms. The strongest
point of the scheme was a principal of basic communism
- that each member of a boat's crew, young or old, took
an equal share of the catch. This was an ancient island
tradition long buried under the rigid seniority rules
of the Scottish fishing industry. But it gave young
Scalpay men a powerful incentive to stay home and try
the fishing rather than head for the shopfloors of Glasgow.
Scalpay
fishermen are resourceful and adaptable mariners. Though
the herring that used to be their economic mainstay
are now severely restricted, they have turned with great
success to the harvest of prawns and velvet crabs. A
new pier has given easy landing at all states of tide,
and an efficient co-operative provides good marine and
chandlering services.
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