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 The
moniker of 'zulu' came about because of the on-going
wars of that name at the time. The Scots, who had been
on the receiving end of British rule for centuries,
sympathised with the zulu people who were fighting to
preserve their identity and after large numbers of Scottish
soldiers were killed through British military blunders,
popular opinion erred in favour of the word 'zulu' being
adapted for this style of boat.
The first of the new type appears to have been the Nonesuch,
INS2118, launched in 1878 and built for Lossiemouth
fisherman William 'Dad' Campbell. One story is that
his wife was from Fraserburgh and he from Brandenburgh
so that they couldn't decide on the type of boat they
should have built - she favoured the fifie and he the
scaffie - so they built a bit of both.
Other stories tell the same basic tale with different
personalities, bit it seems more likely that the design
merely evolved through usage and development. Whatever
the truth was, Nonesuch was 52ft overall with a 39ft
keel length, and was an immediate success.
Within
a year these were called the 'Buckie scaffie' or modern
herring boat until 1881 when the Cetewayo, INS358 and
Transvaal, BF301, were built with their names evoked
by the zulu war. The following year came Zulu BF662,
and the next year it seems that they were all being
registered as zulu boats.
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