The Reaper Story

With the fishing industry in decline, the symbolism of a scrapping a local relic was unthinkable to the Burghead community.

The ‘Harvest Reaper’ was in desperate need of restoration, but with no money for labour, the community turned to a local unpaid work squad. The result was a monument to Burghead’s heritage and a signpost to a brighter future.

“I think, when I seen the boat, I kinda, there was a wee tear in my eye, to see the boat the way it was. Researching the history of the Reaper, we eventually found the one-time skipper, Jim, frae Fraserburgh, he was sad to see the boat dilapidated, to see her so different from when she was in her prime, and for him, thought we had to do something to save her from falling to bits. I’m Dan Ralph.”

“I’m Peter Wilson,”

“And we’re privileged in having strong, North-East voices,”

“And maybe we need to modify that for recording,” [laughter]

“I was asked about three years ago to rescue an old hulk of a typical North-East fishing boat, a forty-five foot Fifie, built in Fraserburgh, but the Council were on the point of breaking her up to make room for the development of some workshop units. Old boats are particularly interesting to me, I’ve been sailing all my life. I asked the Council for a week’s reprieve, long enough to get people together to get her moved, and we did that. Then people were saying ‘He’s rescued the boat, but nothing’s happening.”

“I’m the senior supervisor for the Community Service Team, A big part of my job is going out into the community, looking for jobs for the people I’ve got others through the courts. Dan got in touch with me, to see if we could look at a wee project, painting a boat that they were trying to save in Burghead.”

“Peter was a fishing skipper, and he has an interest in boats, so he took a pride in this project. Tourism’s really the way forward, the fishing industry here’s no’ great. Things of interest from our heritage, our fishing heritage, are important, and the folk can come and see them, and they’ll spread the word, and other folk will come back. So aye, it’s an opportunity to do something tangible for our fishing industry and for our heritage.

“A lot of people ask what they actually do in our community, and I didn’t know much about it, I thought it was maybe just cutting old ladies’ grass, digging in their flowerbeds and when I seen this boat, I thought, ‘It’s a forty-five feet big boat and it’s going to be very visual to people in the community, I didn’t know they could do things that were seen to be sustaining, so their work wasn’t just for half an hour, it was something more important.”

“We took on the project, not knowing how we’d get on with it, but after days of scraping and sanding and whatnot, Dan provided us with the paint and we gave it three coats, and it’s looking really nice now. The fact is, it wasn’t a clean job, it was a dirty job, a messy job, I let them get their hands dirty, I think that’s important.”

“I think because we’re such a close-knit community, it’s hard for some of the lads, or girls, who were in community service, because everybody in Moray, or most people in Moray, know about their offending behaviour. They came from all different backgrounds, some had problems with drugs and alcohol, so it’s thinking of ways that we can help them break that offending behaviour.”

“It’s nae about giving them their two or three chances, it’s about everything, sometimes when you look at their backgrounds, everything in their lives are in turmoil, it’s not just about us getting them through their community service, it’s about getting everything else sorted round about them, and until you get all that kind of thing sorted out, you can’t move them on, and a lot of the lads in the community service have actually took pride in the work that they were doing, and seen and heard the story from Dan.”

“I think one of the best things that I personally get out of the Reaper was seeing people going down there to start off this project and going ‘Aw, is this what we’re doing?’ and then after weeks of going back and forth, that changed the way that they looked at things, and came away from their offending and they’re actually into employment, so it’s changed them as well.”

“In years to come, I think a lot of the people who were involved in this Reaper, whatever they’re doing in Burghead, they’ll be saying to their friends, family, they’ll be going ‘I did that,’ and that’s the thing…”

“Pride in their abilities,”

“So there is good stories out of what we’ve done,”

“We need to look for more Reapers.”

“Paint the inside as well.”

“That’s our next job”

“It needs a tidy-out.”

“It’ll be going by the next time they come back.”