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Public asked to look out on beaches for National Trust’s small wooden boat bearing message

St Kilda mail launch to mark 80 years since evacuation

By ken jones
Published: 31/08/2010
Messages in bottles have frequently been cast into the sea in the romantic hope that they will end up on some far flung sun-kissed beach.
But for islanders on the remote wind-lashed archipelago in the Atlantic, such launches, not in a bottle but a small wooden boat, was their only way of communicating with the outside world.
Now the National Trust for Scotland, owners of St Kilda, have re-enacted a launching to help commemorate the 80ft anniversary of the islanders’ evacuation from the western outpost.
Now the conservation charity is urging beachcombers to keep their eyes peeled for sight of the little green and red painted boat with a small sail and bearing the legend – St Kilda Mail Please Open – - which was cast off on August 29.
Susan Bain, who manages St Kilda for the charity, said: “It could wash up almost anywhere on the coastlines of Scotland or Scandinavia. But we suspect the boat is likely to turn up somewhere in the Western Isles.,”
She added: “However, it’s not unusual for them to turn up in Orkney or further afield. I launched one recently and it was found in Northern Norway.” There is an added incentive to recover the little vessel. “Anyone finding the mail boat will be in for a nice surprise, as it contains a year’s free membership of the National Trust for Scotland,” added Ms Bain.
“It also contains postcards which we hope the finder will send on to our patron, Prince Charles and to Norman John Gillies, now 85 and one of the last surviving former residents of St Kilda.
“Mail boats are a poignant symbol of the isolation faced by St Kildans – a major factor in the evacuation of the islands – so we felt it was appropriate to commemorate the anniversary in this way, she added.”
St Kildans fashioned mail boats out of a wide variety of waterproof containers – including bottles and cocoa tins, and were traditionally kept afloat by an inflated sheep’s bladder.
The first mail boat was sent out as a distress signal in a time of famine by John Sands, a journalist, who was stranded on St Kilda during winter of 1876.
Mail boats are now sent by conservation work parties as part of the ritual of visiting St Kilda.
A recent mail boat sent with greetings to the new Scottish Parliament arrived within a few weeks.
The last 36 remaining residents of St Kilda requested to be evacuated to the mainland, leaving St Kilda on August 29, 1930, ending 4,000 years of habitation on the island.
In addition to its duel World Heritage status, St Kilda has been designated a National Nature Reserve, a National Scenic Area, a Site of Special Scientific Interest and a European Community Special Protected Area.
“The trust is immensely proud of the work it does to preserve and enhance such a unique and important environment,” said Ms Bain.

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