Farmer Drowned! (1859)

This particular incident doesn’t really follow the other examples in this section and shouldn’t really fall under the “wrecks and rescues” banner however since it involved a person drowning at Portlethen shore we will include the story. Without meaning to lessen the fact that a young man drowned I was intrigued by the novelty of the comment in the press that almost suggests that the man possibly got his come-uppance for bathing on the “Lord’s Day”.

A group of four young men decided to go bathing at Portlethen shore on a Sunday morning during a fine August day in 1859, amongst them was a 23 year old farm servant from nearby Mains of Portlethen. Possibly because of his unfamiliarity with the sea and rocks this young man had stepped on a sloping rock covered in seaweed and slipped into the water, somehow got out of his depth and being a non swimmer he soon “sunk to rise no more”. Unfortunately it would appear that his three companions couldn’t swim or were poor swimmers and they couldn’t reach or render assistance to him as he slipped out of reach.

Although slightly sympathetic to the mans plight the Aberdeen Journal quoted “the unhappy young man had gone to his account, and thus another awful warning has been given to those who employ the sacred hours of the Lord’s Day for purposes of their own”.