Wick memorial to seafarers will be 'something special' as design is revealed
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Wick's memorial to lost seafarers will be "something special for the town" and one of the top monuments in the north of Scotland, a public meeting heard this week.
Rising to a height of five metres above the Braehead, overlooking the harbour and bay, the solitary bronze figure will symbolise how the sea "gives with one hand and takes away with the other".
The design for the statue was revealed on Wednesday night at a public meeting organised by the Seafarers Memorial Group, a committee of volunteers set up almost four years ago.
The group has raised more than £100,000 for a monument to all seafarers lost at sea from or in the WK registration area, which stretches from Talmine in the west across to Stroma and down as far as Golspie.
Chairman Willie Watt said there had been "a magic response" and "amazing support" for the project. He told the meeting in Mackays Hotel, attended by around 60 members of the public: "It allows families with tragic tales to tell to actually have somewhere to go to reflect."
Sculptor Alan Beattie Herriot has been selected to create the sculpture, which is due to be unveiled in May 2023. He was present at the meeting to explain the idea behind the design and describe the production process.
A maquette, or scale model, was on display in the hall along with illustrations.
The bronze statue will stand on top of a stainless-steel base plinth surrounded by five lecterns and two bench seats.
The male figure will have one arm outstretched, holding a representation of a haddock, while the other hand gestures towards a panel at the base of the column containing figures of sea users from past and present in bas-relief in bronze.
“It's not a fishermen's memorial, it's a seafarer – all the people that went to sea and lost their lives," Mr Herriot said.
“Really that's why I came up with the one single figure which represents the sea. It gives with one hand and takes away with the other.”
Mr Herriot was visiting Wick High School yesterday to work with senior art pupils on designs for three of the stainless-steel lecterns.
The overall height of the base plinth and statue will be five metres and Mr Watt said it would be "subtly uplit".
Mr Herriot, whose studio is south of Edinburgh, also spoke about some of his other prominent works – including Aberdeen's Robert the Bruce sculpture, the fishermen's memorial in Pittenweem and a statue of a Black Watch soldier that was unveiled near Ypres to mark the centenary of World War I.
The Wick statue will be the first major public memorial in the town for 100 years.
Mr Watt called it "a missing part of the jigsaw" for the community.
"It will be something special for the town and one of the top monuments in the north of Scotland," he said.
"There has been nowhere that we can go and lay a wreath or reflect – and there are a lot of tragic stories, unfortunately."
Mr Watt reminded the audience about the Black Saturday event in Wick Bay in August 2019 organised by the Seafarers Memorial Group to commemorate the 1848 disaster which claimed the lives of 37 fishermen from Caithness, the Western Isles and Orkney in Wick Bay.
"We got a lot of good feedback," Mr Watt said. "It was a very emotional event. It was a beautiful but sad occasion, and it just reminded us how connected we are to the sea and how important it was to have something to commemorate it."
Mr Watt also spoke about the sinking of the cargo ship Cemfjord in the Pentland Firth seven years ago, with the loss of all eight crew.
He pointed out: "It is still a dangerous game out there. Just recently, in 2015, we lost the Cemfjord.
"That was a modern ship with all the gear and it didn't get time to put out a Mayday.
"So it is a very dangerous environment and we are hoping that we can make sure that the youngsters understand it through the RNLI and through telling folk about people who have lost their lives, and also embracing our history and heritage in relation to the sea."
In December, a grant of £20,710 from the Caithness and North Sutherland Fund took the Seafarers Memorial Group to its six-figure target. The amount raised now stands at around £103,000
Mr Watt told the meeting: "It has been a fantastic effort by everybody.
"The aim that we put up four years ago was to provide a lasting and striking memorial. I think you'll agree it is striking, and it will last.
“We are really excited about it.”
Related stories:
- Wick seafarers memorial campaign takes another step forward thanks to 'amazing generosity'
- Local businessman in fundraising hook-up with Wick Seafarers Memorial Group
- Wick's Black Saturday victims commemorated 171 years on
