West Loch, Lochiel, CalMac and Ticket Cases

Here's some pictures of the Caledonian MacBrayne ferry, the Lochiel, in the West Loch.

When I was a child our family used to go on holiday every year to the island of Colonsay, aboard the Lochiel. It was tremendously exciting - it seemed like an ocean-going liner to me - the various ports of call before Colonsay - Gigha, Jura, Islay (sometimes Port Ellen, other times Port Askaig) were places of exotic mystery. In the early days there was no pier at Colonsay and we used to have to transfer from the Lochiel to an open boat in sometimes very stormy weather. I was always afraid that I'd fall into the water as the open boat rocked and rolled over the sway of the water. Fortunately, none of us were aboard the Lochiel on the occasion when it sank in the West Loch (I tried in vain to find a photograph of that event - I know there is one because I remember seeing a photograph in the Campbeltown Courier at the time when it happened circa 1960). All of the lawyers reading this should know something of that event because in due course it produced the case of McCUTCHEON v. David MacBrayne 1962 S.L.T. 231, one of the so-called ticket cases. That case also featured a significant cameo role from one of the McSporran clan from Islay. He was the person who obtained the ticket for the transport of a car aboard the Lochiel - the car being subsequently lost in the sinking - Mr McSporran impressed the judge when he said that he never looked at the ticket, nor gave a moments thought as to what the conditions of carriage might be. In other words, your Honour, he was a typical Ileach.