MacKenzie

Alexander MacKenzie Ex Meridian Tables

Acknowledgement and Update

Since I first published this web page, I have been contacted by Ian Alexander Macleod, who chanced upon this website while searching for his, and indeed my, great grandfather Murdo MacKenzie. It turns out that Ian, who is my second cousin, has a lot more information than I did about Sandy MacKenzie. Much of this information came from his father, Dr John Macleod, who was Sandy’s nephew.

Ian tells me that his middle name of Alexander was given to him in honour of his great uncle Alexander “Sandy” MacKenzie.

I am grateful for all this additional information, and also for his permission to publish it on this web page. I have updated this page to include the additional information. August 2023.

Sandy MacKenzie. Image courtesy of Ian Macleod

Alexander “Sandy” MacKenzie 1882-1932

Alexander MacKenzie was born at Shulishader, Isle of Lewis, Scotland on 15 September 1882. He was third child of Murdo MacKenzie and Ann MacLeod and the brother of my grandmother Henrietta MacKenzie.

His claim to fame was his book “MacKenzie’s Ex-Meridian Altitude Tables”. The main problem with using a sextant to calculate latitude was that it required a reading be taken of both the sun and the horizon at noon. If either the sun or the horizon was obscured by cloud at the stroke of noon, the reading would be inaccurate.

MacKenzie’s Tables enabled navigators to take a reading before or after noon and to calculate the adjustment necessary to obtain the correct latitude.

Sandy’s father and his grandfather had all been crofter fisherman, and the sea was in their blood. Going to sea must have seemed like the most obvious career choice in the world to Sandy.

Sandy’s grandfather Donald Mackenzie had been lost in a fishing accident in Broad Bay in 1859. Two of Donald’s brothers were on board at the same time. They were all lost and no bodies were ever recovered. This caused great hardship for the MacKenzie family

Birth Certificate

The extract from the Parish Register opposite, and marked in red, confirms the details of Alexander’s birth.

Sandy’s Birth Certificate

An old photo of Aird School, now demolished.

Early Years

Sandy MacKenzie is believed to have attended Aird School in Point. The school closed in 2011 and has since been demolished. I believe this to be the same school my father, Donald Thomson and his sister Jessie Ann Thomson attended, after they moved from Tong to Sheshader.

It is thought that Sandy might have run away from home at the age of 17 and possibly attended Nautical College in Glasgow before going to sea. Sandy’s father was always thought within the family, “to have ruled his family with a rod of iron”. In the light of this it is not hard to understand why Sandy might have run away.

However he spent his late teens, we know for certain that by the age of 20 in 1902 he had arrived in America as his date of arrival is confirmed on the 1920 Federal Census as 1902.

San Francisco Earthquake

It seems that at the beginning of the twentieth century Sandy was working on ships operating the “Clipper Route”. The Original Clipper Route was from the UK to Australia, but the American Clipper Route was a term used to describe the route from west coast ports to the east coast and back.

As the Panama Canal did not open until 1914, it was a route that followed the coast of South America and round Cape Horn, and became popular during the Californian Gold Rush in the middle of the nineteenth century.

As Sandy was in command of oil tankers for much of his later career, I would guess that he might have served his apprenticeship on oil tankers, shipping oil from the oilfields of California to the East Coast of America.

According to testimony from family members who knew Sandy, he found himself in San Francisco at the time of, or shortly after the San Francisco earthquake on 18 April 1906. He was involved in the rescue effort.

We know that he also sailed from Seattle as he applied for his Seaman’s Certificate there on 10 February 1909.

San Francisco Earthquake 18 April 1906

Evacuees leaving San Francisco

Evacuees leaving the City

A strong foreshock preceded the main shock by about 20 to 25 seconds. The strong shaking of the main shock lasted about 42 seconds. There were decades of minor earthquakes – more than at any other time in the historical record for northern California – before the 1906 quake.

Previously interpreted as precursory activity to the 1906 earthquake, they have been found to have a strong seasonal pattern and are now believed to be caused by large seasonal sediment loads in coastal bays that overlie faults as a result of the erosion caused by hydraulic mining in the later years of the California Gold Rush

Robert Peary

According to oral tradition in our family, Sandy was invited by Commander Robert Peary to be his navigator on his expedition to be the first person to reach the North Pole, but Sandy declined.

Robert Edwin Peary Sr. was an American explorer and officer in the United States Navy who made several expeditions to the Arctic in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He is best known for, in April 1909, leading an expedition that claimed to be the first to have reached the geographic North Pole.

Peary made his first expedition to the Arctic in 1886, intending to cross Greenland by dog sled, taking the first of his own suggested paths. He was given six months’ leave from the Navy, and he received $500 from his mother to book passage north and buy supplies. He sailed on a whaler to Greenland, arriving in Godhavn on June 6, 1886. Peary wanted to make a solo trek, but Christian Maigaard, a young Danish official, convinced him he would die if he went out alone. Maigaard and Peary set off together and traveled nearly 100 mi (160 km) due east before turning back because they were short on food. This was the second-farthest penetration of Greenland’s ice sheet at the time. Peary returned home knowing more of what was required for long-distance ice trekking.

Robert Peary 1909

North Pole 1909

North Pole

On July 6, 1908, the Roosevelt departed New York City with Peary’s eighth Arctic expedition of 22 men. Besides Peary as expedition commander, it included master of the Roosevelt Robert Bartlett, surgeon Dr. J.W. Goodsell, along with Ross Gilmore Marvin, Donald Baxter MacMillan, George Borup, and Matthew Henson. After recruiting several Inuit and their families at Cape York (Greenland), the expedition wintered near Cape Sheridan on Ellesmere Island.

On the final stage of the journey toward the North Pole, Peary told Bartlett to stay behind. He continued with five others: Henson, Ootah, Egigingwah, Seegloo, and Ooqueah. No one except Henson, who had served on the Peary expedition to Greenland of 1891–1892, had experience of naval-type observations.

On April 6, 1909, Peary established Camp Jesup within 3 miles of the pole, according to his own readings. Peary estimated the latitude as 89°57′, after making an observation at approximate local noon using the Columbia meridian. Peary used a sextant, with a mercury trough and glass roof for an artificial horizon, to make measurements of the Sun. Peary claims, “I had now taken in all thirteen single, or six and one-half double, altitudes of the sun, at two different stations, in three different directions, at four different times.”

Peary states some of these observations were “beyond the Pole,” and “…at some moment during these marches and counter-marches, I had passed over or very near the point where north and south and east and west blend into one.” Henson scouted ahead to what was thought to be the North Pole site; he returned with the greeting, “I think I’m the first man to sit on top of the world,” much to Peary’s chagrin.

Emigration to New York

According to the US Federal Census 1920 he came to the USA in 1902 at the age of 20. Within twenty years of his arrival he has been in command of several merchant ships, so I assume he joined the Merchant Navy and worked his way up through the ranks, until the United Staes entered the First World War in April 1917.

Sandy MacKenzie was commissioned into the US Naval Auxilliary Reserve as Lieutenant Commander on 8 August 1917, whereupon he took command of his first ship, an oil tanker which had just been commissioned as USS Los Angeles.

The USS Los Angeles was the first US ship to cross the Atlantic as part of the First World War.

Alexander MacKenzie 1882-1832

Enrollment as Lieutenant Commander 8 Aug 1917

Naval Service

Alexander MacKenzie was enrolled in the US Naval Auxilliary Reserve on 8 August 1917 in the rank of Lieutenant Commander.

USS Los Angeles

The SS Los Angeles was built by Union Iron Works at San Francisco, California, as a commercial tanker in 1916 for the Union Oil Company of California. The U.S. Navy acquired her from Union Oil in 1917 for World War I service under a bareboat charter, gave it the naval registry Identification Number 1470, and commissioned it as USS Los Angeles on 9 August 1917 at New Orleans, Louisiana, with Lieutenant Commander Alexander Mackenzie in command. During the remainder of 1917, Los Angeles operated along the United States East Coast and United States Gulf Coast and made two cruises with the Atlantic Train Force.

On 9 January 1918, Los Angeles was assigned to duty with the Naval Overseas Transportation Service and, after loading cargo at New York City, departed New York on 15 January 1918 for the British Isles. It reached Scapa Flow in the Orkney Islands on 4 February 1918, discharged its cargo there, and departed on 7 February 1918 for the United States East Coast, where it arrived on 27 February 1918.

SS Los Angeles requisitioned into US Navy as USS Los Angeles 1917

Scapa Flow, Orkney 1919

Scapa Flow 1919

When Sandy MacKenzie ran away from home and left Lewis in 1899 it was “for ever”, never to return. By a cruel irony, he would have sailed his ship the USS Los Angeles past his childhood home on the Isle of Lewis on his way to Scapa Flow in Orkney in February 1918, with a cargo of fuel oil for the war effort. I can’t help wondering if he plotted a route close inshore to Lewis to “salute” the island of his birth, although I know that a professional seaman like Sandy would never endanger his vessel for such sentimentality.

On 4 March 1918, Los Angeles departed New York for Port Arthur, Texas. Arriving there on 10 March 1918, she loaded fuel oil before departing for Hampton Roads, Virginia, on 14 March 1918. It arrived at Hampton Roads on 20 March 1918, then departed on 21 March 1918 to join a convoy bound for Europe. Between 21 March 1918 and 10 November 1918, Los Angeles made four transatlantic runs out of United States East Coast ports, carrying fuel oil to Brest in France and to Portsmouth and Devonport in England.

During the latter part of November 1918, Los Angeles transported a cargo of fuel oil from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to Cristóbal in the Panama Canal Zone. After loading crude oil at Tuxpan, Mexico, it returned to New York on 16 December 1918. Los Angeles was decommissioned at New York on 17 January 1919 and was returned to Union Oil the same day.

SS Vaterland

It is said that Sandy MacKenzie captained the largest ocean liner in the world at that time on her return journeys as a troopship at the end of the war.

SS Leviathan was an ocean liner launched on 3 April 1913 and began service in 1914 as the transatlantic ocean liner Vaterland for Germany’s Hamburg America Line. The ship, second of three running mates and then the largest passenger ship in the World, made its first voyage to New York arriving on 21 May 1914 under the command of a Commodore and four Captains of the German Naval Reserve to celebrations featuring German and American officials at the line’s Hoboken facilities.

SS Vaterland 1913, renamed SS Leviathan in 1917

SS Leviathan

With US entry into the war in 1917 Vaterland and the German line’s Hoboken facility were seized by the US government. The ship was placed under the control of the United States Shipping Board and in July 1917 to the Navy for completion of repairs and conversion to a troop ship. In July 1917 the ship was commissioned as the USS Vaterland and on 6 September 1917 renamed Leviathan and assigned to the Cruiser and Transport Force. The ship’s first troop transport voyage departed New York on 17 December 1917 with 7,250 troops

During the war the ship made ten round trips transporting more than 119,000 troops to Europe. That process was reversed after the war with the ship’s last voyage with returning troops arriving on 8 September 1919. The ship was decommissioned and turned over to the Shipping Board on 29 October 1919, remaining laid up at Hoboken until April 1922.

USS Hoven

After the Los Angeles was decommissioned, Sandy served as Master of the USS Hoven, an oil tanker of 14,530 tons and a length of 453 feet. This ship was decommissioned at the end of the first world war and was eventually sold to Standard Oil.

When the USS Hoven was decommissioned by the US Navy, she was returned to the US Shipping Board, by whom Alexander Mackenzie seems to have been employed.

The United States Shipping Board (USSB) was established as an emergency agency by the 1916 Shipping Act, on 7 September 1916. The United States Shipping Board’s task was to increase the number of US ships supporting the World War One efforts. United States Shipping Board program ended on 2 March 1934.

USS Hoven Oil Tanker, moored at the 69th Street Pier, Brooklyn, NY

Alexander MacKenzie – American Citizenship

US Citizenship

The document opposite shows that Alexander MacKenzie was naturalized in Seattle Washington on 10 February 1909. He then applied for a Seaman’s Certificate of American Citizenship on 15 September 1919.

Alexander gives his address as 496 East 17th Street, Brooklyn which is a large house in quite an affluent area of New York. In the 1920 census Alexander is found living in East 69th Street lodging with the family of Peter Teksmo. As his ship was moored at 69th Street Pier, perhaps he took lodgings locally to be near his ship.

The application also confirms that his next position will be as master of the West Madaket, where he will be appointed as Master on 6 April 1920.

East 17th Street, Brooklyn Today

The red arrow marks the position of 496 East 17th Street, Brooklyn, as it is today.

496 East 17th Street Brooklyn

SS West Madaket

West Madaket was built in 1918 as a commercial cargo ship at Seattle, Washington by the Skinner and Eddy Corporation. Launched on 5 October 1918, she was acquired by the U.S. Navy for World War I service upon completion on 31 October 1918, and commissioned the same day as USS West Madaket at Puget Sound Navy Yard, Bremerton, Washington.

Assigned to the Naval Overseas Transportation Service, West Madaket completed her sea trials too late to see service before World War I ended on 11 November 1918. She departed for the United States East Coast on 18 November 1918 with a cargo of 7,031 tons of flour consigned to European food relief. Voyaging via the Panama Canal, she arrived at New York City on 16 December 1918 and departed on 22 December 1918, bound for Europe. She made port at Falmouth, England, on 5 January 1919 and pushed on, that same day, for Rotterdam, the Netherlands, where she discharged her cargo until 23 January 1919.

Returning to New York on 9 February 1919, West Madaket loaded 6,841 tons of general cargo and made a voyage to Le Verdon-sur-Mer, France, returning to New York on 28 April 1919.

MacKenzie’s Ex-Meridian Altitude Tables

Sometime between arriving in New York and 1920 when he published his book, Alexander seems to have been busy creating a mathematical solution to the Ex-Meridian Problem.

“A seaman always knows his latitude”, is an ancient proverb which, although seldom uttered in this age of electronic navigation, emphasizes the importance the old-time seaman attached to knowledge of latitude. After the advent of position-line navigation due to Captain Sumner’s discovery in 1837, astronomical navigation was brought to a state of excellence by the French naval officer Marcq. St. Hilaire.

Thereafter the problem of finding latitude at sea by astronomical navigation became merely a special case of the general method of obtaining an astronomical position line. The end product of every sight for position finding at sea is a position line which may be, but seldom is in practice, drawn on a chart or plotting sheet.

I believe the book of tables which my father inherited was Sandy’s own copy as it includes six testimonial letters sent to him. What I particularly like about this book is the stain of a coffee cup on the front cover. It suggests to me that this book had pride of place at Sandy’s workstation on the bridge.

MacKenzies Tables Front Cover

Frontispiece to Tables

Old established practices die hard at sea: so much so that in spite of the fact that position-line navigation was introduced no less than a century and a quarter ago, many present-day navigators seldom think in terms of position lines.

Many think in terms of ‘latitude by meridian altitude’; ‘latitude by ex-meridian’; ‘latitude by pole star’; or ‘longitude by chronometer’: as their seafaring fathers and grandfathers did before them.

The troublesome disadvantage of the midday Sun sight is that the Sun and the horizon vertically below him must be visible at one particular instant of time during the day. It is not surprising, therefore, that in pre-position line days the enterprising seaman aimed to provide himself with alternative methods for finding latitude.

Latitude, together with Lead, Log, and Lookout, had become one of the four L’s of the navigator long before the Mariner’s Creed had been penned by that well-known Secretary to the Board of Trade, Thomas Gray.

Explanation of Tables

An explanation is offered, but which sadly leaves me none the wiser as to the intricacies of the solution.

MacKenzies Tables Explanation

MacKenzies Tables Plan

Latitude Diagram

A diagram to help explain how the tables enable a sighting to be adjusted to correct a reading that could not be taken at noon.

Example of Using Tables to calculate Latitude

This page from Alexander’s book provides a clearly worked example of how the tables would be used in a real world example.

All I can say is that many sailors must have welcomed the arrival of GPS Satellite Location.

MacKenzies Tables Example

Testimonial Letter

This testimonial letter was found loose in our copy of MacKenzie’s Tables, along with five or six other similar letters.

The letter was sent to Alexander MacKenzie, Master SS West Madaket, New York City. Presumably the US Postal Service knew how to deliver this mail when the ship was at sea.

Apparently my Aunt, Jessie Ann Thomson met Sandy when she lived in New York. She arrived in New York in 1930, two years before Sandy died. She told the story that Sandy took them them to the cinema and was very proper, but concerned that the content of the film might offend her strict presbyterian upbringing.

Jessie also mentioned that he had a yacht, moored on the Hudson river, and he took her on board. This seems an unusual berth for a leisure yacht and I can’t help wondering whether she meant ‘ship’, as the SS West Madaket was moored permanently on the Hudson at 69th Street Pier, and used as administrative offices for the US Shipping Board.

Jessie stayed in New York and was eventually married in the Presbyterian Church in Manhattan on 18 July 1935.

Death Certificate

Alexander MacKenzie died on 7 September 1932 from a heart attack at the age of 50. He was living in Hampton Virginia and he was buried in the Veterans Affairs National Cemetery in Hampton on 12 September 1932. He never married and left no children.

Alexander MacKenzie Death Certificate

Veterans Cemetery, Hampton, Virginia

Ancestor Chart

Murdo Mackenzie and Anne MacLeod

Alexander MacLeod, Donald MacKenzie, Fisherman, Henrietta MacKenzie, Isle of Lewis, Jessie MacDonald, Pilots Song, Scotland, Shulishader, The Pilot 0

Murdo MacKenzie and Anne MacLeod

Murdo ‘am Pilot’ MacKenzie

Murdo MacKenzie was born in Shulishader, Isle of Lewis, Scotland in about 1851. His father was Donald MacKenzie a fisherman, and his mother was Henrietta Mackenzie. Their story is told on a separate page.

Anne MacLeod

Anne MacLeod was born in Knock, Isle of Lewis, Scotland in about 1844. Her parents were Alexander MacLeod and Jessie MacDonald. Their story is told on a separate page.

Acknowledgement and Update

Since I first published this web page, I have been contacted by Ian Macleod, who chanced upon this website while searching for his, and indeed my, great grandfather Murdo MacKenzie. It turns out that Ian, who is my second cousin, has a lot more information than I did about the MacKenzie family. Much of this information came from his father, Dr John Macleod, who was the Pilot’s grandson.

I am grateful for all this additional information, and also for his permission to publish it on this web page. I have updated this page to include the additional information. August 2023.

Anne MacLeod

Anne MacLeod photographed in Stornoway in the early part of the twentieth century.

Murdo Mackenzie ‘am Pilot’ (The Pilot)

Murdo MacKenzie and his brother William were both noted for composing poems and songs. His brother William was known as “The Bard” and he emigrated to Canada.

Murdo was deeply religious and most of his poetry was about the Church. It was said that “he ruled his family with a rod of iron.”

In the photo opposite the Pilot is holding his great granddaughter Annette Young (nee MacLeod), who was my first cousin.

Murdo MacKenzie ‘am Pilot’. Image courtesy of Anne Young

Translation into English courtesy of ‘An Iodhlann’ – Tiree’s Historical Centre

Pilot’s Song

Many thanks to Ian MacLeod, and his father, for providing the explanation as to how Murdo became known as ‘am Pilot’.

Apparently, Murdo MacKenzie had a fishing accident where a fishing hook became embedded in his eye and he lost his eye as a result. After the accident he became known as ‘Pilot’ or ‘The Pilot’ after an old Gaelic song about a one-eyed dog called Pilot.

I have shown the words to the song in English opposite. The poem is reproduced with the kind permission of ‘An Iodhlann’ – Tiree’s Historical Centre. aniodhlann.org.uk

A recording of the song in Gaelic can be found here. It is sung most beautifully by Karen Matheson. Please be aware that this link will open a YouTube page in a new window where this music is located. If you do not have a subscription to YouTube Premium, you may have to endure a short advert, before the music starts to play.

Chuir iad an t-sùil à Pilot bàn,

Chuir iad an t-sùil à Pilot;

Chuir iad an t-sùil à Pilot bochd,

‘S gun fhios ciod an lochd a rinn e.

Dìol mo chuid mulan aig mucan a’ chùbair,

Chuir iad ‘n .an smùid an raoir iad

‘S beag a bha fhios a’m gu’n robh iad ‘s an dùthaich

Fhad ‘s a bha ‘n t-sùil am Pilot.

Ghleidheadh e dhomhsa ‘n gàradh-càil,

Gu là bho’n chromadh an duibhire

Policeman riamh cha robh aig na Goill

Cho math ris air faireadh na h-oidhche.

Ged thèìd mi do m’ leaba cha’n fhaigh mi loc cadail,

Le balaich a’ bhaile ‘s an oidhche;

Ach dh’fhaodadh na suirichean fuireach aig baile,

Mur dalladh a’ chaile mo Philot.

Saoil sibh fhèine nach bu neo-bhanail,

Am buill thug a’ chaile le foill dha

Gur mairg gill’ òg ‘g an leannan a’ bhèisd,

Bho’n chuir i bho fheum mo Philot.

Chuir mi petition a dh’ionnsaidh na ban-righ’nn,

a dh’ innseadh mar thachair do m’Pilot.

Thuirt i gu’n cuireadh i gini ‘am dhorn

a chuireadh suil oir ‘am Pilot.

Birthplace of Anne MacLeod

Anne was born in Knock, near the causeway at Aignish, Isle of Lewis, Scotland.

Knock, from the Gaelic, An Cnoc (a small hill), is a village in Point peninsula on the Isle of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland. Point (an Rubha in Gaelic) is connected by road across a narrow isthmus (barely 100 metres wide) to Stornoway, the main administrative centre of the Western Isles.

The village of Knock consists of between fifty and one hundred houses and is bordered to the south with Swordale and to the north with Aignish.

Aerial View – Village of Knock

9 Shulishader, Point

Anecdotes

Murdo MacKenzie was born at 9 Shulishader, Point and lived there for much of his life. I am not sure if I have found the correct croft, but this one is next door to 11 Shulishader, and marked as No 9 on Google Maps. It looks like it has what estate agents would describe as, “scope for improvement”.

Ian MacLeod recalls that his father told him the story of when his father was young, they were all sitting round the dinner table about to have a meal. Whilst the Pilot was saying grace, one of his father’s cousins or brother pretended to flick some food off his spoon at the Pilot. Dad copied this but unfortunately he hit the Pilot on the face with the food off his spoon.

He recalls, “My father managed to escape out the house before physical retribution was applied. He spent the night hiding up the hillock behind the croft.” The next morning his mother came out to him with a suitcase with his clothes. She said to him “Don’t worry John, there is a place in heaven for you” to which he replied “I need a piece of it now” and he made it by bus down to Crossbost to stay with Aunt Bella where he stayed for the rest of the summer. I am not sure if he went part of the time to the Macleod family croft in Aignish or not.

Family Anecdotes

Apparently at that time when a boat returned from fishing, the women would wade out and carry the fishermen ashore on their shoulders so that their clothes would not get wet.They would then have a whisky when they got back to the house.

On another occasion Dr John and his brother Donald decided to wash themselves with water from the water barrel outside the croft house on a Saturday night .The water was for drinking etc on the sabbath and the well was some distance from the house. Both brothers received the appropriate retribution.

When the Pilot got a radio, he would take his hat off when the news was read, and when electricity was installed into the Pilot’s house, he issued an edict that only he could switch the lights on or off.

Map of Shulishader 1840-1880

View of Knock Today

Knock Today

A view of Knock today, looking towards Stornoway.

Knock used to have a primary school and post office. The post office closed in 2008 along with many other post offices in the north west of Scotland.

Knock Primary school opened on 29 October 1878 and closed for the last time on 30 June 2011 when the pupils were moved to a new school in Bayble. The old school is now a locally run shop and café “Buth an Rubha & Cafe Roo” selling a wide range of everyday essentials and local produce. It opened on 7 March 2014.

There is another village called Knock, in the district of Carloway, in the Uig Parish of Lewis.

Shulishader

Shulishader (Scottish Gaelic: Siadar an Rubha) is a small village with a population of around 120 people in Point, Outer Hebrides on the Isle of Lewis, Scotland. Located on the north-western side of the Eye Peninsula, it overlooks Broad Bay. Most of the village is over 60m above sea level, affording excellent views across the bay and northern Lewis, though the land falls gently towards the sea before ending in small cliffs. There are several small, difficult to access, sandy beaches, and a small cove on the coastline. The cove is accessible via 88 dilapidated steps, and contains a pebble peach, some natural caves and a concrete structure once used for boat moorings above the high tide line.

The village is surrounded by common grazing land and moorland which is worked to provide peat as fuel, but this is a declining activity. Vodafone erected a mobile phone mast on the moor, a short distance east of the centre of the village.

Aerial View of Shulishader

Shulishader Today – Looking across Broad Bay towards Gress

Shulishader Today

The village is essentially a dormitory village, and there are no amenities within the village, not even a church, which is unusual for a Lewis village. An hourly bus service passes through from Portnaguran to Stornoway and in the opposite direction, though services are less frequent in the evening.

Marriage Certificate

Murdo MacKenzie married Anne MacLeod on 13 December 1877 in the Free Church in Garrabost (see below). Murdo MacKenzie records his occupation as a fisherman.

Anne MacLeod signed the Register with a “mark”. She was a domestic servant and both Murdo and Anne’s fathers were also fisherman.

Marriage – Murdo MacKenzie 13 December 1877

Garrabost – Free Church

Free Church in Garrabost

This rather austere building was the Free Church in Garrabost which is situated between Shulieshader and Knock.

Ancestor Chart

John Thomson and Henrietta MacKenzie

Alexander Thomson, Ann MacLeod, Crofting, HMS Isonzo, Isle of Lewis, Janet Ferguson, Murdo MacKenzie, Scotland, Tong 0

John Thomson and Henrietta MacKenzie

John Thomson

John Thomson was born at 32 Aird Tong, Isle of Lewis, Scotland on 6 September 1879. His parents were Alexander Thomson and Janet “Jessie” Ferguson. Their story is told on a separate page.

Henrietta MacKenzie

Henrietta MacKenzie was born at Shulishader, Isle of Lewis, Scotland on 18 January 1881. Her parents were Murdo MacKenzie and Anne MacLeod, Their story is told on a separate page.

John Thomson and Henrietta MacKenzie on their wedding 12 March 1908

Wedding Photo

I thought I would start off with a photo of the happy couple on their wedding day. Their marriage certificate shows that they were married on 12 March 1908 in Garrabost according to the customs of the Established Church of Scotland. It would seem that the MacKenzies worshipped at the Church of Scotland.

The Church of Scotland was founded in the Reformation when John Knox split from the Catholic Church. They espoused the theology of Calvinism. This is not to be confused with the Free Church of Scotland.

The Free Church was and still is sometimes colloquially known by the term “The Wee Frees”, even though, in 21st century Scotland, it is the largest Presbyterian denomination after the national church. Since this term was originally used in comparing the Free Church with the United Free Church (which is now a much smaller denomination), the Free Church of Scotland now deprecates the use of the term.

The Thomsons of Tong were members of the Free Church. In Garrabost there was both a Free Church and a Church of Scotland.

John Thomson

The illustration opposite shows the Birth Certificate of John Thomson at 32 Aird Tong, the family home. His father Alexander Thomson records his occupation as “fisherman”, but on John’s marriage certificate he records his occupation as “crofter”.

He was, of course, both a crofter and a fisherman, as the crofting way of life was a subsistence way of life which ideally required another source of income to support the family. As John was one of 14 children an additional source of income was almost a necessity.

John Thomson Birth Certificate 6 September 1879

Henrietta with her children fom left to right, Donald, Etta, Ivor & Jessie Ann

Family Photograph

The photograph opposite is a photograph of Henrietta MacKenzie taken about 1920. There was a fifth child called Johanna, who died in infancy in 1916.

Henrietta MacKenzie

My aunt told me the story of the day that they got the news about her father. A telegraph boy had been spotted cycling round Broad Bay, which meant only one thing; bad news for someone. Everybody would emerge from their croft and stand by their gate, hoping he would cycle on to Gress or Tolsta, but on this occasion he cycled into Tong and down to 32 Aird Tong to hand my grandmother the telegram to say that her husband had been lost at sea. My aunt said she was hysterical and inconsolable. My aunt was nine years old at the time.

Henrietta Mackenzie – Birth Certificate 18 Jan 1881

John Thomson – Service Record

John Thomson had been killed in the Mediterranean during the First World War, and, as a result, the family were evicted from the croft at 32 Aird Tong, which had been the family home for three generations. Henrietta lost her youngest child in 1916, then lost her husband in 1917, and was then evicted from their home.Henrietta moved to Stornoway to find work as a fishworker on the quayside. The children were split up and went to stay with various MacKenzie relatives on Point.

Eventually Henrietta managed to get a flat in Keith Street and was able to get her children back into a single family unit. Judging by the age of the children, I’m guessing that this photograph was taken about 1920, and was presumably to celebrate the reunification of her family.

The MacKenzie Family

The photograph opposite shows the MacKenzie Family. Standing at the back is Henrietta MacKenzie, my grandmother, with her arm on her mother’s shoulder. Her mother was Anne MacLeod.

On the chair is Isabella, who married Roderick MacKenzie a widower. It was said that Isabella’s father Murdo did not approve of the marriage as he hoped that she would look after him in his old age. He then moved in with Henrietta, who by this time was widowed.

Sitting, Jessie, the youngest, who was engaged to James Thomson. Two brothers engaged to two sisters, but he jilted her and she eventually married a policeman called Donald MacLeod of Aignish and had a family Norman (bank manager), Donnie (minister), Alastair (teacher) and John (doctor). They lived in Glasgow.

Henrietta MacKenzie with her mother Anne MacLeod.

Early photo of John Thomson

John Thomson

A photo of John Thomson, my grandfather, in his early years. One feature, which he appears to have passed on to his son, Donald, and also to me is the receding hairline. It provides a useful yardstick for dating photographs. In this photograph he has a very respectable hairline, but later photographs his receding hairline is more pronounced. I would guess that this photograph was taken about 1900.

As a sea faring fisherman, John Thomson would have been able to supplement his income by joining the Royal Naval Reserve (RNR). The Royal Naval Reserve is a part-time force of civilians, who provide the Royal Navy with the additional trained personnel it needs at times of tension, humanitarian crisis, or conflict.

As a consequence of his membership of the RNR, John Thomson was called up at the outbreak of hostilities in 1914, at the beginning of the First World War. He served aboard HMS Isonzo. The Isonzo, originally called the Isis, was a steamship of about 1,700 tons. She was originally built for P&O to reduce the time for mail and passengers between Brindisi in Italy and Port Said in Egypt. She was requisitioned by the Royal Navy and renamed HMS Isonzo in 1916.

She was used as a supply ship by the Navy, running a shuttle between Malta and Taranto in Italy where a British Battlegroup centred around the battleships, HMS Queen and HMS Prince of Wales was based. The Navy of the Austrian Hungarian Empire was docked in Trieste, and the British were seeking to blockade the entrance to the Adriatic Sea near Taranto, to prevent the Austro-Hungarian Navy entering the Mediterranean and joining the hostilities.

HMS Isonzo

A watercolour sketch of the Isonzo moored off the Castillo Grande Signal Station in Malta. Malta was used as a staging post for supplies and personnel for keeping the Battlegroup in Taranto fully supplied.

HMS Isonzo off the Castille Grande Signal Station Malta. NB Isonzo is the grey naval vessel in the centre not the sailing ship

HMS Isonzo at Malta 1916

February 1917

In January 1917, the Ships Log shows that the Isonzo was in dry dock having extensive repairs involving the removal of one of the steam boilers. The Ships Log for February 1917 is missing from the Public Record Office, but I was able to piece together her movements from the Ships Logs of other vessels that moored alongside her in Malta and Taranto.

This story is based on witness statements of another seaman from Lewis who was aboard Isonzo at the time. It seems that she left Malta bound for Taranto on 21 February. An incident ocurred on the trip, which apparently required the ship to seek shelter in a bay and send down a diver, who was supported by my grandfather. The diver got into difficulties and was rescued by my grandfather, but who was lost at sea in the process.

The Isonzo docked the following morning in Taranto and an inquiry was held on board one of the warships, but I have never managed to get a copy of the Inquiry Report at the National Archives.

Gibraltar

After the war the Isonzo was laid up in Gibraltar and sold to Italian Ship breakers in 1923.

HMS Isonzo

John Thomson RNR

Dating this photograph, from his hairline and also his uniform, I would guess that it was taken not long before his death in 1917.

I was proud to note that he wore the same splayed moustach as Thomson, one of the pair of detectives in the Tintin books. See the Home Page if you need an explanation.

Marriage Certificate

The illustration opposite is a copy of an entry in the Marriage Register of the Church of Scotland in Garrabost, referred to in the first paragraph of this page.

Scottish National War Memorial – Edinburgh Castle

Remembered with Honour

The Scottish National War Memorial, located inside Edinburgh Castle maintains a record of all service personnel from Scotland who lost their lives during the war.

The Certificate opposite recognises John Thomson’s entry in the Register.

Chatham Naval Memorial

John Thomson RNR is also included on the Chatham Naval Memorial.

Commemorated in perpetuity by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.

Chatham Naval Memorial – Leading Seaman John Thomson RNR

Gress Cemetery

Although his body was never recovered a Memorial Stone was erected in Gress Cemetery. The transcription reads

“Erected by his sorrowing widow Henrietta Thomson, in Sacred and Loving Memory of her dear husband John Thomson, who was drowned while on active service in the Mediterranean Sea. 18 February 1917”.

In fact the date is incorrect as he died on the 22 February.

Fishworkers

On her marriage certificate, Henrietta records her occupation as a fish worker. After her husband died, Henrietta returned to Stornoway and got work as a fishergirl on the quayside and was able to reunite her family.

Henrietta MacKenzie asked to be buried in the cemetery in Aignish, as she did not wish to share her final resting place with the man who had evicted the family from their croft at 32 Aird Tong. He, whoever he was, and I believe that he might have been a Thomson relative, had been buried in the cemetery in Gress.

Herring gutters Stornoway Isle of Lewis

Ancestor Chart

Donald MacKenzie and Henrietta MacKenzie

Broad Bay, Fisherman, Fishing Accident, Isle of Lewis, Knock, Point, Scotland, Sheshader, Shulishader 5

Donald MacKenzie and Henrietta MacKenzie

Donald MacKenzie

Donald MacKenzie was born in Knock, Isle of Lewis, Scotland about 1815. His father was Kenneth MacKenzie, a crofter from 9 Knock. His mother was Christian “Kirsty” MacLeod. Donald was one of twelve children.

Henrietta MacKenzia

Henrietta MacKenzie was born in Sheshader, Isle of Lewis, Scotland in about 1819.

View of Knock looking towards Stornoway

Donald MacKenzie

Donald was born in Knock in about 1815.

Knock is located at the western end of Point close to the isthmus that links to the main part of Lewis.

Henrietta MacKenzie

Henrietta Mackenzie was born in Sheshader in about 1819.

In about 1840 she was married to Donald Mackenzie. The lived in 9 Shulishader and raised seven children.

Sheshader Today

Broad Bay Stornoway

Donald Mackenzie

Donald was a fisherman sadly lost his life in a fishing accident in Broad Bay on 2 February 1859. No bodies were recovered.

Ancestor Chart

MacKenzie

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February 1917

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John Thomson RNR

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