Published in Scotland Magazine Issue 24 on 05/01/2006.

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Scotland’smaritime legacy

The exhibition Books on Ice: the British and American Literature on Polar Exploration which was due to be held at the Grolier Club in New York City over Christmas and New Year marks the end of an impressive series of initiatives to commemorate the United Kingdom as a sea-faring nation.

SeaBritain 2005 has been a national maritime celebration on a grand scale illustrating the ways in which the sea touches all of our lives in the UK, whether we live by the coast or inland.

The catalyst, of course, was the bi-centenary of the British naval victory under Admiral Lord Horatio Nelson against the Emperor Bonaparte Napoleon’s French Navy at the Battle of Trafalgar. However, for those who took time to reflect upon such matters, it also served as an important reminder that the British (encompassing England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland) are an island race. That has always been our strength.

And particularly that of the Scots, whose historic dependence upon the sea tends to be forgotten in an age of road transport and jet travel. From the earliest days of Dalriada, virtually all communication with the outside world, and in particular with England, was by boat.

On the Western Seaboard there was constant trafficking between the Isle of Man, Ulster, the Hebrides, and the Scottish mainland. On the East Coast, the tiny ports of the Firth of Forth and Firth of Tay opened up a network of routes to Holland and the Low Countries, and to the south along the coasts of Northumberland, N.....

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By Roddy Martine

Section : Roddy Martine's World

Page number : 7