The Heroine of the Princess Victoria

January can be a grim month. Intimations cover shop windows, announcing death after death. In 2021, a Covid outbreak in Thorney Croft Care Home saw 14 residents die. And on the very last day of January 1953, the Princess Victoria sank, with the loss of 135 lives.

The tragic story is known only too well. The Victoria made slow progress up Loch Ryan that morning. Emerging from the Loch she met with a gale-force storm and thirty-foot waves. Captain Ferguson managed to get the vessel turned, but it was then smashed on the stern by powerful waves. The car deck doors were damaged beyond repair and water flooded the deck. Read the rest of this article written by Rev. Stephen Steele for a local paper by clicking here.