West Highland Free Press column

Description

Contributions to the Tobar an Dualchais column in the West Highland Free Press.

 

There are several descriptions in Tobar an Dualchais of a boat type from Beàrnaraigh na Hearadh/Berneray, Harris, known as a peàirdse. Through the 19th century they were the versatile workhorses of Caolas na Hearadh/Sound of Harris, fulfilling the countless needs of the island community carrying everything from peat to livestock to creels.

The term peàirdse (or bàirdse) is likely a Gaelicisation of the English word ‘barge’, itself from Latin ‘barca’, denoting a flat-bottomed coastal vessel in use throughout Europe.

Such boats would use sails and oars to move. The keel, if they had one at all, was slight. Instead, these vessels might have a pivoting side keel, known as a leeboard, which allowed them to be beached easily on the shore for loading and offloading.

It seems that the Gaelic term peàirdse became associated with a specific vessel type native to the isles of Harris, including Beàrnaraigh/Berneray. I should also note that there is no agreed spelling of the word, being variously peaird, pearrdse, peirdein or other.

A detailed description of this craft was given by Archie Paterson (1900-1970), Eairdsidh Ailein of Borgh/Borve, to the fieldworker Ian Paterson in 1968 (Track 42506).

Archie belonged to the principal boatbuilding family in the island and would have seen the last generation of peàirdseachan in the island in the 1920s and 1930s.

He depicted the peàirdse as a flat-bottomed open-decked boat (eathar fosgailte leathann), around twenty feet in length. The bow was plumb (cruaidh), or vertical, and the stern was raked (bog), or sloped.

The boat carried a jib and gaff mainsail (siob is seòl), meaning that the sail could be left aloft while beating or changing direction. The gaff rig differed from the lugsail of the Fifies, another type of boat imported from the East Coast, which had to be lowered with every change in direction.