The Storyof the Craig Group · I would like to take this opportunity to pay tribute to the ... To my father and mother for having the imagination to ... Late summer,quite aside from

his is the story of Aberdeen’s Craig Group, a family business whose beginnings

are anchored in the City’s once powerful fishing industry, but which has largely

been displaced by the prosperous North Sea oil and gas industry. Established in

the 1930s, Craig grew to become one of Scotland’s most successful trawler fleet

owners prior to diversifying into the offshore industry and evolving to the multi-faceted,

award-winning fishing to international energy services group that it is today.

It is a voyage that is made all the more remarkable by the fact that its chairman, David Craig,

was there right at the beginning when his father established the business.

He has witnessed massive change ... from being a deckhand on an ancient steam trawler

reliant on gas carbide and paraffin for lighting to, on March 7th this year, hosting the

christening of Grampian Explorer, an £11million, state-of-the art, go anywhere offshore

support vessel.

THE AUTHOR: Jeremy Cresswell has a passion for the sea that started with voyages to Canada and New Zealand

during his childhood, then evolved to yacht cruising, aquaculture and commercial fishing. Today he is an energy and

maritime affairs journalist and is editor of The Press and Journal supplement Energy.

The Story of the Craig GroupJeremy CresswellCraig Group Ltd, 207 Albert Quay, Aberdeen AB11 5FS, Scotland UK Tel: +44 (0) 1224 592206 Fax:+44 (0) 1224 584174 www.craig-group.com

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The Story of the Craig Group

Jeremy Cresswell

Special thanks to The BIG Partnership and Hampton Associates in the production of this book.

Time & Tide - The Craig Group Story

The Craig family: George Snr, David, George, Lydia and Mother Mary.

3

FOREWORD by David Craig . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5

INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6

PART ONE: The Fishing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9

PART TWO: The Oil Era . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .41

TABLES & PHOTOS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .73

CONTENTS


David and Helen Craig with his prize-winning dahlias.

After much persuasion from family and friends, I started putting pen to paperin an attempt to compile my memoirs, describing the early days of The CraigGroup and capturing some of the anecdotes in our seventy years in business.

From my initial scribblings and ramblings, the concept for this book wasdeveloped. Thankfully, the task of authoring our history fell to a realwordsmith and my contribution simply involved reminiscing and recountingthe tales of days gone by. A chore I thoroughly enjoyed!

Seventy years in business is a significant milestone and I am proud of our richmaritime heritage. I would like to take this opportunity to pay tribute to thefamily on whose Christian values, unity and loyalty the company was founded.To my father and mother for having the imagination to establish the business,my brother George and my wife Helen who are sadly not around to celebrateour 70th year, and my sister Lydia and her late husband George Bell for theirsupport. We made a good team and our unity gave us strength to move forwardsuccessfully.

As the third generation, my son Douglas has steered the group into new watersand continues to find new opportunities to grow the business and safeguardthe future. Under his leadership and guidance, the company is in a strongposition for the next generation to continue the legacy.

The book is divided into two distinct parts, taking the reader on a journeythrough our roots in the fishing industry and then on to the discovery of NorthSea oil and gas and our steps towards becoming a global player in this sector.

I hope it is a journey you find nostalgic, entertaining and informative.

DAVID CRAIG

5

FOREWORD

berdeen is Europe’s Energy Capital, a hive of intenseoil and gas activity the likes of which can be foundin only a few other centres worldwide. This is abustling port that makes few concessions totradition, with massive infrastructure changes since

North Sea oil was first discovered at the end of the 1960s.

It was once a thriving fishing centre, but the fleet has been decimatedsince Britain joined the Common Market in 1973, coupled withbeing banned from Icelandic and Faroese waters. Quaysides that wereformerly crowded with large trawlers moored mostly nose-on -discharging their catches, or resting briefly before heading to seaagain - are now all but empty.

This was the world that David Craig, today the oldest shippingcompany chairman in the land, grew up in. Moreover, the companyfounded 70 years ago by his father, George Craig Snr, continues tothrive ... one of the few traditional Aberdeen firms to have trulysuccessfully capitalised on fishing and North Sea oil.

David’s is a hectic life. This year he was in Cape Town visiting thecompany’s latest venture, a base that will act as launch-pad for marinesupport and energy supply chain services to the fast growing offshoreoil and gas industry of southern and western Africa.

In the spring, he welcomed Aberdeen’s outgoing Lord ProvostMargaret Smith and hundreds of guests aboard one of the CraigGroup’s latest marine investments, the £11million, Norwegian-builtoffshore support vessel Grampian Explorer.

Through the Scottish media, and particularly The Press and Journal,Fishing Monthly and Fishing News, David pointedly told theGovernment and EU fishery commissioner Franz Fischler that theCommon Fishery Policy had brought Scotland’s fishing industry tothe brink of disaster.

Late summer, quite aside from tending his beloved dahlias,preparations were under way to fly the Craig Group’s pennant atOffshore Europe.


INTRODUCTION

George Craig Snr.

For David Craig, this is all a far cry from starting his career as thelowest form of life aboard a family-owned coal-fired steam trawlerthat hunted the waters around the Faroes, even Iceland.

And it’s a long way removed from his ship being blasted from underhis feet by the Germans in World War Two; or 30 or so years later,from battling against the economic impact of the Iceland Cod Warswith his brother and long-time co-managing director George; or inthe 1970s grasping early opportunities in the then embryonic NorthSea oil industry.

Once the core business, fishing accounts for just 5% of groupturnover today. The company has been transformed to one ofScotland’s Top 100 companies, ranking as market leader in offshorestandby, marine electronics, mooring rentals, catering andprocurement, with bases in the UK and internationally.

But for North Sea oil and the bonanza it brought to Aberdeen, thecompany, then George Craig & Sons, might have gone under,become part of the Granite City’s sepia-tinted history.

Then came salvation in the shape of a Texan oilman who, one Fridayin the early 1970s, walked into the Craig offices and asked if he couldhire a trawler to act as safety vessel to a rig then drilling in the NorthSea.

The brothers, who were joined by David’s son Douglas in September1975, saw their chance and rapidly adapted, converting trawlers tostandby vessels to support the fast growing North Sea oil industry.They had no intention of sinking without trace.

And how they have prospered, with Craig Group recognised as one ofScotland’s most successful and entrepreneurial family businesses. Ifaccolades count for anything, then an Ernst & Young Award forEntrepreneur of the Year received at a dinner in Edinburgh thissummer is surely a measure.

Today, the group is becoming increasingly global in its outlook, with10 bases spread from North America to Europe, Africa, the Caspianand East Asia. Spearheading the push is a family of specialistdivisions, with Craig Energy Services now providing a commongateway to subsidiaries North Star Shipping, Seatronics (marineelectronics) and CIS (Craig International Supplies), Catering

Services, International Mooring Systems (IMS) and ChainCoInternational. There is also a vibrant leisure division.

This is the vision of group managing director Douglas ... building onthe foundations laid by two prior generations ... being bold yetconservative ... working with a hand-picked management team andloyal workforce and where safety is the watchword.

The purpose of this book, which is in two parts, is not just tocelebrate 70 years of the Craigs in business; hopefully it will alsomake a small contribution to recording some of the history of two ofthe North-east of Scotland’s greatest industries - Fishing and NorthSea Oil.

JEREMY CRESSWELL Newburgh, October 2003

7


Trawlers moored at Aberdeen Fish Market, awaiting to discharge their catch in the 1930s.

o walk Aberdeen’s fish market at 6am in the mid 1960s,was an unforgettable experience. Winter, spring,summer or autumn, the excitement was immediate. It was the busiest place in town by far, with MarketStreet heaving with the kind of life that only a great

fishing port can generate.

Picture trawlers and great line boats crowding in along the quays, theshrieking of derrick blocks as wicker creels of fish were swung ashore,great cod - known as ‘green’ in the trade - readied for auction, halibutthat seemed as big as doors laid out with great precision on the wetconcrete, boxes of haddocks, each bearing St Peter’s thumbprint ontheir flank, and other denizens of the deep that the writer, then ateenager, struggled to identify.

This was the world of David Baxter Craig, then at the top of hisprofession as a trawler skipper and joint managing director with hisbrother George of one of Aberdeen’s largest and most progressivefishing companies, George Craig & Sons.

Little did the Craig brothers, their families, nor the thousands ofpeople who wrested their living from this most hard bitten oftraditional industries, know that, by the 1970s, their way of life

would be all but swept away by politics and that North Sea oil wouldprevail as Aberdeen’s dominant industry.

The Aberdeen trawler fleet of the 1960s was potent, with a largenumber of smart diesel trawlers displacing ancient, worn out steamersthat were then consigned to the quay at Point Law to await a finaltow to the breakers.

The Craigs were at the forefront of the modernisation drive, with theMary Craig setting the trend, her clipped lines set off with rakishfunnel and the first ‘lantern-style’ wheelhouse ever to be seen on aScottish-owned fishing vessel.

The brothers were in their element, one ensuring that every newaddition to the Craig fleet was properly shaken down and fishingwell, while the other kept a firm hand on the corporate helm.

TRIPPING DOWN MEMORY LANE

The brothers were from a classic North-east fishing family ... fatherGeorge originated from Portlethen south of Aberdeen, being one of afamily of eight - six boys and two girls; while mother Mary BaxterCraig was born and brought up in Footdee.

9

Part One

THE FISHING

David was born in Torry on the 21st April 1916, the second eldest ofsix children John, David, George, Ann, Mary and Lydia. Sadly, John,Ann and Mary died in infancy. Moving to Fonthill Road, the familywas later to have a bungalow built on Anderson Drive, clear evidencethat fishing was a worthwhile business to be in.

Further evidence that the cold North Sea and Eastern Atlantic coulddeliver a decent living was that, after a spell at Ruthrieston secondaryschool (now closed), David was transferred to Robert Gordon’sCollege, which was then boys only, and mostly sons of doctors,lawyers and other monied professionals. His mother’s wish was thathe would enter medicine and train as a doctor. Little was she to knowthat David was to be awarded an honorary Doctor of Laws by TheRobert Gordon University many years later; different, but a doctornonetheless.

“Growing up in the early part of the century I can recall the days ofthe ‘leerie’ when the gas lamps which lit the streets at night had to belit by hand,” recalls David. “Watching the ‘leerie’ was fascinating, ashe walked the streets at sunset with a six-foot long pole with an ironloop attached, into which a matchstick was inserted and lit at everylamp post. Then he would be back early morning to extinguish thelamps.

“Other memories of growing up were of the weekends when myfather returned from sea ... our pocket money was generally onepenny. It took George and I nearly all afternoon visiting the variouscorner sweet shops looking for the box that held the ‘lucky tattie’.Generally when the boxes were at least half full you had theopportunity to examine each tattie. With a quick eye, you could seethe hint of a small piece of paper protruding through the candy, so


George Craig Jnr (left), and John Lockhart of Vicker’s view the morning’s catch at Aberdeen FishMarket in the 1960s.

The young David Craig on board the River Ness in the1940s.

you’d buy that tattie. It contained a half penny, or hae’penny, tospend on another one!

“Another attraction was ‘Ogo-pogo Eyes’ or ‘gobstoppers’ ... a largemarble size hard sweet which when sucked changed colour at everylayer. This was very helpful during the marble season or ‘bools’. For asuck of your sweet from one colour to the next your pal would giveyou a normal marble, but if it was a glass marble your pal had earnedhimself two sucks of your sweet. This was pretty profitable if youcould afford to buy the sweets as the glass or steel marbles were theelite in bools. The favoured shoppie was that of GM Smith’s at thebottom of Crown Street.”

And a further prank was to try and top up the finances by placing afarthing on tram lines and waiting for a tram to flatten it to the size ofa halfpenny.

“After all, a halfpenny would buy a lucky tattie, whereas a farthingwould only get you a gobstopper. But the wheeze was unsuccessful.”

Like most if not all of us, David Craig recalls some of the snippets ofhistory imparted by his father; about water trams that operated in1912 which sprayed water on the street from either side of the tram;also that a harbour ferry once ran between Footdee and Torryapproximately 200-300 yards west of the present Round House.

He also recalls that, when his father and uncles started in the fishing,they were working wooden vessels, mostly fifie sailing luggers thathad been built in the late 1800s to pursue herring. They worked withdrift nets - a curtain of mesh suspended just beneath the sea’s surfaceusing buoys and which would stretch anything from 1.5 to 2 miles.The gear would be shot at sunset and hauled in the early hours of themorning. The herring, known as ‘silver darlings’, came off the bottomduring the dark as the plankton they fed on rose to within a few feetfrom the surface and became enmeshed by the gills. Outwith theherring season, the boats also hunted for haddock using handlines.

“My father told me on several occasions that, while fishing some 70-90 miles East of Aberdeen and having filled their hold, the boats wereoften becalmed for a time due to lack of wind and were obliged toaccept a short tow from a merchant vessel, hoping that enough of abreeze would eventually spring up to send them bowling home undercanvas.”

The first vessel bought by the family at that time was the smackWhite Rose, the builder’s half model of which remains in David’s

possession. And it was following ‘their reasonable success’, as he putsit, that the rest of the family settled in Aberdeen.

By this time steam power was starting to sweep sail aside, with steamtrawlers and other types of fishing vessel like liners and drifters builtin some number and operating successfully.

“A number of steam trawlers and line vessels were built at Aberdeenand I can remember as a young boy my father taking me to visit JDuthie’s shipbuilding yard near Greyhope Road in Torry andwitnessing such a fishing vessel being launched. Other shipyards werealso actively building, especially Hall Russell at Footdee, which builtnaval and merchant vessels, plus some trawlers, while John Lewis &Sons of Torry became largely involved in building fishing vessels ofvarious sizes.”

By the early 1920s the Craigs were beginning to reap the benefit ofhard work and persistence: “My uncles John, James, William, Joseph,Andrew and my father George decided that the time had come for aproperty to be purchased to accommodate an office, plus a generalnet and gear store. At this time William the third eldest was not inthe family business being a certified engineer and working as a chiefengineer on a merchant ship.

“John, being the eldest, decided to retire from the sea and took chargeof the new enterprise in Menzies Road, Torry (in the vicinity ofCordiners Garage), calling it Craig’s Stores. Once established, thebrothers purchased one or two fishing vessels and, as the businessexpanded further, more boats were bought. Then came the decisionto move to larger premises capable of accommodating both fishselling and an engineering yard as this would be advantageous to thecompany.”

A suitable site was found at North Esplanade East where premiseswere built to house an office, net and gear store, and engineeringshop. The business was then called Craig Stores.

In those days, most of Aberdeen’s fleet of 180-200 trawlers wereclassed as inshore, landing once or twice a week and known variouslyas inshore boats, otherwise known as ‘Sunday boats’ because theyneither sailed nor fished on the Sabbath. During the winter fishery,when haddock in particular moved further north to Shetland waters,the boats would follow the shoals and, as frequently happened in badweather, they would take refuge, mostly in Lerwick. Even then, theywould hold rigidly to the Sunday rule, as most were staunch in their

11

Christian beliefs. The practice later died out as vessels became morepowerful, fished further away from home and for longer.

While they may have been halcyon days for the Craig brothers, therewere disasters, including the loss of the Ben Lawers in the late 1920s.This trawler happened to be a favourite with David’s father.

“The incident took place while my father was on holiday in Ballaterwith his family. Ben Lawers had sailed on the Monday under thecommand of the mate, landed in Aberdeen on the Thursday morningand then headed out again, planning to return on the Saturday. It wasdense fog as they left Aberdeen and about 15 miles east on their wayto the fishing grounds they were in a collision with a cargo vessel. BenLawers sank but fortunately there was neither loss of life norcasualties. A model of her remains in the company boardroom.”

George Craig’s next command was the Strathtummel, a breed oftrawler known as ‘after ended’ because the engine ventilators werelocated behind the funnel, though this type was later phased outwhen a more efficient boiler-room layout was adopted, with coal-fired furnaces placed in front of the boiler to make fuel stowage andhandling easier.

FATHER COMES ASHORE - SONS TASTE THE SEA

But, in the early thirties both George and James came ashore tostrengthen shoreside management as the company fleet had grown to12 vessels. James took charge of the engineering and blacksmith’swhile George launched a ship’s painting and boiler cleaning venture.William ditched the merchant navy in favour of joining the businessas superintendent engineer. By then, David was itching to get to sea.Leaving Robert Gordon’s aged 15, he joined the family-owned BenAsdale (A473) commanded by David Baxter.

“I had the sea in my blood and I was more attracted to the idea of alife at sea than as a doctor.

“I served as an apprentice for three months, learning to ‘box thecompass’ and steer the vessel among other duties, and then I waselevated to ‘sleeping deckie’, which meant I was a Jack of all tradesand master of none. Allotted tasks included trimming all navigationlamps. They burned paraffin, so it was a thankless job on a roughnight with salt spray flying around and the vessel heaving all over theshop.

“These lamps, particularly the masthead, could be difficult tomanipulate as, once lit and slotted back into its lamp cage, it had tobe hoisted 30-40 feet up the mast ... no easy feat on a rough night.Deck lights also had to be cleaned. These were gas-carbide, with thegas fed through rubber hosing, and the burners had to be cleanedevery day with prickers.”

Wages were meagre. An apprentice would get five shillings (25p) perday, while an AB deckie received seven shillings and sixpence (37.5p),plus an additional bonus of two shillings and sixpence or five shillingsif the vessel earned £100 plus for a week’s trip.

“Crews had to pay for their own food. Both skippers and mates wereon a share basis, unlike other crew who were on a guaranteed dailyrate, which meant that on a poor trip, neither would get paid. Ontwo different occasions when sailing as mate I had to get my motherto pay for my food. Happy days?”

Until the mid 30s, most trawlers lacked dynamos, which meantneither electric light nor radio equipment, and nor were there theecho-sounders and sonar sets that are so commonplace today.

No radios meant that, when a ship headed for sea, contact ceaseduntil she returned. That might mean two to five day trips for a‘scratcher’ fishing locally in the North Sea; mid-water boats wereaway out west or to the north for six to twelve days; and deepwaterboats working Faroe, Iceland and the Norwegian coast could betwelve to eighteen days away and sometimes longer if the weather wasbad.

All trawlers were coal-fired at that time. While this was a dirty, bulkyand inefficient fuel, it was cheap, especially for boats that visitedLeith, Granton and Methil, usually once a month, as they were closeto the pits. ‘Battle dross’ was the preferred choice at sixteen shillings(80p) per ton. After filling the bunkers it was normal to top up withfour or five tons in bags stowed in the fish-ponds on the foredeck.

Vessels fishing Iceland would carry eight or so tons of coal in bags ondeck and fill their fish holds 50:50 coal and ice, the latter beingcritical for keeping the catch of mostly cod for the fish and chip tradein acceptable condition. They would stage at Vestmann Haven on thewest coast of Faroe to transfer the coal on deck to the bunkers below,assuming it hadn’t already been washed overboard because of all toofrequent bad weather.


Arriving in Icelandic waters - first landfall was usually the small islandof Heimay, otherwise known as the ‘Back Door’ - the vessels wouldanchor to transfer coal stowed in the fishroom to the bunkers wherespace was by then available. The fishroom would then be cleaned andsterilised.

A ship with full bunkers could afford to steam and hunt for fish atleisure as far west as the Blinders, which could be a very prolific areafor large haddock at times. If the cod were missing there, an area tothe south of Iceland called Lion Rock could bring huge catchesinstead.

There were few navigation aids - basically the sextant; distance logcomprising a clock and a 25-30ft braidline with metal fish attachedthat was trailed over the stern; and a deep sea lead marked off infathoms and equipped with a lump of lead with a hollowed out base

so the nature of the bottom being fished over could be checked by‘arming’ it with grease.

TURMOIL AT HQ - THE BIG SPLIT

Common purpose was not enough to cement the Craig brotherstogether and, by 1932/33, the company was in turmoil. George Snrbroke away, taking as his entitlement, three vessels out of the 12-strong fleet, namely the River Ness, Strathtummel and Strathlethen.Fresh ground was bought at North Esplanade East, then a favouritelocation for fishing industry companies, and premises built toaccommodate a net store, paint and boiler scaling shops and an office.A further trawler, Loch Maree, was bought for £2,000. Thus GeorgeCraig & Sons was established in 1933, with both George junior andDavid joining their father.

13

Hauling the trawl.George Craig Snr aboard the Ben Lawers.

Key members of staff at that time were secretaries Amy Cook andAnn Harrold, plus John Gowie as ship’s husband in charge of boilercleaning and right hand man to George Craig Snr; also rigging andnet foreman Alex Still. Ann was to be with the company for morethan 40 years, eventually retiring in 1983.

Two years after the firm was established, David had his mate’s ticket,serving in that capacity on the Loch Maree until 1937 when hegained his skipper’s ticket and was given command of the River Ness.

The fishing industry was severely depressed in the late 1930s, thoughGeorge Craig & Sons apparently prospered. The oldest of the vessels,Strathlethen, was sold for an attractive sum of £1,800 and Wordie’sClydesdale horses continued their seemingly timeless tradition ofcarting coal down to Aberdeen’s Point Law for chuting into thebunkers of trawlers preparing for sea.

It was the time of the Phony War between Britain and Germany.Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain was engaged in franticdiplomacy with Hitler’s Reich in the ultimately vain attempt to

prevent full-blown hostilities breaking out in Europe. Indeed tensiondid ease for a time, though a sense of apprehension prevailed. But, atGeorge Craig & Sons, two significant events rocked family security.

David takes up the story: “Late in 1938 my brother Georgeunfortunately developed acute appendicitis. Being a serious operationin those days, doctors recommended that he stayed ashore for at leastthree to four months. At that time, my father was also experiencingpoor health, so George assisted in the office, while I continued at seaaboard the River Ness.

“In April 1939 my father passed away at the age of 54 years leavingmy mother, sister Lydia, brother, myself, the vessels, office, net store... the lot. Lydia, brother George and I discussed the future of thebusiness and, as I already had my skipper’s ticket, while George hadgained experience of shore-side operations, we agreed that I shouldstay at sea, while he took charge of the beach.

“Indeed, it was only after his death that George and I realised what agood business head our father had, breaking away as he did from his


David Craig and George Craig Snr (back row, 5th and 6th from left) aboard the Ocean Victorin 1931.

The first office building George Craig Snr built it 1933, NorthEsplanade East, Aberdeen.

brothers and starting a company more or less from scratch. This gaveGeorge and I the incentive to carry on expanding it further.”

TRAWLERS AT WAR

War broke out in Europe in September 1939 and, by 1940, Germanycontrolled great swathes of the Continent, driving out allied forces,with the Dunkirk evacuation in September. Fishing continued on alimited scale as many of the boats were requisitioned for war duties.The rules were rigid and, on the East Coast, the fleet was allowed tofish during the hours of daylight only and to be at recognisedanchorages by sunset. By contrast, West Coast-based boats could fisharound the clock, but at no time were lights of any description to beshown. It was a horribly risky business, as David discovered firsthand. He takes up the story.

“It was the early part of June 1940 and I was in command of theRiver Ness. We had been working for a few days on the west side ofthe Shetland Isles in the St. Magnus Bay area. Fishing had beenreasonably good but, unfortunately, the wind swung round to thesouthwest, which was unsuitable for these waters.

“Generally, if possible, it was helpful if any other vessels were in thevicinity fishing as you had a feeling of comfort and company. Mosttrawlers had little or no armament, mostly, in our case an old Enfieldgun with 15 rounds only of ammunition.

“As three to four other vessels were close by, we contacted one anotherby megaphone. Though all were fitted with radiotelephones, thesehad been sealed by HM Customs and tuned to the 2182 distressfrequency. They could only be used in an emergency when the sealcould be broken and the R/T activated.

“It was suggested that, as it was the early part of the week, we shouldgo to the east side for a day’s work and, those of us with a reasonableamount of fish onboard would proceed in company to Aberdeen,landing late week, in time to enjoy a long weekend at home.

“Having decided on this arrangement we made passage up the westside of Shetland and set course to pass through Yell Sound arriving onthe side near Fetlar. Half way through the sound the chief engineerinformed me that a bottom end bearing on the main engine washeating up and, if we could stop for a short time, he would be able todeal with the problem. Because of the strong tide, we could not effect

15

The Ben Asdale (A473).

Braiding the nets.

an immediate repair, but would be able to, once we cleared the soundand had reached the east side.

“I informed the other boats that we would be making a short stop sothe engine fault could be repaired and would follow on as soon as wecould. As the area we were going to fish in was approximately south-east, eight to ten miles from Fetlar, we watched the other vesselsheading in that direction while we were lay two to three miles fromland. The engine fault was soon repaired and we headed in thedirection of the other vessels that were by then fishing.

“We had reached a position six miles south-east of Fetlar and, as itwas approaching the lunch hour and, having only a limited time tofish before sunset, we shot our fishing gear and started towing outtowards the other vessels. Then, as the second fisherman came ontothe bridge to relieve me for my lunch break, we observed a lone planeflying along the coast in a northerly direction.

“We were now about two miles from the nearest fishing vessel andalso the nearest vessel to land. Even though we had binoculars,because of the distance I could not identify the plane’s markings and,as it was flying casually along the Shetland coast, I assumed it mightbe one of our own planes on patrol.

“I remained on the bridge observing its movements. Suddenly italtered course and headed for the open sea, then altered in a southerlydirection and was now heading towards us. As it approached Irecognised the plane’s markings and identified it as a GermanDornier 17 bomber.”

Having sounded the emergency alarm, most members of the crewwere immediately on deck. River Ness was still fishing and makingonly three and a half knots through the water ... a hampered vesseltowing a trawl that could take little action. As the Dornier flewoverhead, it dropped three bombs. By then the crew were takingaction to free the vessel from her gear by cutting the trawl warps.

“The ship’s mate, James Christie, who had sailed with me a numberof years and was a first class seaman, took charge of proceedings whileI made for the wireless room immediately below decks in my cabin tobreak the seal and get the Mayday call for help away to Wick Radio.

“Contact was made at 1.15pm on 10th June 1940. I gave ourposition and situation and was in the process of passing the telephonehandset to the cook, who also knew how to handle an R/T set, whena call came that the plane was approaching again.


David Craig in his Royal Navy uniform in 1940.

“Suddenly there was an explosion and all I can recall was the horriblesensation of my right leg being caught on a beam or some object asthe sea overwhelmed me. As I struggled to get my leg free I was slowlylosing strength and gulping water. I made a further attempt to releasemy leg and shot to the surface just as the stem of River Ness, toweringover my head, seemed to be descending upon me.”

Fortunately for David, the dying ship slipped close by anddisappeared below the surface. But then he was dragged below thesurface by the suction of the plummeting hull. Then, miraculously,he shot to the surface dazed and possibly shell- shocked. He was alsoinjured.

“Blood was now coming from my right leg and I immediatelythought that I had lost it. In fact, I had lost my right seaboot, whichhad been trapped when I was blown through the ships side.Fortunately it was only a nasty gash. I immediately got rid of myother boot and clung to some of the wooden battens that had floatedclear of the vessel.

“A voice shouted: ‘Is that you skipper?’ And, as I looked around, in avery dazed state there was James Christie swimming towards me inhis lifejacket. I immediately enquired about the other crew membersand was told that a few were clinging to the ship’s liferaft. But, asJames swam towards me, intent on helping me join the others on thelife raft, the German bomber returned, having strafed other nearbytrawlers, and machined gunned us in the water, also shooting up thelife raft, which sank. It then turned eastward and soon disappearedout of sight.

“Fortunately the weather was in our favour - a light Force 3 breeze,no breakers, but a heavy swell. The other trawlers had by nowreleased their fishing gear and were making towards land. GeorgeBruce, skipper of one of them, threw a line to Jim and myself as hepassed, pulling us both onboard. What happened afterwards I do notrecall as I lost consciousness.”

Skipper and mate were the only survivors of the sinking and, afterarriving in Lerwick, both were looked after by the fisherman’smission. Later, David was invited to the War Office in London, metby Commander Halbrook, VC, and asked to give an account of thebombing and tactics used by the German plane in order thatprompter action could be taken to protect fishing vessels caught in asimilar situation to the River Ness. He then returned to fishing for a

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The Loch Maree.

The John Morrice.

short time aboard the Strathtummel, prior to joining the Royal NavalReserve for the rest of the war.

Brother George remained in control of the company for most of1941 before he too was called up, joining the RAF and seeing activeservice in Burma against the Japanese.

At the time of his joining up, the company had only one vessel - LochMaree - fishing, with the others on active service, including the JohnD Fitzgerald, which had been bought as replacement for the RiverNess. The Aberdeen fleet had shrunk drastically as most vessels hadbeen requisitioned. The boats, whether fishing or on war service, wereallowed operating and minor expenses along with depreciation. Butany profit was returned to the Government. There were no auctions,the limited amount of fish landed being sold at a fixed priceaccording to species and allocated to processors on the basis of theirbuying track records.

Though George Craig & Sons had only one ship fishing, thecompany still had its chandlery, net store, painting and boilercleaning activities. It was a business that needed protecting and, priorto donning his RAF uniform, George had successfully engaged‘Brocher’ John May, who had been discharged from the RAF due toill health and had prior experience running small fishing boats out ofFraserburgh. Though May had no big trawler or chandleryexperience, he successfully steered the company through theremaining war years, with family lawyer Edwin Cormack keeping awatchful eye.

POST-WAR BONANZA

1945, war over and, discharged from service, it was time for David toget back to civilian life and pick up the reins of the business, whichwas no easy task. The start point was a debrief with Cormack, when itbecame clear that a number of issues would have to be addressed andimmediate action taken if the company was to capitalise on the post-war vacuum and clear an £8,000 debt that had accumulated.

By this time, the Loch Maree had been fully written down on thebooks, with Willie Wood still in command. He was an above averageskipper and had during the war years fished mainly in the watersaround Foula gaining for himself the moniker ‘Foula Ghost’. Thedecision was taken that he should stay. It was also decided that

another ship be bought and that David would take command. Theother two Craig vessels were still under Government control.

Few active fishing vessels were for sale but one was the Copieux lyingat Milford Haven in South Wales. She was examined and found to bein poor shape. The asking price was £12,500. Recalling the grimscene, David said it was obvious that a major refit was needed.Equally, there was nothing else on the market, so the Copieux wasbought for £12,000.

“Loch Maree had at least the same value and this gave meencouragement and incentive to take the risk and get the shambolicCopieux fishing for a while before any extensive repairs andreconditioning of the vessel was carried out. You can imagine myfeelings when we stepped aboard, having served on naval vessels of ahigh standard over the previous five years.

“We stored the vessel and as the Welsh coal was reasonably cheap at16 shillings per ton we took an additional five tons on deck in bags.Departing from Milford Haven we encountered rather rough weatheras we headed up the West Coast. By the time we reached Cape Wrath,all but six bags had been washed away, with as much water comingthrough holes in the bulwarks as over the rails.”

Copieux was readied for sea in Aberdeen, shipping two trawls andspare gear. 30 tons of ice was shot into the fishroom prior to sailingand running the gauntlet of German mines, a task made easier byknowledge of the fields gained by David during active service. 50miles east of Aberdeen, Copieux shot her gear and started towing,alone, no other vessel in sight.

“I felt isolated but undaunted. We towed for two and a half hoursand, when we hauled, a huge bag of fish floated to the surface withquite a variety of species but mainly big haddocks. We ceased fishingafter the third haul because there was so much fish to gut and stowbelow. We gutted all night and through into the morning. After ashort rest, I decided we would take two further hauls and head homein time for the market. The amount we were catching was amazingand it was because the fishing grounds had enjoyed a five-year rest.”

It was a bonanza! But, five months on, the decision was taken to stopfishing for a month. It was time to get the sadly neglected Copieuxand Loch Maree properly reconditioned. Nonetheless, by the end ofthat financial year, the two vessels had done so well that the bank debthad been cleared and George Craig & Sons was back in the black.


Early 1946 saw George return from active service in the Far East. Heimmediately took control of the office and onshore services. SkipperJoseph Bowie was also back, which meant another ship had to bebought for him to work. It happened that North Star Steam ShippingCompany, which was many years later acquired by Craig, had thetrawler Strathglass for sale. She was in reasonable shape, was boughtand skipper Bowie proved his worth.

James Bowie another Craig skipper in the pre-war years, returned tothe fold, so the Kinnadie was bought off Richard Irvin & Sons. Thenthe excellent John Morrice was bought. The vessel had been built forfishing with long-lines, but was later converted to a side trawler.David worked her, hunting for high value turbot, lemon sole andplaice. The partnership between man and boat was so successful that

he earned the nickname ‘Turbot King’. Not that the Morrice was fast... nine knots flat-out ... slow enough to be dubbed the ‘Slow Boat toChina’.

The company’s next acquisition was a more complex affair andinvolved the JW Fitzgerald, one of the many trawlers requisitioned atthe start of and during World War Two. This vessel had beenextensively altered for boom defence work. Post war, the Governmentdecided that many such vessels should be ‘acquisitioned’ ... offeredback to former owners for a nominal sum. While David was away onone of his trips, George was offered the Fitzgerald for just £5. Thisvessel, along with others, was anchored in Loch Ewe on the WestCoast.

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Presentation on retirement for Joe Bowie in 1947. Left to right – Alex Still (1st Rigger & New Forman); John Gowie(Manager of Boilercleaners & General Maintenance); George Craig; David Craig; Joe Bowie (Net Fixer); John May (GeneralManager 1941 – 1945); David Ogilvie (Foreman Painter); Miss Cook (Clerkess); Miss Harold (Retired at 60 after 44 years);Jimmy Gordon (Brother of entertainer Harry Gordon).

Back ashore he quizzed his brother: “I asked: ‘Where’s the catch?’ Adecision was taken to purchase the vessel and, in the event of beingtoo costly to convert back into commercial service, then it could bescrapped for a few hundred pounds. Inspection revealed the propellerto be very badly damaged, which meant the vessel had to be towed toPeterhead where Livingstones was interested in carrying out the refitafter inspection.

“When hauled out at Peterhead, inspection revealed that, in additionto a new propeller, a number of major costly alterations would berequired if the Fitzgerald was to return to fishing, including replacingthe deck planking and installing a trawl winch, gallows and muchelse.

“We decided not to go ahead with such alterations as it would costtoo much. Livingstones offered to buy the vessel for £500 with a viewof converting her into a line boat, so we sold her. We also sold thecoal in her bunkers for £150, which covered the purchase price andtow from Loch Ewe. We came away with a £500 profit with which toplough into another ship.”

That programme went ahead relentlessly - Strathdevon, Kinaldie,Ben Brackie, Ben Heilem, Kinnord were all purchased and put to

work. Kinnord was renamed River Ness. Having built the fleet up to10 trawlers, attention turned to growing the chandlery, net andrigging store and ships’ painting and boiler cleaning department, allof which needed skilled workers. Because Craig lacked a fish-sellingdepartment, the decision was taken to barter its skills in return forfish auctioning services with various Aberdeen providers.

“As the fleet grew, so the net and rigging store expanded, with twelvewomen employed as net braiders, making various parts of the trawls,mainly with manila twine,” says David. “We also had a number ofoutside braiders ... women making trawl bellies, baitings and cod-ends from home.

“Also employed were eight to ten net fixers and ten or twelve riggersand, as this department grew, we had to buy larger premises.Opposite our office on North Esplanade East was a suitable place thatwould become our net loft and rigging department.”

Craig was not the only company growing rapidly. The entire GraniteCity fleet was riding a wave of prosperity on the back of burgeoningNorth Sea fish stocks. There were more than 200 ships operating by1957, mostly old coal-fired steamers, but with a scatter of newer oil-fired units like Avondow and Dunkinty.

The George Craig going over the Aberdeen bar. The Mary Craig with the new look bridge.


THE BIG MODERNISATION

By the late 1950s it had become obvious that much of the Aberdeenfleet had to be replaced. Steam was outmoded, expensive and dirty;the future lay with diesel - modern, clean, economical.

And transformation it was! Over a period of little more than 10 years,the Granite City’s fleet of trawlers was totally modernised. Steamerswere swiftly dispatched for scrapping ... largely displaced by sleekmotor vessels.

The Craigs were at the forefront of that change which for them reallystarted with the oil fired steamers Milford Duke and Milford Princefor Milford Haven. At 120ft (36.6m), they were 10-15ft (3-4.6m)longer than the normal Aberdeen boat. They might be ideal for theIcelandic fishery. But a trip to South Wales, accompanied bysuperintendent engineer of the day, Leslie Symons, told the brothersotherwise. A first casual evening inspection suggested the Duke andPrince would indeed be right for the job. But Symons blew the dreamapart next day with the question: “When’s the next train home?” Onboth vessels, he had found the boiler crowns to be badly pitted and,in one case, bulging. There had to be a better way of modernising theCraig fleet.

It was just one of those things that the brothers had to cope with inbusiness, in much the same way as they had got over the death oftheir mother in April 1954. On the other hand there were plenty ofhappy moments, not just when a ship came home, ‘full to thegunnels’ with fish, or a new vessel was added to the growing fleet, butwhen something truly family took place, like the wedding of sisterLydia to George Bell of Greenock in 1957.

This is the year that effectively marks the advent of the modern dieseltrawler in Aberdeen. It would typically be 100-120ft (30.5-30.6m)long and take 9-12 months to build. But engines would turn out tobe a nightmare as owners had to take whatever make they could getand this meant a company had to carry multiple sets of spares.Engineers too came at premium.

“George Bell came into the family and the company with a wealth ofknowledge being an experienced and qualified engineer who hadsailed on merchant vessels and also cruise ships,” reflects David. “Hisknowledge on engines and their performance benefited the company,especially on the new-builds which we were just about to embark on.

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David Craig at the wheel of the Mary Craig.

“George, Lydia and myself had taken the company a long way. Apartfrom our weekly wages and token directors, any surplus was saltedaway for future investment in further vessels.

“Various types were being built in the 1950s and most of theshipyards were fully employed. This gave us the opportunity weneeded to consider the type of vessel best suited to our needs.

“At this stage I commanded the new River Ness (ex Kinaldie) and wasdoing rather well. We were contemplating a new-build, which meanthard and important decisions had to be made. Two newly builtwooden trawlers had just joined the Aberdeen fleet, one of which wasthe Fairway. We went to see her. George was very eager to build arepeat. It would be cheaper than steel and could be delivered withinnine months. But I was not impressed with the wooden hull fortrawling; anyway the deck winch was belt driven off the main engine.

“It happened that a steel vessel of 105ft (32m) was being built byLivingstone for a Granton company. But a month before delivery thecompany concerned had failed to make the last two stage paymentsand rejected the vessel. George had been informed about thissituation, and on arriving back from sea I was hastily taken toPeterhead. I was very pleased with what we saw and we would takedelivery in a month - late December 1957. We did a deal and the shipwas named George Craig after our late father.

“December came and along and with my crew we arrived inPeterhead to accept the vessel. We then proceeded to Aberdeen onChristmas Eve, fishing gear, warps and general stores were shippedand we headed to sea the day after Christmas. Orders from Georgewere to make a landing by the end of the month to qualify for taxallowances on the vessel. We landed on the 31st December with acatch of 303 hundredweights of haddock and cod which fetched£1,232 for a six-day trip - over £200 per day which was well abovethe average at that time.”

Although very pleased with the seaworthiness and fishing capabilitiesof the vessel, and George more than satisfied with the money for thecatch, David was totally dissatisfied with the performance of the trawlwinch, which was belt driven from a lay shaft taken off the front endof the main engine and engaged by using a lever-operated tensioner.

Not only was there excessive belt wear, which led to lost fishing time,the winch-drive system had a knock-on impact on alternatorperformance. As the alternator was driven off the main engine, if


Launch of the Grampian Hill by Helen Craig (second left) in 1961.

Edna Craig, wife of Mr George Craig, launches the GrampianGlen in 1960.

there were problems with belt-induced stalling, this led to powerfluctuations. In turn, this would affect the accuracy of the DeccaNavigator system that was by then being installed aboard mostleading edge trawlers in the Scottish fleet. On the other hand theelectrically-driven winch alternative also had problems, shortingfrequently in rough weather. So David was forced to live with what hehad.

It was while in command of the George Craig that David was askedby his brother whether he would take Northeast architect Tom ScottSutherland on a trip. They were great friends and Scott Sutherlandhad expressed a desire to go out on a fishing vessel. He was well-known and respected in the city and was responsible for funding theScott Sutherland education and art building in Garthdee. But therewas a surprise.

“What George did not mention to me was that Tom Scott Sutherlandhad only one leg, due to an unfortunate accident as a child. After theintroductions were made I was rather apprehensive of him joining uson this trip as it was a rather rough day, with sou’easterly winds, and anasty sea running at the harbours entrance. Having just one leg howwould he cope with the heaving motion of the vessel?

“I explained to him about the weather, which he accepted but stillwanted to sail with us. It happened that most vessels declined to sailthat day, but I had made my decision and, on the Monday morningwe sailed.

“Crossing the ‘bar’ at the harbour entrance was something Tom neverforgot as the ship punched through the broken water where the Deemeets the salt North Sea. He suffered from seasickness for the first 24hours but, as the weather abated, he enjoyed the experience. Thefishing was very good and I decided to land on the Wednesday. Withlittle fish on the market because of the rough weather, we receivedvery good prices and grossed £743.”

That was not the end of the adventure.

“George came on board and, after a brief discussion, Tom requestedthat he came out with us again and finish the trip as we had fullyintended to land on the Saturday. Unknown to me while I had beenon the quay Tom had received some packages from his office alongwith some urgent mail.

“As we left the harbour Tom congratulated me on our great trip andmentioned to me that he had a bottle of whisky for each member of

the crew. Requesting permission to issue the bottles or at least givethem a dram each, I immediately showed my authority and told himin no uncertain terms that no alcohol of any nature was allowed whileat sea, but when we arrived back in port I assured him they wouldreadily drink his health. Fortunately the weather behaved itself andwe finished our trip on Saturday with a gross topping the £1,000 arecord for a weekly trawler.”

In The Press and Journal, some time in September 1958, ScottSutherland wrote: “Never again will I brag about being immune fromstorms at sea. Recently, the North Sea humbled me for the secondtime in forty-six years.

“Blithely, on a drab Monday morning, I clambered aboard the newAberdeen trawler George Craig. Although lashed by rain, she was tidyand shipshape, as was her crew.”

While the company and its ships were indeed shipshape, the bestdescription for trawlermen in those days was that they were charactersall. While supremely professional at sea, getting some of them aboardand away was quite another story, as any ship’s runner of the daywould have testified.

Unfortunately a nasty incident occurred during the festive season of1957-58 involving the George Craig. At that time, Hogmany ratherthan Christmas was celebrated, with Aberdeen’s Fish Market beingopen on Christmas and Boxing Day and auctions staged both days.As a result, fishermen preferred to be at home over the New Yearperiod.

In turn, this meant that most of the fleet was home, tied up, with theexception of five to six vessels that fished over the festive season andgenerally landed on the fourth day of the New Year when the fishMarket reopened and high grossings for the catch were to be had.

As there were over 200 vessels in those days, berthing was difficultand boats were crammed in at Albert Quay, Torry Dock, the fishmarket and others at the commercial dock. George Craig, along withothers, was moored at the fish market, nose on to the quay, which wasof steel open-pile construction.

It happened that George Craig was fitted with a whaleback whereasthe older steamers had open foredecks. In the earlier hours of NewYear morning the tide was at low ebb, which meant that all vesselstems were lower than the market floor. As the tide flooded, a vesselcalled the Strathallan lying along the port (left) side of the George

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Craig, having no whaleback, got wedged under the quay. Efforts weremade to release the vessels, but without success and, as the Strathallanlisted, her forward starboard trawl gallows became foul of the Craigvessel’s port gallows. By then she was taking in water and sank, takingthe almost brand new motor trawler with her.

“When George telephoned me at home to let me know what hadhappened I thought he had taken leave of his senses. How could theGeorge Craig have sunk when she was in port and not at sea! Ofcourse she was salvaged, fully dried out, refitted and commencedfishing again, but somehow we felt rather apprehensive of the vessel’sfuture and decided to sell her.”

ACQUISITIVE TRENDSETTER

At that time, the Craigs had a further new ship under construction.She would be a real mould breaker, with all the features that set themould for steel side trawlers in Scotland until the advent of sterntrawling. Having the experience of the George Craig a number ofimportant features were changed, the most noticeable being theoutward flared wheelhouse design, otherwise known as lantern style.Good looking and practical, in Aberdeen it was dubbed the ‘new lookbridge’. The trawl winch was David’s main concern as neither beltnor electric drive appealed. There had to be something else.

“By chance, George was very friendly with a John Lockhart who wasemployed by Vickers Armstrong, was an engineer by trade and whowas involved in construction and building precision equipment,mostly on naval vessels. Having explained to him the winchproblems, he took it on as a challenge for him and his company andasked to spend a trip with us at sea. From his experience on varioustypes of winches and engines he felt a suitable independent and stablewinch could be built.”

The new ship was under construction at Richards of Lowestoft underthe management of a Mr Herring. She would take nine months tobuild and was to be named Mary Craig in memory of the companyfounder’s wife. The winch had not yet been ordered, though onecould be quickly bought, should Vickers not come up with asolution. About six months down the line Lockhart phoned to saythat they had now built a diesel winch, and felt this was the answer.The deal was that Vickers would install the winch and piping for free,and if the winch proved successful, Craig would pay half the price. Ifit failed, they would remove the winch and piping free of charge and


The George Craig lies submerged at Aberdeen Fish Market, having been draggeddown by neighbour vessel Strathallan. (Courtesy of The Press & Journal)

pay for the installation of an electric winch. It was a cleverlyengineered deal.

Mary Craig was launched by Lydia in late 1958, setting sail fromLowestoft at the end of March 1959. All eyes were on this vessel withher new look bridge, diesel winch and other mod cons. Trials offLowestoft to test the main engine and equipment proved satisfactoryand, together with brother in law George Bell, David Craig set sail forfamiliar fishing grounds 70-80 miles east of Aberdeen.

“Clearly, it was my ambition to get a reasonably good catch on ourmaiden voyage to prove the fishing capabilities of the vessel and ofthe winch modification. We were very much in the limelight.

“But, after the first haul, our superintendent, George Bell, reported afault with the main engine - a seal was leaking, which meant we werelosing lubricating oil. Fortunately we had enough onboard to allow usto continue fishing for a time.

“As luck would have it we encountered good fishing of both turbotand flat fish and, with no other fishing vessels in the vicinity to shareour spoils, we landed in Aberdeen with an excellent catch. A telegram

arrived from Richards, congratulating us on our successful trip. As forme, I was very satisfied with the vessel’s performance and her seakeeping abilities.”

Mary Craig, whose maiden catch fetched £1,418 at auction on April9th 1959, was followed by the 115ft (35m) Grampian Crest, built in1959 at Hessle on Humberside. Another two motor vessels of similarsize were built at John Lewis & Sons late 1960 and came into servicein 1961. Practically every shipyard was fully booked, but whatdetermined delivery was main machinery, as its availability was somuch of a lottery at that time.

While the first two new vessels were named after the parents, theGeorge Craig incident of 1969 led to a change of policy, with all new-builds given the Grampian prefix to their names thereafter, whichpractice continues today with the company’s fleet of offshore supportvessels.

During the rebuilding of the fleet, a grant and loan scheme wasintroduced by the White Fish Authority that covered 25% ofbuilding costs, plus a 50% loan over seven years at 4% interest was

25

Lydia and George Bell at the launch of the Grampian Monarch. David and George Craig aboard theGrampian Glen.

available. As fishing was booming, a number of new companies wereformed, with John Lewis and Hall Russell winning most orders.George on the company’s behalf took shares in Near Water Trawlersand Scottish Motor Trawlers. The latter was floated with two vessels -Red Crusader and Blue Crusader. Sadly, the latter was lost on afishing trip to Faroe during severe weather with all hands lost.

Other Craig vessels ordered at that time were the Lewis-builtGrampian Glen and Grampian Hill, which started fishing early 1961.For the Glen’s trial, it was planned that the vessel would be stored forFaroese waters as, at that time of year (February), it was ideal for codand haddock fishing in that area.

“The Glen’s skipper, Joseph Bowie was eager to get going andarrangements were made that, upon successful completion of the seatrials, all yard and other representatives aboard would be taken off bytender before the vessel headed for the Faroes,” remembers David.“These vessels had diesel winches like the Mary Craig’s and I sailed in

an advisory capacity to instruct and show the skipper how this type ofwinch worked.

“With engine trials complete, we headed some 10-12 miles south-eastof Aberdeen to an area of deep water known as the Dogs Hole. There,water depths around the hole are 30-40 fathoms. But the hole, whichstretches a mile or two, is up to 90 fathoms deep.

“This was an ideal area to shoot the net; it allowed the 300 fathoms oftrawl warp on each winch drum to be streamed out and wound backon properly when tensioned with the fishing gear, and it tested thewinch’s capabilities. I had intended to shoot the trawl, tow 5-10minutes, and haul. The skipper would do the same, allowing enoughtime to catch enough fish to give to the various representatives.

“On shooting the trawl, I observed very strong soundings on theechometer. It was either a very heavy show of plankton or fish, so wetowed through these ‘marks’ for about 20 minutes and then hauled. Itturned out to be a huge catch of cod, I turned to skipper Bowie andasked him to do the same and that we would land the surprise catch


John Lewis-built Grampian Glen (A518) just after her launch. Fish galore aboard the Grampian Glen.

the following morning. This he did. We duly landed and the repswalked ashore with some superb fish. The catch was 156hundredweights (7.8 tons), which fetched £766 at auction. It was arecord for a trial trip in those days.

“As the company was building a number of vessels under the grantand loan scheme, I continued fishing, taking a number of new vesselsout, generally for a trip or two before then handing them over to oneof our competent skippers.”

But becoming a good skipper involves more than passing exams. Youhave to be a born hunter with the driving force, with the experienceand charisma to pull it off.

“It was company policy that, as younger men joined our vessels andafter their training, we would encourage them to go for theircertificates. If we saw any with ambition and desire to go further wealways encouraged them to sit for their mate’s ticket as this wouldlead to them sailing with one of the top rated skippers.

“Top skippers were in a class of their own, self made, ambitioushunters who had developed their own fishing techniques. A friendlyyet competitive atmosphere developed between skippers in thecompany, helping each other on the fishing grounds was respectedand codes were introduced to disguise information being passedbetween the boats, and between the boats and the beach.”

Most skippers kept a ‘black book’ filled with their own informationon various fishing grounds, Decca Navigator readings and paper trackrolls, and so forth. Today’s skippers have it all on computer and canaccurately retrace tows, working between wrecks and other obstacleswith ease.

Although the Aberdeen fleet was dramatically modernisedthroughout the 60s, some found the changes hard to handle. Boatswere by then costing £100,000-£130,000 depending on size andinterest rates on Government loans. Bank loans became a burden anda moratorium of two years on loans was granted to those who wishedto accept.

Some packed it in. One such company - Near Water Trawlers -decided to cease operating because of financial difficulties. But, asCraig was a minor shareholder, the decision was taken to adopt one ofthe firm’s five ships, the Countesswells. Then Scottish Motor Trawlersgot into financial difficulties. Craig, having a one third share,

acquired the remaining two thirds and took ownership of the ScottishKing, Scottish Queen and Scottish Princess.

The firm had by then had expanded to some 10-12 modern vesselswith a number of older ones phased out. This hit the boiler cleaningpart of the business though the firm continued to clean a number ofboilers on shore at Grandholm Mill, Banner Mills and similar places.It was also decided that a fish-selling department was needed asbartering had become less prevalent.

“As luck would have it, an opportunity arose which was a challengefor us and a rather bold step to take. The North Star Steam FishingCompany was considered an Aberdeen leader, alongside others suchas Irvin’s, Strath Company, Walker Steam Trawler Company, Dodds& Co and United Fish Company. There were about 14 separateoperating companies working out of the port.

“North Star was owned and managed by the Harrow family. FounderJohn Harrow had died and his son Beverly became managingdirector. They had a very efficient fish-selling department and Beverlytook an active part in the auctioning of the fish. They also ownedfour oil-fired steam trawlers - Avonriver, Lord Sands, David Ogilvieand Avondow, some capable of fishing Iceland. Further, Beverly wasalso chairman of the Aberdeen Fishing Vessel Owners Association.

“Unfortunately in his early 60’s he took a severe heart attack and dieda year later. The only family he had were two sisters who took controlof the company, appointing head salesman Alfred Kynoch to managethe business. After six or seven months the sisters decided to sell thecompany as a going concern but, before advertising the company,Kynoch approached George as they had done business in the past andthought we were a suitable buyer.

“When I came in from sea George told me of the approach and, aftersome serious talking between us, particularly about the larger boatsand the fish selling department which we were desperate to start, wedecided to take a chance and buy the company. We paid £56,000,which was quite a sum of money in 1965. It was also a challenge forour management.

“We were now among Aberdeen’s biggest fleet owners, with 16vessels, a fish selling department, rigging and net store, shipchandlery and a painting department. The main company stayed atNorth Esplanade East while the North Star office remained inCommercial Quay.

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“After a few months, Kynoch decided to retire, so we approached aPatrick Lynch, an experienced fish salesman, who readily accepted thepost; Pat later became managing director of the North Star Fishingpart of the business and, when the company became involved inNorth Sea standby vessels, he became a tower of strength.”

A couple of years later, it was decided to phase out the oil-burners andreplace them with diesel vessels. An opportunity arose when both theAdmiral Jellicoe and Admiral Drake came on the market, both verygood 125 footers (38m). Craig’s top skipper then was a Robert Cattowho took command of the Jellicoe, while skipper Ferguson had theDrake. Both fished Iceland and Faroe with great success, workingthrough HKF Trawlers Company, which was another Craigacquisition.

Then the Malvern Fishing Co. came on the market. It owned onevessel of the larger type, the 140ft Malvern. Johnnie Bruce, a well-known skipper at that time, took command and fished watersbordering Northern Norway with significant success.

DAVID SWALLOWS THE ANCHOR

By the late sixties the company had increased in size so much andmanagement was under so much pressure that David made the

decision to come ashore and get involved in vessel operations. He wasinvited to become a director of Aberdeen Fishing Vessels OwnersAssociation and, in 1968 was appointed a member of thereconstructed Herring Industry Council.

Then the fleet was further reinforced when a pair of Boston boatsfrom Hull came on the market. Boston Hercules and the Parkroydwere both bought. By this time, dieselisation of the Aberdeen fleetwas well advanced. There were more than 200 ships of which roughly20 worked Iceland, North Norway and even Bear Island; 120 wereclassed middle water - North Sea, Shetland and Faroe; and theremainder were inshore.

While the crews of inshore boats were eventually allowed to dischargetheir own catch, the bigger ships were obliged to use shore labour -lumpers or porters. They were members of the National Dock Labourscheme and were very dominant on the market floor as theycontrolled the discharge of vessels and would from time to time comeout on strike causing havoc and discord in the industry. This washardly the sort of practice that fleet owners such as the Craigs werehappy about!

“It was accepted practice that vessels which arrived early were entitledto priority berths at the top of the market, receiving first call onlabour, with all other ships discharging in order of arrival. This was


The Avonriver. George Craig Jnr.

rather inconvenient for the inshore vessels. On many occasions theymight berth at 2am or 3am, but might not get labour until late in themorning, so losing the opportunity to get back to sea that day.Unfortunately they were not allowed to land without some assistancefrom the porters, which caused much unrest. To overcome theproblem these vessels volunteered and paid for their allocated labourand in many cases they discharged their catch themselves.”

Then, it was quite common for the mile-long fish market to have twomorning sales ... full and full again. It was fast moving and the lastthing anyone wanted was industrial action. But discord betweenporters and employers was to flare up again, leading to a short strike,which led to vessels being discharged by crew members and officestaff working under police protection because of pickets. That wasnot the end of the matter as discontented fishermen were later to goon strike for eight weeks. This was in 1969.

One of the most unusual incidents that ever happened to anAberdeen trawler was the mutiny on the Mary Craig on October 9th1970. The event was splattered all over the local media.

David retraces this remarkable incident, which took place while theship’s skipper was on holiday, leaving the mate in command.

“It was a beautiful day, a calm sea. The vessel was heading north andwas passing Peterhead when it became apparent that some of the crewhad been drinking and had become very drunk. They overpoweredthe stand-in skipper, mate and engineer, dropping them off at theentrance to Peterhead and carried on in an easterly direction,knowing nothing about either navigation or the engineroom’s vitalfunctions.

“They carried on until they suddenly came to a stop, unaware thatthe header tank, which was supposed to be replenished with fuel atregular intervals, was empty. Their problems increased when thegenerator stopped and they were plunged into complete darkness.

“Fortunately, one of our vessels, Coastal Empress, was in the vicinityand instructed the Mary Craig’s crew how to get the ship movingagain. They were by now sobering up and feeling very sorry forthemselves.

“Mary Craig was escorted back to Aberdeen Bay by Coastal Empresswhere two policemen and I were taken out to the vessel by pilot boat.I knew the 2nd fisherman on board as he had sailed with me in thepast. Taffy, as he was known to his friends was a very competent

seaman when sober. I asked him how this escapade had started andhis answer to me was: ‘Skipper, I’m not sure what I drank. I cannotrecall anything. All can say is that I am really sorry. I suggest you lockme up in jail and throw away the key.’ I took the Mary Craig backinto Aberdeen where the police drove the offenders away.”

The Press and Journal headline the following day proclaimed: “MaryCraig On Way Home Under Tow”. Craig said in a statement issued atthe time that their vessel had “experienced some trouble with hercrew”. Five were subsequently jailed for piracy on May 28th 1971 atAberdeen High Court. Three judges rejected a subsequent appealagainst the sentences on July 22nd at the Court of Criminal Appealin Edinburgh.

Drawing a line under this remarkable affair, Lord Milligan said: “Itmay well be that what was libelled was not a particularly bloodthirstyact of piracy but, on the facts, it constituted an act of piracy.”

SPUTNIKS AND BIG OIL

The 70s dawned, clouded by mounting concern that the hugequantities of fish being landed were driving down prices. In 1971,just as David was appointed vice chairman of Aberdeen Fishing VesselOwners Association, trouble flared up between Britain and Iceland,which wanted to establish a 200-mile exclusive fishery zone. It led tothe famous Cod Wars, where Icelandic coastal patrol and naval vesselsharassed British trawlers.

This tussle was swiftly followed by many maritime nations setting200-mile zones, which meant both Iceland and Faroe became no-goareas. It meant Britain now had its own 200-mile zone ... briefly ...and it was possible to haggle limited access deals, including withFaroe.

But, in 1973 we joined the Common Market. Prior to that, oil hadalso been found in the North Sea, both in British and Norwegianwaters. These two unrelated events were to have a massive impact onthe fishing industry, not least in Aberdeen, which had becomeincreasingly crowded with oil-related traffic. The erosion of fishery-related infrastructure quickly started.

In 1972, a harbour representative approached a number of companiesalong North Esplanade East, including Craig, with news that the areawas to be developed for oil related work and all were given six monthsnotice to vacate.

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Fortunately for Craig, the firm’s rigging and net store was located onthe opposite side of the road, which would not be affected by thedevelopment. Jim Dawson was then foreman-rigger, with George‘Jumbo’ Fowler as net fixer. There was also Harry Brock, a rigger butwho had taken charge of driving the store’s lorry and who laterbecame known as ‘Harry wi his larry’. (Richard Ross, today Craig’sforeman-rigger, served his apprenticeship under Jim and Harry.)

The painting and boiler cleaning division, under foreman-managerDavid Ogilvie, shifted to a bothy on Albert Quay, plus offices andwarehouse became available on Russell Road just off of NorthEsplanade West where the company stayed until 1979.

North Star also had to find a new home. Happily a solution wasquickly at hand as David’s late father-in-law, James Douglas, had aprocessing business at 187 Albert Quay which had been left to

David’s son Douglas. The premises were turned into office space andNorth Star was located there until 1979.

More ships were on the agenda: “We decided to build a stern trawlerfor one of our top skippers to fish mainly in Icelandic and Faroesewaters. Grampian Monarch would be 150ft (45.7m) in length andhave a 2,000 horsepower main engine. She was built at Bowling onthe Clyde in 1972 and commissioned the following year. Under BobCatto, the vessel made an excellent start to her career.”

That year, David was also invited by the White Fish Authority tobecome a member of the Research and Development PolicyCommittee under the chairmanship of Sir Fredrick Brundrett and, in1974 he became chairman of Aberdeen Fishing Vessel OwnersAssociation. If that wasn’t enough, David was appointed vicepresident of a new joint Scottish-English fishing federation ... theBritish Fishing Federation. Its remit was to fight tooth and nail to


The Mary Craig returning to Aberdeen harbour. (Courtesy of The Press & Journal)

The crew being escorted off the Mary Craig by the police.(Courtesy of The Press & Journal)

ensure joining the Common Market did not wreck Britain’s fishingindustry, though clearly that was already happening, with Hull andGrimsby’s distant water fleets, while pressure was starting to build onGranton and Aberdeen.

In Aberdeen, more and more owners were building a new type ofinshore vessel of around 75-80ft (22.9-24.4m). The ‘Sputniks’ as theywere nick-named because of the dawning space race, were firstintroduced in the mid 1960s, but only came into their own in the 70swith the advent of Spinningdale class, neat, capable square-sternedand built in some number.

By now, offshore oil had become part of daily North Sea andNortheast Scottish life and that industry had adopted a ratherruthless approach when it came to luring skilled seamen out of thefishing industry ... fat pay cheques. Pressure was so great thatAberdeen owners set up a registration scheme along with a trainingprogramme to attract fresh blood, including school leavers. TheTransport and General Workers Union representing the mencollaborated fully and David chaired the training committee.Around 4,000 fishermen were put through the scheme and recordcards were kept on each man’s progress on training, upgrading anddiscipline.

Offshore, the potential for conflict between fisherman and oilcompanies grabbing the best bits of the North Sea was containedwhen both sides reached an amicable agreement on pipeline routes.

“Our first oil company encounter was with BP, which had located thegiant Forties field 130 miles east of Aberdeen,” says David. “Theirchairman, Matt Linning, the head of Forties and six of his advisorsmet our fishermen’s fishery committee which I chaired, also presentwere representatives from the Government, Department of Trade &Industry and the Scottish Office’s Department of Agriculture,Fisheries & Food.

“They wanted to lay an oil pipeline linking Forties with a landfall atCruden Bay and the DTI had already stipulated that such pipelineshad to be buried to a depth of one metre, which was a comfort to us.But, on examination of the proposed route I immediately sawproblems as it passed through one of the most important and valuablefishing areas in the North Sea - the Turbot Bank.

“Our fishery committee pointed out that much of that bank was solidrock, so how could the pipeline be buried without blasting a trench?

After each side considered the situation and at the request of BP, wevolunteered to come up with an alternative route not far from theirs.We were offered six months, but thanks to our fishing experience, achart was prepared in a few days that I then presented to Linning.

“This resulted in a fisheries committee being formed comprisingmainly fishing industry representatives who met with counterpartsfrom various oil companies, also from government departments. Itpaved the way to a good relationship between both industries, andMatt Linning and I became firm friends. And when the Queenturned the valve on at BP’s North Sea headquarters in Dyce that setForties oil flowing ashore, both my wife Helen and I were at theinauguration.”

In a bid to deal with the growing problem of oilfield infrastructurecriss-crossing fishing grounds, and debris, a compensation fund wasset up and run by the industry, with recompense made to fishermenonly when they produced evidence of damage or loss. The maximumcompensation payable was 80% of the value of the claim. A furthernational initiative was the so-called Fisheries Offshore OilConsultative Group, which involved fishing industry, governmentdepartments, Trinity House and oil company representation. Also inthe Grampian area, the Grampian Regional Council FisheriesCommittee was set up in support of the fishing communities.

BUT THE FAMILY BUSINESS COMES FIRST

In February 1977, David’s wife Helen launched the 130ft (39.6m)stern trawler Grampian Chieftain. Immediately after that event thecouple joined a six-man plus wives mission to New Zealand at therequest of the New Zealand Government. Issues on the agendaincluded how a 200-mile fishery zone could be managed, and howthe Brits could help and assist develop a deepwater policy. Until thatpoint, New Zealand had concentrated on coastal fishing, catchingspecies like red snapper, which were in high demand. In the deeperwaters the Japanese were pursuing squid.

It was a brilliant trip for Craig the ambassador: “Now that the 200mile limit had been introduced they were becoming interested indeepwater species. They also wanted to improve snapper catch rates,having invested in two pelagic vessels working purse seines.

‘During discussions mention was made on the poor performancefrom these vessels and I was asked if I had any experience in that type

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of fishing and could I help in anyway. I said I had never sailed in suchvessels but knew how they operated. So I was invited to meet theskippers and observe their catching techniques, which involved usingspotter planes rather than sonar, which is what Scottish pelagic boatsused.

“I was invited to join the spotter plane to observe this procedure. Weidentified a large shoal of snapper, probably 10-15 tons, andcontacted the boat. As the vessel approached the shoal I asked thepilot the state and direction of the tide, which I relayed to the skipperwho had already dropped his buoy and was in the process of shootinghis net. In my opinion he should have started on the other side of theshoal; by doing so the tide would have assisted him and more fishwould have been caught.”

The delegation did its work, advising on the types of trawl thatshould be used and on shoreside infrastructure, including cold storesto hold sufficient fish with which to develop an export market forsnapper and other species like hoki, which astonishingly found itsway onto the menu of Aberdeen’s Ashvale fish restaurant at the startof the 1990s.

“We were invited to set up joint ventures with the New ZealandGovernment but the conditions of ownership were not to our taste.But we did deliver valuable know-how on deep water fishing andmarketing. I was invited to participate in an expanding fisheriesprogramme and was offered a contract, which I declined because ofmy commitment to the family company.

“My wife and I extended our trip in New Zealand by a further weekand, as we were about to take our leave, I was approached by agovernment fisheries official with a request from the FisheriesDepartment in Perth, Western Australia. Might we be able to spend afew days with them?”

A similar mission was arranged the following year to Cape Town,upon the introduction of South Africa’s 200-mile limit.

But the core focus remained George Craig & Sons and how thebusiness could be expanded, taking advantage of fishing while alsoexploiting opportunities to do with North Sea oil. Both Craig andNorth Star were brought together under one roof when the BritishUnited Trawlers (BUT) building became available at 207 AlbertQuay.


The Grampian Chieftain (A562), heading North East to the fishing grounds.

BUT was an English consortium of companies that traded under onechairman. Some years earlier, the group bought the fishing division ofAberdeen company John Lewis & Sons. Craig Stores was approachedand it too fell to BUT. Craig was then approached with a verytempting offer but George, Lydia and David rejected it on thegrounds that they would be selling off their birthright. In any case,the company was doing reasonably well.

BUT was to fall on hard times during the 70s recession and broke upmainly due to operating larger class vessels in EU waters, which wastotally unviable. Its Aberdeen office was to become an ideal home forCraig Group/North Star, who moved in during 1979.

BATTLING FOR BRITAIN’S FISHING INDUSTRY

Back to 1975-77, which was a very difficult period where talks inBrussels to establish a Common Fisheries Policy were in trouble. TheBritish industry was especially worried about Denmark’s large-scaleindustrial fishery, which was believed then, as now, to be inflictingirreparable damage to juvenile white fish stocks. A shortage ofhaddock resulted in a ban on haddock landings for a time ... eventhen!

British fishermen wanted relative stability and a 50-mile limit. Theywere so angry that a demonstration to put pressure on theGovernment was arranged and more than 100 vessels sailed up theThames to the Houses of Parliament to impress on Ministers that a50-mile zone was essential for the survival of the British fishingindustry. David was there in person.

“I, along with other representatives from Scotland, attended thedemonstration. One of our vessels, the Grampian Hill, joined thefleet of protest vessels. A meeting with Ministers took place duringwhich time our concern and fears were expressed.”

Herring fishing was also in a mess and a six-year total ban was slappedon the fishery by Westminster, except for the 2,000 tons a year Clydesummer fishery. So the herring boys pursued mackerel instead,boosted by the public’s belief that it was a superb health food.Demand took off.

Local crisis meetings were held in Aberdeen with MPs Ian Sproatt,Albert McQuarrie, Russell Fairgreaves and Teddy Taylor. All weresympathetic to the cause. David was elected chairman of AberdeenFishing Vessel Owners Association in 1975 and had the opportunity

of accompanying the former British Prime Minister Ted Heath on afact finding mission to Aberdeen’s fish market. There were some 180-200 vessels operating out of the port then, with 14 directors on theAssociation’s board. Meetings ground on in Brussels in a bid toachieve a satisfactory CFP agreement, crucially on how to share outthe lynchpin species - cod, haddock, whiting, flat fish and coley.

“As one of the advisors to our Fishery Ministers in Brussels, it becamevery obvious to me that the larger type of vessels of over 100ft wouldfind it hard to live in the EU pond. So-called third nationopportunities were scarce and only through reciprocal agreementswere Community vessels allowed to fish. Within a very short time thebig wet fishers and freezer trawlers belonging to English owners werein trouble, leading to the demise of both Hull and Grimsby. InAberdeen at least half the fleet operated in Faroese waters, plus therewere a limited number allowed to fish Iceland.”

Amid the fishery strife were occasional bright spots, including Davidbeing awarded the OBE in 1978 by the Queen for services both tothe fishing and oil industries. Besides all the association andfederation work, he was also deeply involved with the Royal NationalMission to Deep Sea Fishermen both as chairman in Aberdeen and amember of the Council in London. Much later, in 1998, he becamea patron of the Mission.

In August 1982, while en-route to her annual holiday at Balmoral,the Queen accepted an invitation to open the new extension to thefish market, an investment which was an act of faith in the future. Itwas David’s duty to escort the Queen and Princess Anne at theinauguration.

Another highlight of David’s life was his growing passion forgardening, especially dahlias. Indeed, since stepping ashore thirtyyears ago, he has won many cups - not least at the Banchory flowershow - plus a host of silver and bronze medals. That passioncontinues unabated. Indeed, he was one of the stars of the 2003Banchory event, notching up his 23rd consecutive win.

But back to the problems, this time the Faroes, with which Aberdeenhas long had cordial relations. Britain’s joining the CFP made itdoubly important for Scotland that a reasonable reciprocal fisheryagreement should be achieved. But all agreements made were to benegotiated and agreed at Commission level in Brussels.

Before any agreement was struck, a delegation would visit Faroe withthe purpose of negotiating areas permissible to fish and quotas on

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various species prior to the meeting in Luxemburg. Those meetingswere duly held at Torshavn the capital of the islands, chaired by theirthen Prime Minister, Attli Dam. Recommendations were thensubmitted to the Commission. But this was only a sideshow to themain act, hammering out a CFP that might be workable, most of allto the Common Market’s, (or EU’s), then nine member states,though also key to external parties like Faroe, but far moreimportantly, Norway, which was keen to access Community herringand mackerel in return for continuing to allow cod and haddockcatching more or less as before.

Leading the UK in the CFP negotiations initially was John SilkinQC, who certainly supported the fishing industry and fought fortheir cause. Meetings were regularly held in the EU building inBrussels, starting at approximately 9am, with Ministers onlyattending the meetings while the advisors met in the corridors, inother words lobbied. David sat on the fisheries committee that hadbeen set up to interface with both Ministers and Eurocrats. Herepresented all Scottish trawler owners through the British FishingFederation.

“As the UK had the biggest stake in the EU’s pond, we were adamantthat the future of our industry was to be assured,” says David of theseexceptionally tough talks. “On all occasions the Ministers wouldconsult us on proposals and, after consideration, if we decided todecline and with the Ministers’ approval, a vote would be taken. Itwould go eight to one against.

“After a time it appeared to us advisors that most countries werehappy with the proposals - especially with the UK disagreeing - as thepolicy would mean no restrictions or quotas and every country wouldhave the liberty to fish at will.

“By then the UK Fishery Minister was Peter Walker and henegotiated and fought a good case for our industry. Finally, in 1982the CFP was agreed among the then nine EU member states andsigned to last for a period of twenty years. We, as advisors, weresatisfied with the agreement as at least 65% of the North Sea haddockwould come to us, along with other protected species like cod andwhiting.”

CFP IMPLEMENTATION OPENS PANDORA’S BOX

A Total Allowable Catch (TAC) was agreed for each country. Also aquota allocation for each state had to be agreed based on their fishing

average over the prior ten-year period. Vessels were issued quotas,together with fishing licence. Linked to the quotas were vesselcapacity units (VCUs), which indicate key capacities such ashorsepower of each vessel. While not articulated during the earlyyears of the CFP, capacity later became and remains a burning issue,as the Scottish fleet is further reduced in size in line with diktats fromBrussels.

Producer Organisations (POs) were then set up to manage andregulate the quotas to each vessel on a monthly basis. Theadministration of each PO comprised members from the catchingindustry who would meet at regular intervals. Vessels could joinwhichever PO they wished, but could only leave to join another POat the end of a yearly term having first given prior notice. Vesselswithin each PO submitted their quotas, which were then put into acommon pool and shared out to each vessel in the scheme everymonth.

As predicted, soon after the CFP was created it became apparent thatlarger vessels were totally uneconomic and the situation would getworse as more countries joined the EU. 1985 saw Spain and Portugaljoin the Community via the Treaty of Accession. Fortunately forBritain, the CFP had been agreed prior to their entry, which meantthe Iberian sisters could not enjoy full access to community watersuntil 2002.

For a while in Aberdeen, it seemed that the Sputniks and smallerboats were viable but, with quotas reducing, most vessels of the largerclass became totally unviable and by 1986-88, nearly all fleet ownersin Aberdeen had either scrapped or sold their vessels. By 1989-91only the John Wood Group and Craig had any fishing vesselsoperating and the owners association had only the two companies inmembership operating three stern trawlers each.

UK fishermen, especially the Scots, were deeply suspicious of Spanishintentions and, after various meetings in 1990, the Hague Preferenceagreement was signed, which gave the industry coastal statepreference and relative stability was established, though this is againunder threat as a new CFP is thrashed out.

By 1993/94 pressure from both Spain and Portugal to have full accesscontinued and in 1996 the Maastricht Treaty was signed. This meantthe end of all national discrimination and that Spain and Portugalnow had full access to the CFP. But they could only fish in watersaccording to their historic performance, which meant they remained


35

effectively barred from the North Sea. Nonetheless, Maastricht madea big impact as approximately 4,000 additional vessels entered thepond.

Most Scottish fishermen have come to dread the annual EU quotahaggle and, as threatened by Fishery Commissioner Hans Fischler,the late 2002 negotiations delivered a devastating blow, with massivecuts, especially to cod allocations, and further forceddecommissioning.

The annual haggle uses as its start point an assessment of fish stocksbased on scientific evidence from which quotas are adjusted. Thisprocess led to licences and quotas becoming very sought after over theyears, as, increasingly, a vessel could not fish without either.

Under the rules, an owner or skipper could sell his vessel completewith licences and quotas to anyone in the community and this gave

both Spain and other EU members the opportunity to purchasemuch sought after UK licences and quotas, something the Craigsfound worrying.

“Within a number of years of the CFP being implemented, almost20% of the licences and quotas had been bought by member states.This caused concern both in the UK industry and at Governmentlevel, so much so that action was taken against the aptly termed‘quota hoppers’ that worked UK quotas under an alleged flag ofconvenience,” reflects David grimly. They were banned fromoperating these quotas for a year. But Spain and others fought back,dragging Britain before the European Court. The judges pronouncedthat the UK Government was at fault and had to compensate thevessels that had been banned. The cost was £100million.”

Instead of getting better, CFP management got worse and a blackmarket in prime North Sea fish emerged. By 1997 the European

The advent of the Common Fisheries Policy created a demand for the ‘Sputniks’ class of vessel like the Grampian Cairn (A346).

Commission, aware of the serious over fishing due mainly to excesscapacity, introduced Multi Annual Guidance Programme (MAGP)targets. It meant that all fishing member states had to reduce fishingeffort by at least 20% per vessel and that, when this was achieved,then member states could qualify for building grants for newtonnage.

While UK fishermen were reluctant to reduce capacity, theGovernment introduced a scheme of paying for the value of the vesselonly, with owners allowed to retain both the licence and quota. It wasthen possible to aggregate VCUs to build bigger vessels, but with a10% capacity penalty. The idea was that fewer, more sophisticatedboats would be built, while also reducing capacity and fishing effort.

But it was clear by 1998 that MAGP targets were not being achievedand the ‘black fish’ trade rocketed. While this put money in the backpockets of fishermen prepared to step over the legal line, so muchillegally landed fish was flooding into the market that the pricesfetched at auction for legally landed fish fell. To counteract some ofthese problems, designated landing ports were introduced for whitefish to complement the system that had for some years applied topelagic landings, meaning that no fish could be landed except at theseports. Also, the mesh size for UK whitefish nets was increased to100mm.

In 1999 satellite surveillance was introduced whereby all vessels of24m length and over had to carry this equipment. This was soBrussels could monitor fishing effort in a bid to safeguard the quotasystem. Quotas were also dramatically reduced for all member states -39% on cod and 18% on haddock. Naturally, this was unacceptableas far as the Scottish fleet was concerned and the Hague Preferencewas invoked. That way, an additional 7% was secured, so helping tounderpin the relative fleet stability that had been briefly achieved.

Could things get worse as the new millennium was celebrated aroundthe world in style, even in Aberdeen where its citizens crowded intoUnion Street for a feast of fireworks? For many fishermen battlingwith growing debt, thoughts were more likely focused on how to stayafloat in the face of mounting EU scientific evidence pointing to apossible collapse in North Sea cod stocks. They said so in 2000 andrepeated the warning again in 2001 and 2002.

Quota reductions were implemented and, in 2001, there were springclosures in the North Sea that were calculated to protect breeding fishfrom being caught. If they could spawn in peace, there was a chance


The Grampian Hill (A463) sails under Tower Bridge as part of the armadasupporting fishermen’s demands for a 50 - mile UK limit, 1977.

that stocks would begin to recover. Mesh sizes were increased to110mm both for the North Sea and West Coast, and 120mm wasimplemented in Norwegian waters. The Government made£25million available for decommissioning in the Scottish fleet, witharound 100 mostly older vessels being broken up.

2002 was a critical year for Scotland’s fishing industry as the CFP,signed in 1982 for 20 years, reached its end. Intensive talks ranthroughout the year, with mounting concern over what Spain’s realintentions were, as if there was ever any doubts!

During the year problems of over fishing the deep water species werediscussed and after deliberating for a period it was decided that 20%of these stocks would go to the UK and 80% to the others in thecommunity, primarily the French whose allocation was based onprior track record. This had an immediate and devastating impact onScots fishermen who have in recent years invested in tonnage capableof fishing the deep waters west of Shetland. A number of first divisionvessels have already been sold away, with many more to follow.

An outline of the intended new fishery regime, described byCommissioner Fischler as taking a long-term, responsible view andwhich would give fishermen a greater say in the CFP managementprocess, was presented, generating much dismay among Scots fishers.

Fischler’s objective is to take an even tougher line on matching fleetcapacity with stocks. Just as a result of the December 2002 annualquota talks, Scotland faces a massive £40million decommissioningprogramme in the current year that will virtually decimate the alreadydepleted whitefish fleet. In addition, a 15-days at sea per monthlimitation has been imposed, with quota cuts of 45-50%implemented.

How this ultimately affects Craig Group’s fishing interests has yet tobe fully determined. The European Commission claims the new CFPwill help establish the level playing field that is needed for the future.But the policy has yet to be finally agreed and implemented.

CANNY CRAIG RIDES OUT THE STORM

With such a trail of devastation, it was essential that the George Craiggroup diversified into the offshore industry in the 1970s, utilising notonly vessels that might otherwise have been sold away or scrapped,but also other services that could have been sold or shut, such asrigging and net making.

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The Queen opens the new extension to the fish market in 1982. David Craig isfollowed by Ministers Malcolm Rifkind and George Younger.

Instead of the company following a number of other fishing firms inAberdeen and shrivelling away to nothing, it was felt that North Seaoil and gas offered growth opportunities, which David and the Craigboard were keen to grasp.

The decision was taken to convert a number of trawlers for standbyduties, even thought the outlay was one that the company couldhardly afford. David says: “After some deliberation it was decided thatfishing was unsuitable at this time and the future rather insecure withlimited areas to fish in, diversification for the future of the companywas the way forward.”

The net effect was that the Chieftain and her sisters were eventuallytaken out of fishing and converted for offshore standby duties.Initially this was an effective and much cheaper option to buyingsecond-hand offshore supply. Other steps were taken too, as Davidrecalls.

“At one of our AGMs, when George called for fresh ideas, Douglasrose to the challenge and asked his Uncle if he realised that we werespending around £150,000 a year on meat for the vessels. Georgereplied that he thought this was reasonable, to which Douglasanswered that he thought the company should be providing thisservice.”

And there were other opportunities that helped sow the seeds fortoday’s business. For example, Bruce’s Stores, a shipping grocer inPalmerston Road, came on the market as owner Alex Bruce, acontemporary of George, wished to retire. It was bought in 1982 andis one of the nuclei of today’s £90 million a year turnover group.

David adds: “We purchased Wire Rope Services at Inverbervie andlater set up a net making division called Pisces in Peterhead, whichserviced the fishing fleet in the ‘Blue Toon’. We also secured anexclusive agency for synthetic netting and combination rope withPortuguese netting manufacturer, Quintas & Quintas.”

Happily, fortune favoured the Craigs and the company continued togrow, with every penny of profit invested back, expanding thestandby fleet rapidly. It proved a natural progression.

In 1988, by then aged 70, George decided to retire from the business,mainly as his family of two sons and one daughter had all enteredmedicine.

This was a wrench for both brothers as they had jointly built CraigGroup over several decades.

“George and I had a very good working relationship and I cannotrecall any occasion on which we disagreed on a matter of importance.He was very forward looking and dynamic. We enjoyed an excellentpartnership for many years.

“On his retirement, we had a major problem. Who would be the nextchairman and MD? A board meeting was convened betweenDouglas, Lydia and myself. It was agreed that I should assume thechair and, since Douglas had advanced to services director and nowhad the vision, strategy and charisma required to take the companyforward, it was decided he should become managing director, whichmeant the third generation was now taking the helm.

“Although retired, brother George continued as a non-executivedirector and we now had a strong, experienced board dedicated to theprogress of the company. After all, it’s important to have strongmanagement and faith in people at the heart of a business and astrong sense of family.”

It was also at this time that the decision was made to bring in FreddieCraig as an additional non-executive director. He was previously adirector with Salvesen and brought valuable corporate governanceexperience to Craig’s boardroom table.

George was to remain on the board as a non- executive director untilhis death in 2000. Sadly too, Pat Lynch died the following year.

1989-1990 proved very unprofitable years for the stern trawlers. Theyhad to gross £3,000 a day just to operate. The crunch came in 1989,when both Grampian City and Chieftain were withdrawn fromservice, followed by the Grampian Warrior in 1990 and converted tostandby vessels.

“This was a sad time as, for the first time in the history of ourcompany, we were out of fishing,” says David.

But not for long as, in 1990, he approached an old fishing industryfriend, Willie Campbell, who was one of the top inshore skippers inthe seine net side of the industry. He was now ashore and managing afleet of six boats, with the skippers having shares in their vessels. Theboats were operating out of Peterhead, but Willie and most of hisskippers were from Lossiemouth or the Hopeman area, he alsooperated a fish selling company in Peterhead called Grampian SeaFishing Co.


“During our conversation he disclosed that he and his wife haddecided to close down their fish-selling operation and sell their sharesin the boats, either to the existing skippers, or an outsider.” If Davidhad ever wanted to get back into fishing, here was his chance.

“I told him that our company might be interested in taking over afterwe had seen his accounts. Douglas and I examined the books and gottogether with Willie to settle the deal on the understanding that I meteach individual skipper and had their approval as, at that time, theywere only involved with one private owner; not a company.

“I was invited to the skippers’ Christmas dinner in December and, inJanuary 1991, Craig Group started operating Grampian Sea FishingCo. Once again we were back in the fishing industry and during thefollowing years we built the fleet up to 15 vessels based on single boatand pair seining with top earning skippers. This was a recipe forassuring success!”

Mike Walker, previously with Grampian Sea Fishing, moved across tobecome manager and has since been appointed director.

But what of the future, as the Scottish and wider UK fishing industryface deepening crisis and yet more fleet decommissioning?

David is optimistic: “The Craig board and I are of the belief that astrong and viable fishing industry will be the future for those who, atthis stage, can weather the storm.

“A much reduced fleet with less fishing effort will allow the stocks torecover and build and, with proper fishery management, a brightfuture is assured. Fishing is an important part of Scotland’s heritageand future, and is of the utmost importance to many fishingcommunities and their families.”

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Right, from top: The Cevic, The Tranquilityand the second generation– George, Lydia &David (1998).


The Grampian Frontier, field support vessel for BP’s Foinaven Field.

orth Sea oil and gas is Britain’s most successfulindustry since World War Two, having pumpedhundreds of billions of pounds into the economy -£200billion to the Treasury alone and createdhundreds of thousands of jobs nationwide.

Fate certainly dealt the aces to the Granite City, which was in manyways dragged kicking and screaming out of the semi-torpid state ithad slipped into by the 1960s. It was an economy with nowhere togo, something that had not escaped the Scottish Office which, in1966, commissioned prominent Aberdeen University professor of theday, Maxwell Gaskin, to research how the moribund North-easteconomy could be jolted back to life.

Only fishing was prospering, with the Aberdeen fleet up around the200 mark and companies investing heavily in modern diesel trawlersto replace ageing steamers of 30 years and more. Then, George Craig& Sons was one of many fishing companies active in the port,outwardly traditional but nonetheless a trendsetter … willing to stepout of the box once in a while and be bold.

Why else, for example, would joint managing directors and brothers,David and George Craig be willing to break the mould by buildingthe Mary Craig? This was the first motor trawler in the Scottish fleetto feature a smartly flared and immensely practical lantern-stylewheelhouse and self-contained diesel-driven trawl winch that gotaround all the problems associated with electric and traditional belt-driven winches.

And why else would they stick a toe in the water with ‘Big Oil’ -multi-national oil companies like BP and Shell – very early in thehistory of that now great North Sea industry and make such a hugesuccess of it that, in June this year, the company won a major businessaward recognising its 70 years of achievement and entrepreneurialspirit.

Now known as Craig Group and still privately owned, the companyhas so far spanned three generations, with every prospect of going afourth at least. Moreover, it is still involved in fishing despite havingbecome a diversified, fast internationalising upstream energy servicesbusiness with a substantial fleet of offshore support vessels andengaged in procurement of oilfield supplies, provision of food to

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Part Two

THE OIL ERA

offshore installations, supply of mooring systems, chain inspectionand certification, rental of high-tech subsea marine electronicequipment, also leisure interests.

Fishing is comprehensively dealt with in Part One. Part Two’s primaryfocus is the impact of oil, including highlighting how ancillaryactivities dating back several decades and which were put in place tofacilitate efficient servicing of the fishing fleet, have contributed toCraig’s enormous success since, one fateful day in 1970, a tall Texanstrolled into the Craig Group’s offices.

ENTER MISTER CHATE

Until 1987 and the Piper Alpha disaster, the bulk of North Seastandby vessels were former side and stern trawlers. Aberdeen’s PointLaw was still redolent of the great days of fishing, except that thetraditional, subdued liveries had long given way to high-visibilityorange, and fishing gear had been replaced by fast rescue craft slungfrom hefty davits and personnel recovery nets.

This was the latter-day world of Pat Lynch, the North Star managingdirector whose soul was steeped in fishing but who worked with theCraig board to progressively convert the company’s trawlers forcedout of fishing by Icelandic, Faroes and Common Market restrictionsinto tough, capable standby vessels for the then still new offshoreindustry.

Pat who, like David, at one point sat on Aberdeen Harbour Board,knew as little, or as much, about offshore oil as anyone else whoinhabited the Granite City’s waterfront during the early 1970s. Tomost it was a big bucks game played by Texans imported to show theLimeys how. It was perceived as a threat, with many a trawlermantempted away to the rigs by fatter wage packets than they could hopefor, even from shipping aboard with a top trawler skipper like BobCatto.

His first encounter with this swaggering new industry took place oneFriday in 1970 when, having already had contact with David duringmeetings of the then new Offshore Oil Consultative Group, a MrChate strolled into Pat’s office to discuss the possibility of hiring atrawler to support a drilling rig.

Pat, never one to let a good opportunity slip through his fingers,moved swiftly, even though he had never seen a rig in his life.


The Grampian Orcades stands-by a North Sea drilling rig.

Recalling this encounter with the writer some years ago, Pat asked histall visitor: “What’s an oil rig?”

Chate, who represented a large oil company, replied: “Well, it’s afunny thing. You’ll see it sticking up out of the sea.”

The bemused trawler boss, who was never afraid to speak his mind,asked what the ship would have to do.

“It doesn’t have to do anything, it just has to be there,” came thereply.

“I repeated the question and got the same answer,” recalled Pat.“Being a shrewd trawler manager, I quickly decided this guy wassome kind of a nut and I should get rid of him and get on with myreal work, which was running a fishing company.

“He then pressed me for a charter rate. Well, in those days, vesselsworking the likes of the Faroese grounds grossed £125 a day, so I said£300 a day. I thought I would scare him away.”

Not a bit of it. Chate agreed to pay the rate that had literally beenplucked from out of the air. In any case, the Texan badly needed areplacement for the standby vessel Lady Fiona that was supposed tohave done the job.

So John Henderson, skipper of the Admiral Drake, was summonedand given his instructions.

“He wasn’t happy with Chate’s order because there wasn’t any work todo!” said Pat. “It was the easiest day the lads had ever done.”

But it was not until 1974 that Craig, through North Star, really setout to catch oil industry contracts, making its entry to that marketwith the former Fleetwood motor trawler Cevic. The vessel’sperformance proved disappointing as far as the Craigs wereconcerned, and so she was pulled out of fishing with a view to beingput to other work if possible.

The ship was converted, renamed Grampian Ranger and offered forcharter to an industry that was desperate to grab just about anythingthat floated. The next task was to net clients and Pat heard that Mobilwas building the huge Beryl Alpha oil production platform andneeded a ship.

“I headed for London and descended on this sixteen-foot tall Texanin an office crammed with engineering drawings. I convinced him heneeded our vessel and we made a deal for a year based on a rate of

£325 per day, which would be reduced if he took a second ship thatyear.”

Mobil did. That vessel was the famous Mary Craig. North Star was toretain the contract for 18 years, which record speaks for itself.

Since then, standby vessels, now known as ERRVs, (EmergencyResponse and Rescue Vessels), have advanced greatly and todayprovide sophisticated, frontline cover for thousands of workers,including the most dangerous of conditions… fog, fire and tempest.Indeed North Star has been pre-eminent in the development of thiscritical aspect of UK offshore safety.

Hundreds of millions of pounds have been collectively invested byowners in the fleet that is today the North Sea’s bulwark and employssome 3,000 British mariners.

Remarkably, more than 300 offshore workers have been rescued overthe past 30 years from the grip of this chill sea, where survival timescan be measured in just a few minutes, especially during stormywinter months when water temperatures plunge.

Not only is today's ERRV typically capable of safely accommodatingup to 300 survivors and stabilising casualties in well equippedhospital facilities, it engages in anti-collision surveillance andpollution control duties, plus it is superbly equipped to act as on-scene commander and communications centre during an offshoreincident.

THE LYNCH SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT

Pat died in November 2001, before the idea of writing this history ofthe Craig Group was conceived. But his understudy for many yearsand now managing director of North Star, Callum Bruce, recalls theLynch way of doing business very clearly. He was a man who didn’tsuffer fools easily.

“He had a style that, although I suppose we all sat at meetings andcringed at what he sometimes said to people, he was very wellrespected. It was something most people would not get away with,but he did.”

Though there was at the time a family link, Callum’s first exposure tothe Craig Group per se and more particularly North Star, came afterseveral years working in the oil industry, including dealing with vessellogistics at McDermott, and latterly as a well service engineer with

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Baker Oil Tools until made redundant in 1986 … a consequence ofthe world oil price crash very early that year.

“I had been living in Cyprus and returned to Aberdeen. Pat gave me afill-in job. They were looking for someone to work on the quay. Inthose days they had ship’s runners who were responsible for gettingcrews from their homes, the pub or wherever to the boats and ontheir way to sea.

“It wasn’t easy to get fishing vessel crews to leave the pub. To get all ofthem aboard their ship at the same time and to throw the ropes offwas quite a task.”

The son of an Aberdeen fish merchant, Callum had plenty of priorexperience of the North-east’s fishing industry, so rousting out crewsand sending them on their way was almost second nature.

The company still had its three 130ft (39.6m) stern trawlers at thetime, namely Grampian City, Chieftain and Warrior. There was also alarge number of standby vessels, mostly ex fishers, though there werealready ships in the fleet like the Grampian Pride, Pioneer andProtector, which had been purpose-built for the Norwegian marketand bought by Craig prior to the Piper Alpha disaster of 1988.

“With the demise of fishing, standby was a blessing, not just for thelikes of Craig Group, but the fishermen themselves … lots of them.”

Callum’s job was supposed to be temporary. When things picked upagain, he would be off. But he never did leave.

“The operations manager at that time was Morris Taylor. He decidedto move south and back to fishing, which left a vacancy. I got the job,partly because of my vessel logistics work with McDermott. I knewboats and what they did. I worked for Pat and, although he wastremendous, he was sometimes hard to work for.

“He called a spade a shovel, but I learned a lot from him. I didn’tmake many mistakes, because he was always there. Even though hewas managing director, he was very hands on and knew what everyboat was doing every minute of the day.

“He could quote every charter rate as we probably all can now,” saysCallum. “We learned from Pat. It didn’t matter what position youheld. MD or ops manager, you had better know where all those boatswere, who they were working for, and what the charterer’s name was.

“It was invaluable. He taught you that you had to be close to yourclient. Personal relationships mattered a lot in the industry then,more than they do now.”

Having seen the opportunity and capitalised on it, a policy ofprogressive fleet upgrading and continuous crew training was adoptedat North Star, with the Lynch-Bruce partnership pushing hard to stayahead of the competition. Cautious innovation was the way, alwaysbearing in mind that this was a family firm, not a public companywith bottomless coffers.

“We had the first fast rescue craft, the first purpose-built vessels, andthe best safety record; we were trying to give the standby sector abetter name than it previously had,” says Callum, who earned hisboardroom spurs by being made up to operations director of NorthStar in 1991.

“I guess what I brought into the company, which Pat didn’t have, wasthat I had an IT background, albeit limited. Until I arrived, all vesselrecords, salaries, that sort of thing, were written up in settling books,which was the traditional way of handling trawlers.

“By then, crew competence was a big thing but, because trainingrecords were kept on a card system, it was impossible to do searchesto find out who was due training and when. So I bought the first PCthat North Star had outside the company’s accounting system and setup a simple database to handle training. We used that as a selling tool,because we could produce computerised crew lists that showed alltheir training.

AND THEN THERE WAS PIPER ALPHA!

But the appalling disaster of July 6th, 1988 - the worst in therecorded history of offshore oil - when the Occidental-operated PiperAlpha platform blew up, resulting in 167 offshore personnel beingkilled, changed all that. Oil companies were violently shaken out oftheir complacency.

“I don’t suppose any of us in this industry will forget Piper Alpha. Igot a phone-call from Ian Palmer at about three in the morning. Hewas manager of Stirling Shipping, from which we had a vessel calledSandhaven on charter at that time,” recalls Callum.

“He said: ‘We’ve got a problem on the Sandhaven, the master’sranting on the radio about a fire, people in the water and he’s lost two


of his crew. I can’t get back on to speak to him. I don’t know whathappened. Have you heard anything?’ But I’d heard nothing at thatpoint.

“I switched the radio on and, within a very short space of time, Istarted getting reports that there had been an explosion on aplatform, though it was at first unclear which one.

“It quickly transpired that it was Piper Alpha; we had three vessels inthe area, one was the Sandhaven, the others were Grampian Kestreland Grampian Queen. The Queen was probably one of the oldestvessels at that time, but it made her no less effective that night when,miraculously, 68 survived.

“The Kestrel picked up one survivor while the Queen recovered two.They were transferred fairly quickly to the service rig Tharos (it wasPiper Alpha’s tender at the time).

“This disaster changed the industry and one of the areas examined inthe Cullen Inquiry was standby vessels, for which a new code wasdrawn up.

“That said, some operators were willing to pay more to get bettervessels. In response we had invested in the Pride, Pioneer andProtector well before Piper. They had been built in 1981-82 and werevery high-tech compared with the old trawlers.

“While Cullen made a number of recommendations, to this day Idon’t think they were translated properly. He set out in a non-prescriptive manner to improve standards throughout, with betterboats, better equipment and more highly trained people.”

Whether Cullen was fully realised in this regard, is sometimesquestioned. This is because in the early 1990s, the North Seaeconomy was edgy and there was a big drive to cut costs. The

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The standby vessel, the Grampian Protector with fire fighting capabilities.

industry wanted new standby tonnage and better trained personnel,but there was insufficient funding available to achieve everything.

Nonetheless, many old ships were decommissioned and replaced withmore suitable units, many based on supply boats converted for thepurpose.

But little new tonnage was actually designed and built specifically forthe job and, even to this day, Craig Group ranks as the largest UKinvestor in such ships, whether through direct ownership or long-term charter.

Interpreting Cullen their way, oil companies also proposed and drovethrough the practice of vessel sharing between neighbouringplatforms. It enraged many offshore workers and the trade unionsthat struggled to protect them in an anti-union environment. Themanoeuvre also worried the Emergency Response & Rescue Vessel

Association (ERRVA) whose most prominent members include CraigGroup. It certainly concerned Callum at the time and still does.

“Ninian originally had one vessel per platform, post Cullen itdropped to two vessels between three platforms and then to onevessel. Before, whereas a rig, drilling close by a platform, would haveits own vessel, sharing became the practice,” says Callum.

“There was also the introduction of daughter craft. They do have aplace and we operate them, but they are small and uncomfortable.The industry needs to consider carefully where it goes next.”

It is clear Callum feels that standby is still the best way of rescuingpeople, particularly in fire, fog and fumes. After all, they provide amulti-option, round-the-clock, all-weather escape route that cannotbe equalled.

The boards of honour hung in the entrance hall at Craig Group’sAlbert Quay HQ bear testimony not just to the seventy rescues


The Grampian Orcades enters Aberdeen harbour for the first time in 1991.

carried out by North Star ships, but to a sector that has made a veryspecial contribution to offshore and wider maritime rescue.

TRENDSETTING AGAIN - THIS TIME OFFSHORE

Craig set the pace by being the first to bring into service, standbyvessel tonnage purpose-built for the UKCS. The Grampian Orcadesentered service in 1991, followed about six months later by sisterGrampian Hunter.

It was Orkney fish entrepreneur Angus Sinclair who spearheaded theproject, based on two part-built hulls located at a Danish shipyard,but it was Craig that had the vision to see the value of investing inbrand new standby vessels, so taking the plunge. The arrival of thenew trawler-style sisters signalled further restructuring of the NorthStar standby fleet.

“We then had a big thinning out of tonnage,” recalls Callum. “Thedownturn in the industry gave us the opportunity to sell a lot ofvessels, including the Grampian Fame to Greenpeace, who rebuilt heras the present and high profile Rainbow Warrior.”

Some second-hand replacement tonnage was sought and bought,primarily supply vessels from Harrison’s Clyde who operated theStirling fleet. At one point, 10 out of a fleet of 30 vessels flying theNorth Star pennant were former Stirling units.

Thoughts also turned to building further tonnage linked to thesecuring of long-term contracts based on ‘added value’ vessels capableof several activities complementary to standby, like shuttle tankerassist, cargo carrying, full pollution control spreads, and infieldsurvey and inspection.

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Dacon Scoop allows adverse weather rescue. Medical treatment room on the Grampian Falcon.

Which is where BP’s planned development off its Foinaven andSchiehallion oilfields West of Shetland came onto the North Staragenda around 1994.

When the decision was made to develop these fields, BP’s marinedepartment approached Craig as well as Seabrokers, then new intoAberdeen. They needed a vessel capable of standby as a core duty but,because development would be FPSO-based, it at least needed to becapable of towing tankers and of living in the frequently violent seasthat are found along the edge of the UK Continental Shelf out Westof Shetland.

The decision was taken to go bespoke and bring in local navalarchitects IMT of Montrose, rather than go off the peg with aNorwegian design house.

“We wanted to build something that was branded … something thatwas stamped Craig Group, not a variation of a Norwegian model. Wewere pulling together an anchor handling, emergency towage, oilrecovery, ROV-support, survey and standby vessel with daughter craftfor the first time. It had never been done before.”

Grampian Frontier was ordered in 1995 and delivered in 1997. It wasUK-designed, UK built for a UK company to service a UK market.

“When this 70m ship was delivered she was state of the art, muchbigger and more sophisticated than any vessel we ever had before.And she’s still with us, still working on the same contract, lookingafter Foinaven,” adds Callum.

As for Pat, he was unquestionably proud of the Grampian Frontierand of the achievements of his team. You could read it in his facewhenever he talked about the ship or was aboard it with visitors. Thevessel’s general arrangement drawings prepared by her designer, IMT,were usually to be seen somewhere about his office, mostly laid outon a side table and, today, a model graces the Craig Groupboardroom.

THE NEXT GENERATION

At more or less the same time that the group embarked on its missionto carve out a slice of the fast growing North Sea standby vesselmarket, the next generation of the Craig family joined the firm.David’s son Douglas was a trained accountant and, in that regard, theworld was potentially his oyster.


Daughter craft being launched.

Fast rescue craft in action.

However, that was rejected in favour of George Craig & Sons where,it could be said, he eventually found his pearl, but not without manytrials and tribulations and much self-questioning along the way.

Douglas’s starter for ten was an MA degree at Aberdeen Universityand three-year stint at Thomson McLintock (effectively KPMG)before qualifying as a chartered accountant.

When asked why not KPMG, the reply is: ”I never wanted to becomea professional accountant, I always wanted to go into commerce. Iwould have loved to have gone to Continental Europe, the Caribbeanor somewhere like that. KPMG gives you overseas opportunities.

“I preferred the family business where I felt my responsibilities lay,and where I could help create new opportunities. Aberdeen was myworld in those days. Perhaps then, you didn’t quite appreciate howwide horizons could be.”

He was growing up in a city that was locked in a time warp,slumbering, decaying almost imperceptibly. The local economy wasweakening and, with the exception of fishing, there seemed littleprospect of getting out of the economic hole, hence the Gaskin studyreferred to in Part One.

Young people were disaffected and leaving in droves for the brightlights further south … Edinburgh, Glasgow, London. Despite suchpeer group pressures, it takes little analysis to discover why Douglaschose the family firm over a potentially high-flying role at what hassince become one of the world’s top accountancy firms. And it has todo with solidarity and supportiveness. After all, his father and uncleGeorge had been joint managing directors of George Craig & Sonssince before World War Two, and that requires something veryspecial.

“You go back to school days and remember that, in a class of boys atRobert Gordon’s College, the teacher asking how many parents werein business. Only two of us put our hands up,” says Douglas. “As faras I was concerned, he was achieving something out of the ordinary. Ididn’t know anyone else that did what he did so well. He was always agreat example to me and largely respected by everyone I came acrossat all levels.

“It was then that I realised Dad was doing something special,although I’d always thought he was a hero and winner as he alwaysseemed to be top skipper and knew absolutely what he was doing. Hehad a black and white film in those days and would show it to family

or guests. Sometimes he would speak at Rotary Club about thefishing. He came to speak at school and had a model trawl that heused to explain how fishing gear worked.”

In the early years, David was mostly at sea. Usually he was awayduring the week and back at the weekend, or he might be away for acouple of weeks at a time on the longer trips.

“I did go on a few trips with Dad. I was ill and remember being fedbread on the third or fourth day out to help me recover. When you goon board a trawler and there’s a smell of pies, and you couple thatwith the smell of diesel fuel, and then you try compensating duringthe first few hours with the horizon going all over the place … it’s justa terrible feeling.

“The first was when I was fourteen or fifteen … a summer trip away.It was certainly exciting, especially at night, watching the radar,following the fish. I can understand why my father loved it. It’sanother world out there, a special job … the last of the original andnatural hunting professions. You cannot understand it unless you’reout there. I only sampled it. Despite being seasick it was nonetheless avery special experience.”

But the pattern of life at the Craig household switched abruptly whileDouglas was in his teens. “Dad was ashore most of the time. He gaveup the sea when he was 55 or so and I began to discover more abouthim and what his business aspirations were. A lot of sons don’t get onwith their fathers, but I did.”

This was a family where everyone pitched in, one way or another. Itwas encouraged, including turning up on the quayside or at the Craigoffices, workshops or store. Mucking in resulted in indelible, happymemories for Douglas and laid valuable foundations for the future.

“As a university student working during the holidays for North StarFishing, which was then at Commercial Quay across from the fishmarket, there were Dickens desks, quill pens and a fireplace in themain office.

“Uncle George’s secretary, Miss Harrold – we called her Hawk Eye –would only give you a replacement desk pad or pencil if you gave herback the old one!

“The day started at 6am, when Sandy McLeod, an astute fishsalesman (now in charge of recruitment for standby vessels) and Iwould tally up the boxes coming off our vessels landing that day to

49

reconcile the catch with ‘Juby’ the boxman and head fish salesmanFrank Naughton.

“Frank would then take up station at the head of each row of boxeslaid out on the fish market floor to auction the catch with the skipperand vessel owner looking on.

“I can also remember the drama of landing fish and even splicingrope during some of the labour disputes.

“This was life at the sharp end in full colour and it was a greateducation for me. The camaraderie was fantastic and I built uppersonal and business friendships to last a lifetime.”

Douglas recalls office manager Jim Scott, who wouldn’t let him homeuntil he had balanced his cashbook for the day, and this could takeseveral hours beyond 5pm knocking off time.

Then there is Jim Pearce, who joined North Star from school aged 16and is now 47 years with Craig.

“Jim is one of the most conscientious people I have ever come acrossand is everyone’s friend. He belonged to a drama group and this gavehim an ability to entertain at social events with his own hilariousroutines.

“But he was accident prone. Once when running into the fish marketto avoid a rainstorm, he was soaked by someone washing the floorwith a hose. Jim arrived back ‘drookit’.”

And what about Moira Low? She started in 1969 as clerkess/typist.Her first duty – filling the ink pots. She thought, ‘have they neverheard of Biros’!

Uncle George’s secretary Ann Harrold insisted on the cashbooksbeing written up using pen and ink.

“Miss Harrold was a stickler for accuracy and, on one occasion, shenoticed an error of one penny in an Ellis & McHardy fuel invoice.When Moira protested that it would cost two pence for the telephonecall she was told: ‘The doors of George Craig & Sons will soon closeif you don’t pick up errors like these!’

“The staff were terrified of her and were demoralised when shedecided to stay on until she was 63!”

If the foregoing comes across as Dickensian, then a visit by anAmerican film producer to North Star’s offices in the 1960s rubs it in.


Douglas and David Craig at Albert Quay. (Photograph by Kate Sutherland courtesy of theLeopard magazine)

Picture a set from the late 1800s - large sloping desks, high backstools, quill pens, ink wells, with rubbers and pencils secured bystring.

“We had a ship up for sale at the time and quite a bit of interest wasshown in her,” recalls Jim Pearce who was then very young.“Onesummer morning the door burst open and a very colourful Americangentleman with stetson, Hawaiian shirt and smoking a big cigarstrode in. He was interested in the ship to make a film called Mutinyon the Bounty.

“He looked about for a short while and then in a thick Americanaccent he said: ‘Gosh, I came here to make the Bounty, but I’ve gotthe set for a Dickens novel.’

“With that, the side door of the cashiers office opened and outshuffled Jim Scott, the old white haired paymaster, to which theAmerican said: ‘Heavens, you have even got Scrooge, and some of theextras. May I see your managing director please?’

“He left empty-handed.”

But was this helping out on Douglas’s part a response to old-fashioned obligation? Perhaps.

When the time came to dump KPMG, it was straight into the fishmarket for the new generation Craig. It was tough.

“A lot of people in the industry were depressed then and that was 25years ago. Many sons in fishing families follow their fathers to sea,shelving the idea of a completely different life. But the decision wasmade easier for me by the fact that my father seemed not to want meheading to sea anyway. Intuitively, he knew there were bigger andbetter things for me to set my teeth into.”

In any case, Britain had just joined the Common Market and therewas huge uncertainty coming into the fishing industry even at thattime. Fishermen knew instinctively then that they had been solddown the river by the Government, but couldn’t prove it until paperspertaining to joining the European ‘Club’ were released under theOfficial Secrets Act 30-year rule. A gnawing, slow burn crisis wasalready developing. This was not the time to be heading for sea.

“He was concerned enough to recognise that there would beproblems ahead. In any case, at that time, the firm’s accounts werehandled outside. I guess his vision was that I could probably help torun and grow the business, rather than catch fish. We had a fleet of 25

vessels at that time, fishing was in trouble and the challenge was howto take the business forward, in a different direction perhaps. It wasnecessary for me to begin to understand what was going on and whatthe possibilities might be.”

DOUGLAS LEARNS THE ROPES

“It was obvious that I had to learn as much as I could about differentaspects of the business and I would go down to the fish marketregularly. I tried selling fish at auction, but you need a loud voice forthat. I wasn’t a natural.

“It wasn’t quite in me then, though I could possibly do it now. Iregretted not being an engineer or mariner, but was later to realisethat financial acumen was what I needed most, linked to the sheerexperience of motivating and leading people. There was a lot ofdrama going on at the quayside. It was a real industry then forAberdeen. Today it’s a pale remnant.”

The first real task for the fresh-faced young Craig was to bring theaccounts together in-house and try to get a computer into thecompany to facilitate and improve financial management.

“The first pocket calculators had just come out and I can rememberBill Paterson of Arkman & Paterson with his slide rule, checking thatthe calculator had spewed out the right answer … our CA checkingwhether the calculator was right! That was only 25 years ago!

“When I joined there was a new generation starting. I began pushing,but only gradually. With two strong people like my father and UncleGeorge at the head of the company it’s quite a challenge to do thatsort of thing. To think of things like internationalising was not reallyon, at least not then.

“But change is part and parcel of a company going forward. There isno such thing as steady state. Major upheavals and dramatic changesof direction can become necessary. It has to happen with everycompany if it is to survive.

“Not long after I started, we had an opportunity for the trawler Cevicto go into North Sea standby … that was a crossroads. We took thatopportunity.”

That willingness to meet and deal with change, and not shrink backfrom it or freeze like a rabbit in the headlights of a truck were the

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qualities that the senior Craigs were hoping for in the successorgeneration, that is, Douglas and his team.

Some family philosophy. “Two things my uncle said when I was firstinterviewed were that he thought I’d bring a lot to the table. He said:‘If you’re in doubt of what you’re doing, think whether it is to thebenefit of George Craig & Sons or not … a good barometer for thefuture … are you working for the good of the business or the benefitof yourself.’ He said too: ‘We will fall out and we’ll fall in, but don’ttake it home with you.’

“And that’s fundamental. If you take it home with you, bitter aboutsome argument or issue, as all business people do, it’s a killer.

“Another thing we did (in the boardroom) was when we had anargument or discussion where we didn’t agree about something, you‘parked’ it that day. You didn’t take it home with you.

“As a family we would still meet for lunch on a Sunday. There was noresentment; you just got on with it.

“My father and uncle were very close … they had sworn allegiance totheir father to work together … they were blood brothers really. Onlybrothers would last as joint MDs for 55 years.

“No one else could do it. There would be a power struggle. But therewasn’t a power struggle because they were equally yoked. They weren’tgoing to fall out and that was a very important lesson to me. If theyhad fallen out, then Craig Group would not be here today.”

It is the kind of solidarity that is impossible to find in a listedcompany, unless only a modest proportion of the business has beenfloated.

Typical family, the Craigs have traditionally ploughed virtuallyeverything back into the business. Like many, the instinct is to keep


The flagship Grampian Monarch (A337) .

borrowings and gearing to the minimum, but not to the point thatinvestment is stymied.

“There was always drama with fishing vessels. And, with Pat Lynchon board as well! He was no-one’s yes man. He would say what hethought.

“When appropriate, it’s right to say what you think. Pat would dothat. Though he wasn’t family, he was treated as if he was. Yet he alsoremained his own man. He cared hugely about North Star, aboutbeing market leader, about being the best. He lived it.”

As turmoil increasingly gripped the fishing industry and manytraditional family businesses fought for survival, Douglas claims notto have been over-concerned.

“I never worried about not surviving. Though I remember theGrampian Monarch being sold away to Canada and that it generatedgood cash. In fishing, some vessels were doing well, but some weren’t,while North Sea standby was already producing a steady income.”

It appears that, even before Chate ventured into Pat’s office, Douglashad seen the possibilities of breaking into the offshore industry insome way other than simply running ships. He thought it an obviousprogression because the company already had various skills in-housethat could be adapted, albeit by dint of hard work and determination.

“In those days I was buried in accounting matters and maybe hadn’tunderstood where the company could go. But, once the accounts andassociated systems were in order, and opportunities in services likecatering and offshore procurement came up, I wanted to get afterthem.

“Take catering. If you can supply and satisfy your own ships, whichwe did, you can do outside and foreign ships. You can offerprocurement, including abroad. But such opportunities were thennot available.

“Twenty-five years ago, the North Sea was growing rapidly so, in anycase, there wasn’t the need to expand abroad. At that time I could seethe opportunities for what we had, but we did need to makeacquisitions. I now think we should have been more aggressive inacquiring other companies and services earlier. But we were rightlyvery cautious and stuck to what we knew, though we saw standbycoming and did something about that.

“We invested a lot of money in acquiring and converting standbyvessels and even set up an offshore fabrication shop. We also got intowire rope services 15 years ago. So we did take risks, and some paidoff.”

Basically, Douglas increasingly got on with developing the offshoreservices element, Pat concentrated on the North Star fleet – trawlersand standby, while George and David continued as joint MDs,keeping a firm helm on the group’s course.

“It worked pretty well, in as much as a traditional family companycan allow itself to grow. Most investment was ploughed into standbyvessels. That was the main cash generator … the cash cow, and wasexactly the right thing to do at that time, which I as a member of theboard backed enthusiastically.

“The ships were there, the skills were there; it was almost a seamlesstransition. The great thing was that you didn’t have fishing gear torepair and replace, or the risk of where to catch the fish.

“With the ability to stay out in all weathers, coupled with the lowfreeboard amidships that side trawlers possessed, the vessels couldrescue souls as they had hauled in nets full of fish, retrieving themwith then new technology semi-rigid inflatable rescue deployed usingspecial davits.

“A new industry was being born.

“And I suppose we were quite aggressive when it came to growing thefleet as we took over BUT tonnage and Salvesen’s standby vessels, wehad a joint venture with Wood Group and Richard Irvin, plus webought and built, mainly buying second-hand Norwegian ships,ultimately leading to our building the Grampian Frontier six yearsago and taking delivery of the Grampian Explorer and Surveyor thisyear.”

For any upcoming young business turk destined to lead, gainingadmission to the boardroom as early as possible is a natural instinct.In Douglas’s case, this came after several years of cutting his corporateteeth.

In 1983, he was admitted as services director of Craig Group.

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PIRATES OF POINT LAW

Taking on the role of services director was the cue for Douglas to rollup his sleeves and relentlessly pursue fresh opportunities for thecompany … to create rather than simply administrate.

“I could see a huge amount of opportunity … both challenging andenjoyable … getting out to meet people and trying to develop links.”

The first break came from a conversation about a long-held desire byGeorge to, of all things, own a butchery business, mainly because oneof his friends was a successful butcher. That desire taunted. Why notbuy or set up such an operation, and why not self-supply the group’sown fleet of 25 standby and eight fishing vessels?

The idea was knocked around the boardroom and Douglas did abreak-even analysis: “I thought it would be profitable just with ourown fleet, never mind anyone else’s.

“So, highly qualified as I wasn’t, in 1980, I started a butcher’s shop. Itwas my baby; they had allowed me to do something. I spent everymortal hour and minute thinking about how I could make it work. Imarketed every ship in Aberdeen by going on board, speaking withthe captain.

“My slogan was, GCS where the meat costs less!

“Seaforth Maritime had a huge fleet in those days and I visited whenprocurement manager Eddie Phillips was there. He allowed us tosupply the Seaforth Hero, one of our first offshore support vesselcustomers.

“But it turned out that the cook wanted a ‘dropsy’ (backhander), andwe exposed that, even though it would have been very easy to havegiven him one. The result of our action was that he was sacked andwe eventually won the contract for the whole Seaforth fleet.”

Douglas also travelled to Norway, driven to visiting every shippingcompany in his desire to corner this new market for Craig. Theperceived marketing advantage the Aberdeen firm had over itscompetitors was that the meat offered was home killed, cut for thesize of crew to eliminate waste, and offered at a bonded price as thecompany had secured from HM Customs & Excise a licence coveringthe UK Continental Shelf.

But scouring for custom was not confined to shipping as, in 1981,the meat supplies contract covering all hospitals in Aberdeen was won

by Craig. Clearly, this audacious move was something that causedconsternation among the city’s butchery establishment.

“We were called the pirates of Point Law!

“Often it was whichever chandler boarded a ship first who got theorder. Faxes and e-mails had not yet been invented.

“I wouldn’t say the butchery venture was a meteoric success, though itwas successful. It wasn’t rocket science, but it had great potential tolink with the other services that we developed.”

BUILDING AN APPETITE FOR CHANDLERY & CATERING

Ship’s stores, painting and chandlery had long been a facet of Craig,something that had naturally evolved as a result of owning asubstantial trawler fleet that needed keeping in trim and where theAberdeen tradition had been to own or barter required services, ratherthan hand over cash.

The challenge was how to take this foundation and build for thefuture by diversifying and expanding the business, and the obvioustarget was food. An early result was that the long established localfirm Bruce’s Stores was acquired.

“Bruce’s supplied the first rig that ever came into Aberdeen with foodand supplied schools and hospitals,” says Douglas. “Alex Bruce was acontemporary of uncle George … they were at school together …and had done really well out of fishing, making more out of that thancatering, which they had also done well in.

“But, with the demise of (middle and distant water) fishing 30 yearsago when Britain first joined the Common Market, he wanted to sellthe groceries side as he had no family coming into the business. Ithought this would complement our meat side and, though I didn’tknow it at the time, buying Bruce’s sowed the first seed of whateventually became today’s international catering and oilfieldprocurement business.”

Vic Murphy, a long-term main board director, recalls the importanceof the Bruce’s transaction, which marked the start of his career withthe company. He had sold his family company Buchan & Johnston toCraig.

“B&J gave us a base in Peterhead which was key for offshore andmarine supplies.


“Bruce’s Stores was an important vehicle; traditional business with allthe history that goes with a respected company,” remembers Vic. “Fortwo years I travelled back to Edinburgh until I moved to Aboyne.Monday morning start 5am … up to Aberdeen. This created adiscipline that I have stuck to over the last 20 years … early starts -late finishes.

“Douglas and I worked as a team; occasionally sneaking off for golf.We were fortunate in winning the SPARKS Pro-cel-am GolfTournament at Deeside three times, the last being with Willie Milneof Walker Cup and Hamburger fame and with the famous rugbyplayer Gordon Brown … ‘Broon frae Troon’.”

Another factor that Douglas says inspired him at the time wasrelocation of the company to the current premises at 207 AlbertQuay, which had been vacated by British United Trawlers. Once very

powerful, BUT not only shut its Aberdeen office, the Humbersidecompany also contracted out its fishing operation and decided to getout of standby vessels.

“We ended up buying the fleet, which Andrew Lewis had beenrunning at the time.”

As an aside, BUT will be remembered by many on the big ship side offishing for the famous ‘Cat’ boats. These were big, rakish sidetrawlers, most of which sailed out of the Humber.

“The building, on which we have a long lease from AberdeenHarbour Board and that looks out onto the quay where our shipsberth, gave us scope to expand. It enabled us to place North Star,riggers, marine stores, meat supplies, ship repairing, accounts andship’s recruitment under one roof; also management and directors of

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Craig Group Catering making deliveries to Aberdeen Harbour. Catering supplies in the chilled warehouse.

North Star and Craig were combined. Even today, there is still spacefor more offices, despite substantial refurbishment to create amodern, more open-plan style of working environment with aboardroom and separate conference area.

“One of the tenants was Chris Long, a shipbroker for Jacobs andTenvig who had an office above our marine stores’ loading bay. Oneday a forklift drive over-extended the vehicle’s hoist while lifting acontainer, with the result that the floor and the desk where Chris wassitting was lifted upwards. He asked for danger money after that … tobe deducted from his rent!”

Another tenant at No. 207 was Norwegian company AndersWilhelmsen, whose managing director Alex Kraft was already afamiliar face. It happened that Wilhelmsen’s owned the DSVWildrake – a £20million state-of-the-art dive support vessel – andCraig won its custom, opportunistic in some measure, includingsupplying wire rope. Douglas was really sharpening his business teeth.

“Those were halcyon days when you would have to use a phone-boxin Peterhead to describe the orders – there were no mobiles in thosedays, a ship would come into ASCo base and I would have only anhour or two’s warning that it was coming in.

“I was the main supplier and would personally go aboard that ship,meet with the captain, mate, chief engineer and cook or chief stewardto find out what they wanted. Within their turnaround time, whichmight be only six or eight hours, you had to produce the goods. Itcould be ship repair services, cleaning materials, food, charts, orwhatever. On one particular occasion, the skipper wanted anaccordion!

“It was exciting, dramatic, challenging and inspired me to believe thatwe could deal with any kind of ship. I was cutting my teeth.Obviously, having started it, I needed help. I couldn’t cope on myown, so Steve Bragg, then a lad, joined me from Bruce’s stores. He’sstill with us and is our main ship’s chandler in Aberdeen.”

Vic Murphy again: “We loved the growth … new supply vesselowners giving us their fleets (to supply). Our growth wastremendous.”

This was confidence boosting stuff for the young Craig and a far cryfrom the time he joined the family business as an accountant. It wasthe kind of situation where failure to deliver to a ship could cost dear,


Aberdeen Harbour in the early seventies.

The Craig Group Head Office at 207 Albert Quay.

given day rates for units like Wildrake were at least £20,000 a day atthe time.

“You were made to jump,” says Douglas. “It was the kind of situationthat gave you a buzz. I wanted to be successful. I wanted to achievesomething on my own.”

Big DSVs like the Wildrake, with their crews of 50 and more, notonly delivered excellent chandlery and galley supplies business toCraig, there was also the potential to win lucrative catering contracts,so long as they could be captured from incumbents like ChalkCatering, Scot Catering, Aramark, Kelvin, Sodexho and many others.At that time there were 11 caterers in Aberdeen versus only three orfour large ones today.

“It was these big vessels that led us into contract catering and thencontainerisation of food. It was a natural progression. From startingwith meat in 1980, we are now in 2003 doing almost half the oilfieldsof the North Sea with containerised food.

“And we have just sent £100,000 worth of food to Equatorial Guineafor Aramark. That’s our largest single grocery order. In those days(early 1980s), it would have taken three months to sell £100,000.”

But not everything went smoothly during those early years.

“A diving vessel came into Aberdeen for which we had a huge orderand I was supervising personally. Containers were being transportedwhen one fell off our truck in Market Street. It hadn’t been ropeddown properly. A load of bottles of tomato ketchup were smashed …the stuff was splattered all over the place. There were a lot of redfaces.”

The ship was going to the Middle East for six months but the ironywas that the charter was cancelled and its refrigeration system brokedown. Either way, it was a one-off contract and the food was nevereaten on the intended voyage.

Another disaster was the flooding of the former flax mill atInverbervie that was used to store wire rope. There had been latefrosts, followed by a rapid thaw and the net result was that the yardand the wire stored there was quickly beneath two feet of water.

“That was not a good day,” says Douglas. “Craig Group Wire RopeServices held all the major contracts for supplying wire rope-slings atthe time. Though we managed to claim against insurance and we

were able to supply from Peterhead and Great Yarmouth at the time,it was a major embarrassment as we were temporarily wiped out.”

Fortunately, when the world oil price crash of early 1986 hit theNorth Sea, Craig’s offshore catering business was still in its infancyand little affected by the crunch.

“We were growing steadily and had just opened in Shetland havingtaken over Magnus Smith’s company, Todd’s Cash & Carry, inLerwick. But it was a bit of an animal to run because of arm’s lengthmanagement.

“Once we had a burger van arrested, also a flock of sheep as securityfor a debt. You have no idea what we were up against. At one point,Lerwick was a very strategic base, but not so much now. We sold it toGeorge Hepburn, a local businessman.

“In those days we wanted to be the largest Scottish, if not UKsupplier, but now we’re looking internationally.”

However, up to five years ago, real exports of any kind were minimalbecause there was so much activity in the North Sea.

“In any case, I was bludgeoned to some extent into sticking with theNorth Sea, despite going to OTC in Houston for 15 years,” reflectsDouglas. “Dad, Uncle George and Pat would say: ‘make sure yousupply all the market here first, and then go to Houston. There’senough of a market here without you going anywhere else.’ That wastheir view rightly or wrongly … right then, wrong now.”

HITTING THE INTERNATIONALISATION TRAIL

The point at which it became imperative to protect the business fromthe vagaries of the North Sea was the late 1997 through 1999 globaloil price downturn, which had a hefty negative impact on the UK’sdomestic offshore industry. Added pressure was coming from theCRINE and CRINE Network cost reduction and efficiency driveinitiatives.

The board at that time started to look seriously at diversification andall members went on a Dale Carnegie management course thatfocused on visions, values and objectives. Curiously, the ideastemmed from a time management course for Pat Lynch.

“He used Dale Carnegie for that, paying £100 or so for the course. Iwas in any case receptive to anything that might help us improve the

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business. So we all embarked on a business development programmethat Grampian Enterprise was promoting at the time and whichstarted us on Investors in People.”

Out of the course came five or six objectives and one critical amongthem was to become less dependent on standby vessels but still growthe market, given that there was then and still is no substitute forships when it comes to maintaining constant and effective safetycover in North Sea oil and gasfields.

“So we set about trawling for new opportunities and one of them wasSeatronics, our subsea marine electronics rental business that we havenow grown to five international divisions and which has become aglobal market leader, with bases in Aberdeen, Houston, New Iberia,Abu Dhabi and Singapore.

“This has given us a £12-£13million turnover business that is a worldleader. It’s specialised, it’s not a huge market and our main competitorAshtead, turns a similar amount.

“Before we moved in, it was Ashtead plus a number of smallercompanies. We took over some of the smaller companies to createwhat we have today. This business, though capital intensive withitems in its stable like tow-fish costing up to £1million and which areused for seafloor and sub-bottom profiling, tends to be based onEuropean technology and experience and has been easier to control asa result.

“Another was to harness three companies, though it was eventuallytwo, together. One was Craig Group Marine the traditional ship’schandlery side that dates back to the 1930s and which has nowbecome a major oilfield e-procurement house – Craig InternationalServices (CIS).

“We took the marine, non food side out of the catering division andcemented it to DIC, a company owned by Dave Allan. We hadshipping and marine expertise, he had oilfield expertise and, today, heleads CIS.

“That company started with a turnover of £5million and, in fiveyears, has reached £15million turnover of which £10million isexport.”

A key individual in terms of growing these international businesses isHenry Lints, who had arrived in 1986 to become financial controller,so releasing Douglas to get on with new business creation.

He joined with significant North Sea support vessel and PLCexperience under his belt, having worked for Seaforth Maritime andthen Star Offshore. An irony is that he has no particular enthusiasmfor ships.

“It’s just that I can’t get away from them. If it had been fast cars, Icould understand it,” says Henry, picking up the internationalisationthread.

“I’d known Douglas for about 10 years prior to joining as we bothspent time with Thomson McLintock, now KPMG. The opportunityto join Craig was a challenge that I wanted to be a part of and, in1988 I became financial director.”

From the Lints perspective, the company spent the late 80s throughto early 90s developing its traditional business streams into the NorthSea, with real diversification yet to come. It was not until the mid-90sthat the process of internationalisation and real diversification started.

“That was when we realised that we needed to do this sort of thing tomove forward. We had consultants in (Dale Carnegie), we werelooking at TQM (total quality management), at objectives and askingourselves questions like where do we go from here as the North Seaappeared to have peaked.”

He agrees with the external perception that, as many North Seacompanies were pulling in their horns and getting back to basics inthe mid 90s, Craig Group was going exactly the opposite way. It sawthe advantages of internationalising with global marine procurementand rentals, and of getting into one of the fastest growing industriesin Britain, that is, leisure, but more about that subject later.

“With our main core business being North Sea standby, we wereexposed and we needed to do something else. As long as it wasconnected, we had to give it a go,” says Lints.

SEEDING A MARKET LEADER

“By 1997, we were looking to develop another main strand to thebusiness and marine electronics rental looked a good bet. Neil Smithof the North-East marine electronics firm Scantron came to visit us,saying that his business might make a worthwhile acquisition. Weexamined Scantron, it was profitable and it was rental. But what itdidn’t have was an overseas element. So we declined the offer to buy.


“About six months later, Neil came back to us with an idea. He saidthere was another company called Seatronics with bases in Aberdeen,Great Yarmouth and Abu Dhabi. Moreover, there was a thirdcompany called Geomac based in the US. Put the three businessestogether and we would have the nucleus of a market leader. It wouldhelp consolidate a very fragmented part of the industry.

“It was a case of were we interested? And, if so, let’s talk. So we gotdown to it. Putting together one acquisition is difficult enough.Bringing three companies together with international dimensions wassomething we had never tackled before. It took about 10 months toput that deal to bed and we concluded in 1999.

“But then the real work began … bringing this new business onboard, integrating it within the group and growing it. One of the firstthings we needed to do was to open a Far East base. A Singaporecompany, Aquatron run by a Stuart Kendal, was identified andbrought on board. Then we had a truly global electronics rentalcompany serving the marine industry … and a real competitor toAshtead.”

One of the big surprises of stepping into marine electronics rental washow undeveloped it was and remains. It is put down to the belief thatthe many small businesses that comprise the sector guard theirindependence jealously and are unwilling to sell, except at inflatedprices.

Over the four years that Craig Group Seatronics has been in business,growth has been rapid and the level of investment heavy. But thereturns have been healthy and 2003 has been particularly good, withcontract wins from major customers Fugro, Sonsub and Thales.Seatronics has signed long-term agreements with all three, which willsecure its position for several years ahead.

Its share of the rentals market has grown from an initial 20% to 40%in just four years, with annual turnover doubling from £6million to£12million over that period.

But the overall market potential is believed to be huge and Lints hasformed the view that it is much broader and more valuable than itseemed at first sight. Rather than 40% of the market as now, with theemphasis on survey and ROV-related systems, it may turn out thatSeatronics commands just 10%, but of a much wider market withgreater potential, embracing ports and harbours, oceanography,

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Seatronics is a world leader in marine survey equipment rental and sales.

ROV fitted with the latest Seatronics TSS440 Pipetracker.

renewable energy, environmental and other activities requiring use ofmarine electronics.

“The reason why we opened in New Iberia, Louisiana was to servicethe Gulf of Mexico diving market where we’ve bought a large amountof equipment for hire, typically air compressors, welding equipmentand other tools. We see huge potential in that business, which isbuilding up rapidly, and see the potential to take it to other parts ofthe world.”

Lints regards Seatronics as his baby. However, while it is hisresponsibility to grow and integrate the business into the wider CraigGroup, he acknowledges that the success is not just down to oneperson, but a team effort by key players George McCaffrey ex ofOceonics, David Currie, who originally started with Neil Smith inthe late 1980s, Mike Stephens in the US, Susan Murray who headsthe Middle East effort and Stuart Kendall in the Far East.

A TASTE FOR OVERSEAS CATERING

Besides chairing Seatronics, Craig’s FD and deputy MD also has CISunder his wing. Crank the clock back five years to when catering wasrunning hand in hand with Craig’s marine operations, in other wordsship’s chandlery, and a view was gelling that the two businesses mightbest be split to enable them to really take off.

“Our marketing consultant, Mike Gillespie, had the notion ofputting the chandlery business together with another company thatperformed a similar function for oil and gas installations. It became asimilar story to Seatronics, where an international dimension wouldbe added through the acquisition of two companies – DIC and PEI –to create a significant business capable of growing internationally,namely CIS.

“While there is plenty of competition in that field, a lot areinternational companies whom we felt we could give a good run fortheir money – McJunkins and National Oilwell are two. But theytend to be specialised in aspects like pipe and downhole tools, ratherthan general consumables.”

Though there were a number of significant issues to iron out withregard to integration of DIC and PEI, the hurdles were cleared andthe businesses were brought together under one roof at Craig’s AlbertQuay HQ, with Dave Allan as MD. This provides a solid anchor for

internationalisation, including ensuring the supply chains work;whether it is Africa or the Caspian, this is a priority.

The Atyrau unit was initiated under an individual called GrahamWood, who already had worked in Kazakhstan in a similar line ofbusiness over the five or six years prior to CIS appearing on the scene.He had both business experience and the political nonce necessary tosurvive in what was a very difficult environment for any Westerncompany to trade in.

Says Lints: “To take Atyrau to the next stage, it will be necessary totake on a local partner, with a number of options underconsideration, or make an acquisition. Part of the pressure is comingfrom Western oil companies active in Kazakhstan as they are underpolitical pressure to maximise local content.

“This is a country the size of Europe. We’re excited about thepotential and, though there are lots of scare stories, we’re hearingmore than we ourselves are encountering. Of course we’veencountered problems, but that’s the way it is out there.”

The 930sq.m Atyrau facility, with warehouse, office, freezer and chillfacility, is designed to service the requirements of work camps andhotels. However, it has also quickly established itself as a popularvenue for ex-pats working in Kazakhstan, according to Douglas.

“There, on the Steppes, north of the Caspian, the freezer is warmerthan the ambient warehouse in the winter! The Irn Bru we’ve beengetting in for the locals has been exploding and vinegar bottlescracking with the cold.

“Initially it took up to six months to get meat in there because ofCustoms … the papers were right but they decided they weren’t andthe meat would be returned to Holland. There were logisticalproblems left, right and centre.

“But now that we’re out there, for the wives of senior staff at the oilcompanies, a highlight of their week is to go and shop at the Craig‘supermarket’.”

This Caspian business seems a long way removed from the first foraysinto foreign markets where the company imported speciality productsfrom Norway to satisfy the palates of personnel aboard Norwegianoffshore service vessels calling into Aberdeen. Essentially, Craig cut itsexporting teeth servicing the needs of such ships.


A further aspect of CIS is e-procurement via an alliance of companiesthat was formally launched late 2002 and facilitated by North Seasupply chain initiative LOGIC. The e-seeds of what is known as theCIS Alliance, of which CIS is a founder member, were sown at Craigaround 2000, following meetings with a number of other productvendors.

It was a time when oil companies were banding together to create e-procurement machines like Trade Ranger, which remains active, andPetrocosm, which collapsed. There was also First Point Assessment,the North Sea’s own e-based pre-qualification system that was bornout of the mid-1990s CRINE Network cost reduction scheme.

Says Lints: “We felt that having our own e-catalogue which wascapable of plugging into any system was the way forward. It wasessential to build our software in that way and to take account of ourvarious alliance relationships.

“With LOGIC as facilitator, we set about creating a catalogue with adatabase of more than 100,000 items that could be accessed by anycustomer at any time anywhere in the world. There were originally sixcompanies in the alliance, since then it has grown to 12.

“The next stage is to work more closely with those alliance partners,which has started happening. Our suppliers are helping in overseasmarkets, and are already actively marketing in places like Kazakhstan.One plan is that they will follow us into West Africa. We see majorpotential for the scheme.”

Among current CIS Alliance members are: CIS, Wellhead Electrical,Steadfast Scotland, FIS Chemicals, Henry Gibson Stationers, GibbsTools, K&L Ross and HVAC Refrigeration.

Craig Group, as it became known earlier this year, has been fortunate.Low gearing and reliable and substantial income from its North Seastandby business underpin diversification and internationalisation,

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The newly refurbished offices of Craig International Supplies. Loading of stock at the Craig International Supplies warehouse.

largely out of cash flow, a luxury that many firms simply do not have.In 2002, standby operations accounted for some £35million out ofthe £90million total group turnover.

“I knew the company was strong and that this would enable us to setup in places like Kazakhstan,” says Douglas.

A measure of that strength was that Craig was comfortably able toborrow the £10million needed to build the innovative multi-purposesupport ship Grampian Frontier in the late 1990s for West ofShetland service with BP.

“With £40million net assets, gearing of £10million and strong cashflow, it’s not a problem for a shipping company.”

It is this confidence that has enabled the company to set upinnovative group operations in West Africa and, most recently, CapeTown in South Africa.

“While we’re taking more risk by doing this, because we’re exportingfor oil companies operating in such areas, this has given usconfidence.

And it is this same confidence that has enabled the firm to invest£24million in two multi-function ships purpose-built for theinternational offshore support vessels market, with GrampianExplorer and Grampian Surveyor entering service early 2003.

For this, the Craig board donned their thinking cap three years ago.The challenge was how to take forward the still core business of ship-based services. The answer was to internationalise, but targeting nichemarkets, not trying to take on US giants like Tidewater and Seacor.

This meant building ships - a minimum of two - capable of doing thejob. Such an adventure would be expensive and, in business terms,take the company into relatively uncharted waters. But, with the


David Craig, Callum Bruce, Douglas Craig and Captain Simon Harris at the launch of the Grampian Explorer.

modern Grampian Frontier and Grampian Prince also potentiallyavailable in the future, this would bring the number of internationallymarketable specialist vessels to four … a useful critical mass.

The decision was taken to order two vessels, first Grampian Explorerfollowed rapidly by Grampian Surveyor. Never before has anindigenous Aberdeen family company invested so much money innew tonnage at one time. While Surveyor is off the drawing board ofIMT, Explorer is a Rolls Royce Ulstein UT755L class unit. Both arepremier division and easily the match of anything afloat or on orderanywhere in the world.

Douglas’s wife Isobel christened Norwegian-built Explorer inAberdeen on March 7th this year. Intended for the home andinternational markets, this 72m x 16m vessel is only the sixthUT755L commissioned anywhere and represents a £11 millioninvestment.

Engined with twin Bergen KRMB9 diesels capable of producing atotal of 5,460 brake horsepower, immensely manoeuvrable Exploreris classed DNV1A1, Dynamic Positioning Class II. A high degree ofredundancy is built into her machinery systems.

Explorer features a moonpool, an extensive suite of on- and off-linesurvey rooms, removable bulwark sections to port and starboard, a680sq.m cargo deck, and accommodation for 38 personnel.

Although intended for the ROV survey and light constructionmarkets, the ship also has a full under-deck storage capability, somaking it suitable for platform supply activities.

Surveyor measures 75m x 16m and features a diesel-electric mainmachinery configuration, driving twin contra-rotating azimuthingpropellers. This quiet, fuel efficient DP Class II vessel with its 400tonne-metre lifting capability, is highly manoeuvrable and canachieve a top speed of 15 knots.

The Surveyor is particularly interesting as IMT purpose-designed theGrampian Frontier, which Craig had built for standby, ROV andsurvey duties in support of the Foinaven field West of Shetland.

While the cut of the new 75m ship is not dissimilar, she takes multi-role sophistication that bit further, adding light construction andsurvey capabilities to the many abilities already attributed to theFrontier.

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The Grampian Surveyor undergoing trials in Spain.

Surveyor has made an excellent start to her career, working a two-yearcontract with Sonsub, a leading contractor to the international oiland gas and telecommunications industries.

Delivery of the two new ships early this year very much marks theopening of a fresh chapter in Craig’s ship owning history and bring itsoffshore fleet to 27 at the present time.

Will the venture succeed? Is North Star differentiated enough to pullit off? The Craig board’s conviction is, of course, that it will, asiterated by Callum Bruce.

“Where we’re significantly different is that we haven’t built standardvessels. Thanks to our success with Grampian Frontier, we can go tothe likes of Fugro, Thales, Sonsub, Stolt and others and demonstratethat we can run sophisticated, multi-purpose vessels with a difference.It is because of what they can do that differentiates them in themarketplace anywhere in the world.

“And why should we confine ourselves within this small area calledthe North Sea when there’s a world of opportunity out there? We canrun a vessel equally as well in Brazil, or anywhere else, as in Aberdeen.Currently, Surveyor is laying mattresses for the Greenstream (Libya-Sicily) pipeline in the Mediterranean.

“We’re exactly where we set out to be three years ago. We set out abusiness plan then and we’ve done what we said we would do. We’vegot our two new ships, and we’ve sold off some older ships (Sword,Eagle and Sabre). We will build more new vessels, along the lines ofwhat we have built. We see a need for more of that type.

“But, as the North Sea standby industry contracts, we’ve no intentionof getting out of it. We will refresh the fleet. Three or four years ago, Isaid we would end up with very few North Sea customers, which iswhat happened because of the mergers.

“Now it’s quite the reverse, with companies like EnCana,PetroCanada, Tuscan and Apache coming in. A few years ago no onehad ever heard of Talisman, now they’re one of our biggestcustomers.”

Douglas again: “Like Seatronics and CIS, this £24million investmentis breaking us out of the North Sea standby tradition by providinganother platform for internationalisation and diversification. It istaking Craig global on a scale hitherto unimaginable and has thepotential to become a huge business in its own right.”


The acquisition of ChainCo made the Group a market leader in chain testing.

One of the six inspection units owned and operated by ChainCo is prepared fordelivery to Rotterdam.

All told, the CIS, Catering and Seatronics businesses account for thebulk of Craig’s international business that last year reached£45million out of an overall group turnover of £90million.

Strip down the £45million and about £15million is attributable toCIS, £10million to Seatronics, and the balance to catering plus theInternational Mooring Services and ChainCo businesses.

The overseas element of Craig’s business portfolio is expected tocontinue growing strongly, with a sizeable contribution expectedfrom the new ships. To make it easy for clients, the group’s servicesare being increasingly marketed through Craig Energy Services,which was launched in 2002. This is now a common gateway to CIS,Seatronics, International Mooring Systems, chain testing, ships andcatering and is designed to facilitate the delivery of these services intoemerging markets like the Caspian and West Africa.

Importantly, each one of these adventures has had the backing ofventure capital provider 3i, which was invited to take a minorityinterest through a private placement when George retired aschairman in 1988. Moreover, 3i has since proved invaluable inidentifying acquisition targets for the group.

This change was important to Douglas, at that time, as it delivered aclear signal that the Craig Group would stay ‘family’.

“It’s the same for every family company, you want to know which sideof the family is doing what and you have to come to some agreementover which part of the company is run by whom.

“The obvious step was to release the capital on Uncle George’s side. Aprivate placing was sought with 3i. It was relatively inexpensivefunding and we’ve given them a good return since.”

But the story doesn’t end there as there are further pieces in theincreasingly complex portfolio of businesses that comprise today’sCraig Group, or were once part of it … ship repairing, wire rope and,last but not least, leisure.

SHIP REPAIRING – GONE BUT NOT FORGOTTEN

Ship repairing had been part and parcel of Craig Group since itsinception … a natural complement to owning a large number offishing and later offshore support vessels, that is, until the businesswas sold in June 2002.

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The Border Springer undergoing repairs in dry dock.

Lord Provost Wyness officially opens the dry dock in 1993.

For most of the past 70 years, the company had maintained its fleetand earned useful additional revenues through contract repair andoverhaul work. At one point, it was a division of North Star with BobLindsay as manager but, in 1993, an opportunity arose to furtherdevelop this aspect of the group.

Catalyst was the final demise of ship building in Aberdeen followingclosure of the famous Hall Russell Shipyard that once built vessels forGeorge Craig & Sons, its subsidiaries and many other fishingcompanies and which was owned and operated by A&P Appledore inits final years. The last launching was the passenger vessel St Helenafor the UK South Atlantic service. She remains a living reminder ofAberdeen’s once superb and now lost shipbuilding tradition.

While most of the site was flattened for reconstruction as the TelfordDock, complete with hard-standing and warehousing, landlordAberdeen Harbour Board put the graving dock, which Appledore hadbeen working as a repair facility in its own right, out to competitivetender. Craig won and immediately established the subsidiary CraigGroup Ship Repairing Ltd.

“We were doing fairly large conversions within our own fleet and had35 ships at that time. It was also thought that we could attract outsidebusiness,” notes Douglas.

That business included overhauling offshore support tonnage, largefishing vessels, survey ships, ferries and even a small drillship or two.The facility was marketed widely in its own right. One of its moreinteresting jobs was a £1million contract won in 1995 to overhaul thedive support vessel Witch Queen, which called into Aberdeen enroute from Mumbai (Bombay) to the Gulf of Mexico.

But a reduction in the size of the Craig fleet coupled with lesscontract work than had been anticipated eventually led to a decisionin 2002 that Craig Group Ship Repair should be sold on.

In the event, it went to A&P Group, but apparently a very differentcompany to the earlier A&P Appledore that failed to make a go ofHall Russell. With a network of 15 facilities and core focus on shiprepairing and overhaul, the hope is that Aberdeen’s dry dock will turna profit for many years to come. Craig Group Ship Repairingoperations director, John Allan transferred across to A&P with hisstaff and workforce.

“In any case, we’re a ship owner, not repairer, which is why we cameto the conclusion that another operator with other similar operations


Scottish Enterprise Director of Energy, Brian Nixon, officially opens AnchorHouse, new premises for ChainCo and IMS in September 2003.

High holding power anchors and mooring equipment.

should run the facility. It was done on the basis of a complete transferof undertaking, the union was very happy and so were the men,” addsDouglas.

WIRE ROPE – LINKING PAST WITH FUTURE

Wire rope was, in a sense, also an integral part of Craig from day onebecause of the need to keep the company’s fleet of trawlers equippedwith fishing gear. So making a transition to the North Sea offshoreindustry and creating a business utilising the skills of characters likeBob Friend, Alfie Duncan, Ron Ritchie and David Glennie was anatural progression, according to Douglas.

“We had Wire Rope Services for the best part of 10 years before wesold the business in 1994 to Bridon. It was one of the businesses thatI cut my teeth on. We had acquired Montrose Wire Rope Servicesback in the 1980s and grew it to become the largest rope-slingmanufacturer, rigging shop and lifting equipment management andinspection service base in the UK.

“During those 10 years one of the greatest characters in the businesswas Alfie Duncan who was known as Mr Wire Rope. He trained meon how to treat people and how to market. He was a greatambassador for the company and inspired me.

“In those days, you would have customers out for lunch every monthor so. When we had eaten, Alfie would say: ‘Douglas, you need to tella joke … lighten the conversation’, or, during meetings with oilcompanies he would say: ‘You said too much, or too little’.”

Alfie stuttered a bit, yet was very effective with people in a quiet way.The empire grew to cover facilities in Aberdeen, Inverbervie,Peterhead, Great Yarmouth and Liverpool before it was sold, with142 jobs transferring to Bridon.

“Most of the time, procurement people wouldn’t meet with youunless you were important. But Alfie had a way of being liked somuch that he always got you in the door. Part of it was because healways slipped chocolates to the reception girls at Christmas, and theyloved him.

“When we were opening up rigging shops, we created a computer-based lifting equipment management inspection service (LEMIS)that was containerised and which Bridon liked the look of. This wasone of the reasons why they acquired Wire Rope Services.

“Alfie wanted to prove that he could win every major contract in theNorth Sea for slings, which he did for us, with me. It was a jointthing, so much so that I travelled the world to places like Korea andGermany, where we wouldn’t stamp our name on wire rope until wehad visited the manufacturing plant.”

Before being sold off, Wire Rope Services was in its own rightordering millions of metres of 16mm diameter wire rope. Nowhereelse in the world was there a market as demanding and large as theNorth Sea.

One of the interesting aspects of Wire Rope Services is that, sometime before the sale to Bridon, a mooring division had been set upwith a view to renting supplementary mooring equipment. ButBridon was not keen about taking over this part of the business.

The result was that Craig Group IMS (International MooringSystems) was retained, developed and today operates in the North Seaand out of Cape Town, Houston and Singapore, so contributing tothe overall internationalisation drive. 2002 ranks as one of its mostsuccessful and profitable years. The unit provides mooring equipmentrental, sale and management services as well as consultancy inmooring design.

In 2000, the chain-testing specialist ChainCo was acquired tocomplement the moorings rental side. The company offers worldwidere-certification, repairing and upgrades of heavy duty mooringchains.

An element of déjà vu is creeping into IMS in that rigging shops areback on the agenda, notably in Cape Town and potentially WestAfrica. This ‘back to the future’ trend promises to add a significantfurther dimension to the workload of general manager Alan Duncan,who also looks after ChainCo.

Despite the possible re-emergence of rigging shops, Douglas has noregrets about selling Wire Rope Services to Bridon. In terms ofensuring Craig Group was performing efficiently in all of its businessstreams, the disposal was right for future strategy.

LEISURE DIVERSIFICATION

Leisure seems a strange activity for a hard-nosed shipping companysteeped in North Sea lore, but not so out of place when one considers

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that Craig has a long track record in industrial catering supplies andrelated services.

The sale of Wire Rope Services put the best part of £10million intothe Craig coffers, not long before an opportunity to diversify intoleisure presented itself … the River Oaks Foods Burger Kingfranchise at Altens, Aberdeen, packaged with the King’s Links golfdriving range located almost cheek by jowl with Aberdeen FootballClub’s stadium at Pittodrie.

A deal was struck with Bruce Davidson, then managing director ofRiver Oaks and Grampian Golf, and who was also the golfprofessional at the driving range.

It was an opportunity that was attractive, and not just because of theCraig boardroom’s penchant for golf. The Burger King was superblylocated, with the bonus that it was also the Granite City’s first drive-through.

While the subsequent purchase in January 1996 probably raised a feweyebrows along Aberdeen’s harbour-front and in the oil community, itopened the door to further leisure opportunities, not just four moreBurger Kings dotted around Scotland, but also a restaurant on BonAccord Street, close by the city’s main thoroughfare, Union Street. Itwould come to be known as Via Milano.

It was Bruce who inspired that particular idea. He had visited thewell-regarded Edinburgh restaurant Bar Roma where the owner hadasked for golf lessons. Payment … Only the recipe for creating a topnotch Italian restaurant in Aberdeen!

Says Douglas: “Not only was Bruce a pro golfer, he is now director ofgolf at the prestigious River Oaks Country Club in Houston. He isdedicated to promoting Grampian-Houston junior golf with annualpro-ams held in Aberdeen to raise funds for giving the best of Texasgolf career opportunities to 15 or so of the most promising North-east of Scotland teenage talent.


Craig Leisure’s Italian Restaurant on Bon Accord Street, Via Milano. The Burger King drive-through at the Beach, one of the five outletsoperated by Craig Leisure.

“A very good entrepreneur, Bruce recognised Bon Accord Street as anopportunity as the Galleria shopping mall was being created thereand we were the first covenant there. That’s how Via Milano cameabout.”

The 150 seat establishment’s motto reads: ‘If you have a passion forgood food, come to Via Milano, Aberdeen’s premier restaurant’.

As for King’s Links, this is regarded as one of Scotland’s largest andmost advanced golf facilities, featuring 58 floodlit bays on two tiers, apurpose-built short game area, and indoor and outdoor puttinggreens. Further, the facility has a video academy with the latestsoftware, plus a team of five fully qualified PGA professionals. King’sLinks was voted Scotland’s top range in 1996.

To grow the Burger King franchise further demands a minimum of£500,000 per unit, though this is easily bumped up to £1million ifthe requisite land is also purchased. Nonetheless, the view is that thefive drive-throughs built to date have been a good investment,representing half the franchise’s outlets of this type in Scotland.

A measure of how good a start Craig made in the Burger King game isthat the Altens outlet – Aberdeen’s first drive-through – was namedone of the top 10 British branches of the franchise in early 1997.

But how does Douglas justify Craig Group Leisure, currently led byMD Andrew Thomson, given that most of the company’s business iswith oil companies and main contractors; after all the offshoreindustry mantra since the late 1990s oil price downturn has been ‘toget back to core business’? Moreover, it is very demanding ofmanagement time.

“As long as it makes money,” is the reply. “It’s not rocket science. It’sabout caring for people. We’ve enjoyed it. Leisure is a totaldiversification from what we usually do and it’s caused a lot of talkand given us a lot of publicity.

“I suppose it’s one of the advantages of being a family firm. If we hadbeen a public company, we might not have been allowed by theshareholders to do such a thing.

THE FUTURE

The big question of course is, where does Craig Group with its£90million turnover and 1,500 employees go from here, having thisyear achieved very clear recognition for its success by Douglas

winning an Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award and theJunior Chamber Grampian Industrialist of the Year.

In a sense the future holds more of the same, only different, and stillavowedly as a family company, although not averse to going publicwith one of the core activities, should opportunity and the rightcircumstance prevail.

North Star’s fleet, which in 2001 became the first in the UK tobecome wholly compliant with the International Safety Management(ISM) code, remains at the heart of the business; only the perspectiveis now international and not just parochial North Sea, with greathope riding on the Grampian Explorer and Surveyor.

If they are successful, and there’s no reason to suppose that they willnot be, then investment in further new, specialised ships wouldappear inevitable. Moreover, acquisition of another companyoperating similar specialised ships could come onto the agenda if thatturns out to be a strategically sensible way of leveraging faster growthmore effectively than placing orders for new vessels and then waitinga year or so for their delivery.

Not that the North Sea has lost its importance to the North Star topteam. Callum Bruce, with co-directors Gordon Wallace(commercial), Brian Lamb (operations) and Robin Smith(engineering), fully realise it will remain a vital cash generator foryears to come and acquisitions are not out of the question either. Theprocess of fleet consolidation grinds along inexorably, BUE withViking being the latest merger. It is a place where only the fittest andsmartest will survive. Craig is such a company.

The Scottish fishing industry may be in deep crisis, but Craig is stillin the fray through Grampian Sea Fishing. In 2002, four vessels weredecommissioned with more certain to go this year because of thefurther massive reductions in the Scottish fleet demanded by Brusselsas part of the 2003 North Sea quotas deal.

Doubtless some tough decisions will have to be made over the nextyear or two with Grampian Sea Fishing, which has some excellent,modern boats in its fleet. But, as group chairman David Craig says inPart One of this brief history, the future very much depends ondecisions coming out of Brussels and, for that matter, the UKGovernment.

Scotland’s fishing is going through a challenging time, but those whoare prepared to weather the storm could find bright prospects within

69

a restructured industry. Good ships crewed by good men can alwaysmake a living, so long as they are given a chance and Scots boats havea reputation for being among the best found and most efficient inEurope.

Until recently, the Scottish banks treated them as an excellentinvestment, sure in the knowledge that loans would be paid downfast. Hope is that such a degree of trust in an industry can be restoredin the near future.

Huge store is being placed on the ‘new’ businesses - CIS andSeatronics, and on further internationalisation of catering, all thetime taking cues from the customer … that most global of industries,upstream oil and gas, especially offshore. The story has barely begunfor CIS in the Caspian and Africa. Both areas offer tremendousbusiness prospects. Philip Mundie, Depute Lord Lieutenant ofAberdeen is playing a valuable role in this process.

Even as this book was being written, new opportunities were beingnegotiated and secured by the group through global gateway CraigEnergy Services and particularly via CIS because of heavy emphasison the supply chain, that is, procurement.

In Nigeria, a joint equity deal was being discussed with an indigenouscompany in Lagos and Port Harcourt … widely regarded in theupstream oil and gas industry as nerve wracking because it is Nigeria,but clearly exciting too.

With a base carrying the Craig Energy Services brand now establishedat Cape Town, thoughts have turned to the possibilities of Angola,where a veritable freight train of huge deepwater discoveries awaitdevelopment and where offshore logistics and services remainrudimentary.

While the 1,860sq.m South African base is well placed to serviceAngola and Namibia, not to mention South Africa’s own growingoffshore industry, and potentially around the Cape to the westernseaboard where oil and gas exploration is accelerating, Angola’sbusiness potential is already so large that it could soon justify a facilityof its own. There is also Namibia to consider.

Now six years with the company, Freddie Craig says: “Not everyonelikes change, but progressive change in the right direction is essentialso that the group continues to grow and prosper in a fast-moving,competitive international market place. This in turn creates careeropportunities, not only in Aberdeen but worldwide.


Douglas Craig receives the Ernst &Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award2003, from Chairman Alasdair Locke.

David Craig receives his honorary LLD from Robert Gordon University.

“It’s great to see many young managers now working overseas and Ihave no doubt that this trend will continue, leading to furtherexcellent opportunities for those willing to travel and grasp theexcitement of growing the company’s increasingly global business.”

It is all about having a vision and being clear in what one is trying toachieve.

Douglas picks up the thread: “You have to know where you’re goingand having a measurable business plan with a realistic budget toachieve a return on capital is critical. You have a vision, and for us it isto diversify and globalise, yet stick to what we know and be customer-led.

“You must have the right people. If you don’t have that, then thedream will not be fulfilled. You have to have people prepared to travelto places like Kazakhstan and Nigeria and be prepared to ‘rough it’ ifnecessary.

“You have to be good enough to attract high calibre people who arewell referenced and to train them in order that they can fulfil whatyou’re trying to achieve as a company.”

That said, a further critical factor is keeping a family feel to Craig –something that many companies lose sight of as they go for growth –yet still adopting public company standards of corporate governance.

“We don’t want to be surrounded by ‘yes’ people who work to try andplease us by saying the right things. We need a lot of commonsense,professionalism, dedication and humour; not always saying thingsyou want them to say, but knowing how to develop Craig Group.

“It’s up to me to choose the right people to do that. That’s the skilledbit. As golfer Gary Player once said: ‘the more you practice the luckieryou get’. And golfing legend Ben Hogan in The Secrets in the Dirtsaid: ‘you have to work and practice at it ‘til it hurts’. In other words,there are no short cuts.”

So what of the next Craig generation – Samantha, Steven andAndrew, all of whom hold or are pursuing business degrees?

Says Douglas: “I was recently on a golfing trip with son Steven and Iasked him whether he might come into the business. The reply was:‘You do the work of three people, so I suppose there must be roomfor us three to come in’.

“None of them want to join in immediately and there’s no pressurefor them to come in. The worst thing would be if they were forced tocome in, or come in anyway and discover they lack the necessaryability. That would be a waste.

“They’re being encouraged to go and do their own thing … stamptheir authority on their own careers. And if they enjoy it half as muchas I did way back, then hopefully the business may go anothergeneration.

“I hope so. In some ways, after 70 years, we’re only just beginning.There’s so much more that can be achieved.”

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Craig Group main board in 2001.

The next generation – Samantha, Andrew & Steven,with parents Douglas and Isobel.

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TABLES & PHOTOS


FISHING VESSELS PURCHASED/BUILT FOR GEORGE CRAIG GROUP SINCE 1933 GRAMPIAN SEA FISHINGSHARE SEINE NET VESSELS

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STANDBY AND SUPPORT VESSELS


STANDBY AND SUPPORT VESSELS (CONT’D)

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NORTH STAR STANDBY RECORD OF RESCUES CURRENT EMPLOYEES WITH MORE THAN 20 YEARS SERVICE (AS OF SEPTEMBER 2003)


Craig Group stand at Offshore Europe 2003. (Courtesy of Roustabout)

Craig Group Leisure receive the Investors In People award. Craig International Supplies receive the Investors In People award.

Grampian Sea Fishing receive the Investors In People award.

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Colin McLean, Karl Dickinson and Michele Ross of North Star receive a NationalSafety Award from the British Safety Council in 2003.

John Johnston (left) and Steve Leighton, captains of the Grampian Venture, receiveShell Safety Award for more than two thousand days without incident from Roger Patey, Shell Deputy Managing Director. (Courtesy of Kate Sutherland)

Launch of the Grampian Explorer, 2003. From left: Douglas Craig, Isobel Craigand Callum Bruce (Managing Director of North Star Shipping).

The board of North Star Shipping.


Princess Anne opens Craig Group Ship Repairing extension.

Craig Group sponsors Aberdeen University music department. Pavarotti look-a-like entertains Lord and Lady Provost Reynolds at the CraigGroup stand, Offshore Europe 2003.

The Fisherman’s Mission annual conference of superintendents at Inverness.

his is the story of Aberdeen’s Craig Group, a family business whose beginnings

are anchored in the City’s once powerful fishing industry, but which has largely

been displaced by the prosperous North Sea oil and gas industry. Established in

the 1930s, Craig grew to become one of Scotland’s most successful trawler fleet

owners prior to diversifying into the offshore industry and evolving to the multi-faceted,

award-winning fishing to international energy services group that it is today.

It is a voyage that is made all the more remarkable by the fact that its chairman, David Craig,

was there right at the beginning when his father established the business.

He has witnessed massive change ... from being a deckhand on an ancient steam trawler

reliant on gas carbide and paraffin for lighting to, on March 7th this year, hosting the

christening of Grampian Explorer, an £11million, state-of-the art, go anywhere offshore

support vessel.

THE AUTHOR: Jeremy Cresswell has a passion for the sea that started with voyages to Canada and New Zealand

during his childhood, then evolved to yacht cruising, aquaculture and commercial fishing. Today he is an energy and

maritime affairs journalist and is editor of The Press and Journal supplement Energy.

The Story of the Craig GroupJeremy CresswellCraig Group Ltd, 207 Albert Quay, Aberdeen AB11 5FS, Scotland UK Tel: +44 (0) 1224 592206 Fax:+44 (0) 1224 584174 www.craig-group.com

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