The Burns and Laird steamer Lairdsbank had a lucky escape when she ran aground on the Galloway coast on 6 April 1937. Recently launched in September 1936 from the yard of Harland and Wolff in Belfast, the Lairdsbank was a twin screw livestock and cargo motor vessel.
She had been enroute from Londonderry to Heysham with a cargo of cattle and pigs when she encountered thick fog in the North Channel. Her speed was immediately reduced as she inched through the inky darkness of early morning but eventually ran ashore in Barncorkie Bay (aka Portencorkie).
Lairdsbank ashore Barncorkie Bay
Help was immediately requested and a tug, the Flying Falcon was sent from Greenock and succeeded in pulling her off on high water, some 16 hours after her accident. The Lairdbank was not badly damaged and managed to head for Ayr Harbour under her own power to discharge her cargo and be checked over.
Fortunately the sea conditions were calm at the time or she may well have joined other members of the Burns & Laird fleet lost along this coastline. Most notable of these was the Lairdsmoor, which sank after a collision with the Shaw Saville liner Taranaki off Black Head, north of Portpatrick two days later.
