Peterhead boilyards

Peterhead boilyards

There were three boilyards in Peterhead, all on Keith Inch, on the seaward edge of the town, to minimize the impact of the foul smells and sights produced by the industry.

The ordnance survey map of 1872 shows the south harbour and, to its right Keith Inch, where the boilyards were situated. Blubber box quay is highlighted in red, as is the dry dock in the north harbour which was built in 1855 to accommodate the Greenland whalers

PS map Peterhead Harbour 1872
Ordnance Survey
Peterhead harbour 1872

The Old Whale Fishing Company at 7 Ship Street was the oldest, having been founded in 1801, and continued to operate up to around 1910. The other two yards were on Castle Street. Mr. Skelton's Yard (a.k.a. the Peterhead Whaling Company) was at number 18-20 and Mr. Hutchinson's Boil Yard (a.k.a. The Union Boilyard and Thomas Arbuthnot and Co.) was based at 9-13. Today, these areas are occupied by engineering firms servicing the offshore petroleum oil industry.

A surviving store list for the Union Boilyard shows that in 1838 they were operating with a boiler holding around 5 tons of blubber. (After Alex R. Buchan, The Peterhead Whaling Trade, 1993).

Copper head stores	Boilyard stores	Cooler house stores
1400 gallon copper and furnace	3 pairs skeeds	1 weighing machine
2 50 ton coolers	1 bogie	1 large weighing beam
4 ladles	1 crane	1 small weighing beam
3 scummers	3 handspokes	1 pair weighing slings
2 stirrers	2 beef racks	4 pairs can hooks
1 crane chain	1 beef block	22 cwt. of weights
1 pair chain slings	1 beef adze
4 lamps	1 furnace rake
2 wooden scummers	1 grindstone
	1 wheelbarrow
	2 bone troughs
	3 carronades*

*Carronades were short, lightweight guns which fired a slow, very heavy shot over a short range. The slow shot ripped off deadly wooden splinters, where a faster shot from a long gun would punch a relatively neat hole. So called because they were first cast at Carron Ironworks, near Falkirk. The gun shown below is mounted on HMS Unicorn and is a replica of a 32 pounder Carronade, made and presented by the Carron Company of Falkirk, after which the type of gun is named. The company developed this type of gun in 1776, and presented this replica in 1976. HMS Unicorn was launched in 1824 as a 46 gun sailing frigate for the Royal Navy, and she is now one of the most completely original preserved wooden ships in the world. Her armament would have included 14 of these 32 pounder Carronades.

©SCRAN/Unicorn Preservation Society
32 pound carronade on HMS Unicorn