Qualla: Stotfield Fishing Disaster

Stotfield Fishing Disaster: Introduction

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

We know their names. Joseph Young Senior and his two sons Joseph and Alex. William McLeod and his son John. James Mitchell, the skipper of the third boat. Alex Main and James McLeod from Nairn. Twenty-one men and youths in total, spread across three small fishing boats, caught on the Moray Firth on Christmas Day 1806 when a south-westerly gale of extraordinary ferocity overwhelmed them all. When the storm passed, the village of Stotfield had lost its entire fleet and every one of its able-bodied males. Only women, young children, and the elderly remained.

Stotfield Fishing Disaster: A Village Built on the Sea

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Stotfield, now absorbed into Lossiemouth, was a small ferm toun in Moray whose name derives from the Old English Stodfauld, meaning "horse field." The English-origin name suggests it was settled by incomers, possibly Anglian settlers from the Lothians planted by King David I of S...

Stotfield Fishing Disaster: The Morning Turned

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Christmas morning began calm, fair, and mild. The fishermen reached their grounds a mile or two offshore early, well within sight of land. As the morning progressed, the wind strengthened. By midday, the weather had turned violently, and a south-westerly gale drove the three boat...

Stotfield Fishing Disaster: Seventeen Widows, Forty-Two Children

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The Aberdeen Journal reported the disaster in January 1807: "Three boats belonging to Stotfield, were lost, containing 21 seamen, who have left 17 widows and 42 children, besides aged parents and other helpless relations to lament their fate." The paper also recorded losses elsew...

Stotfield Fishing Disaster: The Call to Rebuild

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

In March 1807, the Aberdeen Journal published an advertisement offering bounties to fishermen who would settle in Stotfield and crew the village's boats: seven guineas a year for three years for the first crew, diminishing rates for the second and third. Whether anyone answered t...