Vessel
Ship Arrivals
and Departures for Montrose Cargo Eliza and Jessie
26-02-1831
Departed
Dundee
to
Montrose
Flax Jasper 01-01-1890
Arrived
Montrose
from
Riga
Flax Garry 04-01-1890
Arrived
Montrose
from
Dundee
/ Reval
Flax Jasper 05-01-1892 Arrived Dundee from Montrose / Riga
Flax Sapphire 09-01-1893 Arrived Montrose from Riga
Flax Sapphire 11-01-1893 Departed Montrose to Burntisland
Flax Envoy 31-12-1893 Arrived Montrose from Reval
Flax
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MONTROSE has one of the few natural harbours on
the east coast of Scotland. It is formed by the estuary of the river
South Esk which is scoured twice daily by the surge of water from four
square miles of tidal basin behind the town. There is little evidence
for Montrose's trade until the later middle ages, but it had an
aggressive merchant community, as in 1289 the magistrates of Banff
complained that the Montrosians were invading the fair at Aberdeen.
Montrose had its own fair from the 13th century; unlike weekly markets
which served for an exchange of local produce, fairs could last several
weeks and were centres of international trade. By the 14th century
Aberdeen,
Dundee, Andrews and Leith are known to have established
regular commercial links with Copenhagen, Hamburg, Leubeck, Bremen,
Rostock, Wismar, Greifswald and Stockholm, while Ny-Lodose (Gothenburg),
Danzig, Elbing and Konigsberg had Scots communities before 1500.
Montrose had contacts similar to those of the more prominent east coast
ports. In 1655, Montrose was sixth in the shipping league behind
Leith, Glasgow, Kirkcaldy, Aberdeen and Dundee. With 12 vessels
totalling 370 tons, she came close behind Aberdeen (9 vessels totalling
440 tons and Dundee (10 at 377 tons.) In
1689 from the Baltic
came
flax in 3 voyages from Konigsberg, flax and hemp in 2 from Riga. Several
prominent merchant families had branches in the Baltic. The Rennys were
wealthy
flax importers and had members of the
family in Riga sending undressed flax to Montrose, which
was already noted for flax spinning by hand and as a yarn market for
north-eastern Scotland. In 1662 Thomas and Andrew Renny joined the
business and were successful; in 1709 it was Andrew who was chosen, as
one oft he more prominent citizens of Riga, to hand over the keys of the
city to Peter the Great when the Russians
conquered Livonia from Swedes. Andrew was succeeded in
business by a grandson, Patrick, who exported flax to Dundee and
Montrose in the 1720s. The Ouchterlonies were also established in Riga.
John Ouchterlony, a merchant there, retired to Montrose in 1736 and
continued his interest in
the flax trade. In the 18th century, traditional trading
patterns held firm; the growth of the linen industry from the 1790s
meant increasing flax
imports
mainly from Riga but also from St. Petersburg and Archangel. In
the later 18th century a wide variety of linen textiles.. sailcloth and
finer clothing textiles (most of it of local manufacture), oak staves
and spruce beer were
