Ducky Ireland

Ducky - seemingly that was Innes's nickname when he was skippering drifters out of Kirkcudbright harbour in the 1970s.

There are some good tales about this period in the Scotsman's life. About the time he spotted motoring journos Jenks and Alan Henry waiting to see him on the quayside and performed an elegant 360 degree handbrake turn in his trawler. On another occasion he flew to Norway to pick up a second hand boat, only to be told by the port authorities that he would need a crew before he could leave the harbour and sail back to Scotland. The quick thinking Innes retired to a local hostelry and persuaded a couple of drunken Norwegians to sleep off their hangovers on board while he proceeded back across the North Sea. Of course Innes was no great lover of officialdom and that Norwegian trawler soon got him into trouble. Having failed to paint out the boat's Norwegian registration number, Innes attracted the attention of a Navy patrol vessel which called on him to heave-to and explain what a Norwegian was doing fishing the North Sea. Innes then proceeded to try and out manouver the Navy vessel, until her captain finally had a sense of humour failure and put a round across the trawler's bows.

Now if anyone from Kirkcudbright who knew Innes reads this, please get in touch, - you can find my contact details on the Innes Ireland Web Biography link - I'd love to know how he came by that nickname Ducky Ireland.