A BOATMAN in a Highland hamlet has drowned, the eighth in his family
to die in an accident. His death has left Tarbet with only one male
inhabitant.
Handa Island ferryman William Macrae, the last male, found the body of
39-year-old Alasdair Munro on Monday evening.
Mr Munro was drowned in view of neighbours and friends in the
Sutherland hamlet while searching for his fox terrier Frisky.
Police said Mr Munro was coming ashore when his small rowing boat
capsized. He had been searching unsuccessfully for his dog and had
transferred from a bigger powered boat to his small punt to come ashore.
Neighbour Mrs Dorothy Macrae noticed his small boat was at an unusual
angle and went in search of her boatman brother and Scourie postman
Robert McColl. They found Mr Munro's body near the shoreline.
He had kicked off his boots in an effort to reach safety.
The tourist trips to Handa, a bird sanctuary, were cancelled yesterday
as a mark of respect.
Mr Munro was separated from his wife, Jackie, from Kinlochbervie, who
now lives in Ullapool with their teenage daughter Nicola.
Mr Munro was a back-seat passenger in a car crash in a blizzard in
which his 67-year-old mother died in December 1990.
His father, his four brothers and an uncle have all been drowned in
boating incidents dating back to 1958. Only two married sisters now
survive from the family, fish-farmer's wife Mrs Liz Ambler, at
Fanagmore, Scourie, and Mrs Sandra Chester, a nurse, in Manchester.
The litany of disaster for the family, before Mrs Margaret Munro's
death in 1990, began when her schooboy sons, Donald and John, died with
their uncle Donald in June 1958 when their small boat foundered off
Handa.
Mrs Munro's husband, Alistair, was lost close to the shore in 1972
when lobster fishing. Their son Angus was washed overboard from a
seine-net fishing boat near Oban in 1974.
In August 1987, their fourth son, Cathel, was drowned with a friend
when they were crossing to Handa from Tarbet to shear sheep.
The tiny community of Scourie in north-west Sutherland has been
devastated by this latest tragedy.
The former local postmaster, Mr Robert MacDonald, said everyone was so
sorrowful for the remaining members of the family.
He went on: ''He was very fond of the dog and I understand it was not
at home when he returned last night. So he went out searching for
Frisky, and decided to borrow the big motor-boat to look for the dog
along the coastline and cliffs.''
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