Betsy Miller - Captains & Fathers

Captains & Fathers

Born to smog entrenched city streets, I recall, as a small child, my father driving us to Saltcoats Beach, and there, I stepped into the magical wonder of the sea, spending many hours clambering over rocks and building fairy tale castles on the sand ….

This was a far cry from the city tenements of Glasgow where I was raised, the red sandstone buildings blackened by the daily outpouring of smoke from many chimneys in those over populated streets.

Saltcoats was our escape. The sights, sounds and scents of that seaside town and the memories of my father and those many day trips to the coast still remain with me today.

Captain Betsy Miller? I had never heard of her ….

Not until many years later, and due to the wonder of the internet, did I come across a web site dedicated to the memory of her ….This beautiful music was composed and performed by one Ed Walker, an awesome guitarist who lives and works in Saltcoats.

I listened to the music this mystery woman inspired, and the more I listened, the more I was drawn into the magic of her and, the need to know about her. There began a quest to discover Captain Betsy Miller, her life and her times.

In conversation with Ed, I discovered he was born to the sea, his frequent trips to the ancient harbour accompanied by his grandfather and father, and his memory of Betsy’s name inscribed on a gravestone, now lost to time. I learned how he too, as a small boy, clambered those same rocks …walked that same beach.

As did Betsy Miller…

Born in Saltcoats in 1792; her father was a merchant seaman and Captain of the Clytus. Betsy’s father took her, as a young child, to the sea and taught her well they ways of the mariner.

Captain Betsy Miller became a legend in her time, her name part of Scotland’s heritage, the first woman registered as a ship captain, yet she is relatively unknown in the country of her birth.

Did young Betsy also clamber the rocks and walk that same beach? I like to think she did, but little did she know then, how one day her memory would inspire the music and writings within these ‘pages’.

So this is our tribute in words and music, dedicated to the loving memory of Captains, Fathers, and Fairy Tales.