New England sawmills in Scotland June 1917 - June1918
This digital record is courtesy of the Hathitrust.org of part of the story of the Massachusetts Committee on Public Safety, February 10, 1917-November 21, 1918, by George Hinckley Lyman found in: https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/000440066
The record is an invaluable insight into the original requests for assistance from the British Government, the response from the New England States, the outcome of the organising and the eventual dispatch of ten sawmill units onwards to Scotland.
The rapid response to the British crisis was taken on board by six New England States and a specially convened committee organised the supply of one sawmill unit funded by each state. The states involved were Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont. In addition several individual companies and many individuals provided the necessary funding for a further four sawmill units resulting in a total of ten units.
Lord Lovat, Brigadier General in charge of timber interests in war time Britain is quoted, as is John Stirling Maxwell (Corrour and Pollok Estates) the Assistant Controller of Timber Supplies for Scotland. Also included are several other messages from other senior members of the British Board of Trade. The record relays some details of all the comings and goings, the quantities of equipment secured, description of the vibrant send off from Boston of the 350 plus men, their impressions of Scotland and a general admiration for the locality of Ardgay, Ross-shire where they set to work. Their outturn over the 9.5 months of actual operation was a very impressive 20 million Board Feet Measure timber for the war effort and the coal mines. Coming from different states and operating as individual units there is no doubt that the sawmill crews worked hard at maintaining high outputs and competing to be the fastest and the best.
The main image of the group of men appears to be that of the Acton, Massachusetts contingent that were to man the unit funded by the local Blanchard & Gould Lumber Company and officially known as Sawmill Unit No 3 with Webster Blanchard acting as Foreman. The actual site images are also of Unit No 3 in Strathcarron, Ross-shire.The Mascot banner on the dog perhaps gives some flavour of the inter-mill unit friendly rivalry!
The record is a very useful insight into the one year duration, rapid response operation that any organising committee would rightly have been very delighted to have executed.
Please see the PDF below for the report.
Download Large Version (757kB)
Groups: American sawmillers in Scotland 1917, Groups of people