Extract of a letter, dated Ullapool, 14th Oct.:--
We learn, with much regret, that the sloop, Friendship, of Ullapool, John Black, master was totally lost
on the night of the 11th ult. near Thurso, and melancholy to relate, he and his whole crew, seven men and a boy, met a watery
grave. Captain Black was on his return from the coast of Caithness, after a successful open sea herring fishing voyage,
having caught upwards of 120 barrels, being the best fished of all the west coast adventurers, under the regulations of the
Fishery Board, competing for the Tonnage bounty. Capt. Black's premature death is greatly lamented in the village, with which
he was connected, and has involved his afflicted family in the deepest distress. He was a most promising young man; and had
Providence been pleased to lengthen his days, could not fail of proving an ornament in that walk of life in which he moved.
The Christopher, John Mackay, another open sea herring buss, and the sloop Janet and Mary, also belonging to Ullapool, were
cast ashore and totally wrecked at Widewall, Orkney, the same night. Both crews were most miraculously saved; the latter in
particular, by the undaunted exertions of Mr. Alex. Robertson, of the sloop Aspasia of Stornoway; notwithstanding his own
vessel being also cast ashore, he, at the peril of his life, and braving all danger, succeeded in the third attempt, in
rescuing the unfortunate crew, two men and aboy, at the moment the last part of the wreck disappeared. These three vessels
were exactly the one half of the small fleet belonging to this port. As yet we have not the least prospect of a winter
herring fishing -- a harvest one we had not; there were not 50 barrels caught in Lochbroom this season, though the
proprietors value all their lands round this loch and village, in proportion to the success of the holders at the fishing --
a very precarious mode of valuation."
