CALEDONIAN MERCURY, SATURDAY 1 JULY 1837.
MELANCHOLY EVENT
On Monday evening, two individuals, a male and a female, lost their lives on the Gairloch, at Shandon, near Helensburgh, under the following painful circumstances:- it appears that two or three of a gentleman’s family residing in that neighbourhood, having been out in a boat fishing on the loch, on their return the boat was given in charge of one of the servants, whose duty it was to take of it, and have it moored a little distance from the shore during the night.
In mooring the boat, he was on this occasion accompanied by three of his fellow-servants, among whom were two girls, and two boys unconnected with the family. Having accomplished their object, the party imprudently entered a small punt, with the view of getting ashore; but, from the smallness of the boat, and it being over-crowded, it swamped, and the whole were precipitated into the water, at about 100 yards from the shore, and a man and one of the girls perished.
One of the men, who is an expert swimmer, succeeding in saving the lives of the remaining three – a girl and the two boys. The punt – a thing not much larger than a tub – in which the party endeavoured to return, was only calculated to carry one or two individuals.
Shandon People and History 