HISTORY & HERITAGE
The Overfall, BF590
G. Melvyn Wood
The Overfall was a steel Standard drifter built in Lowestoft. She took part in the 1940 Dunkirk evacuation.
The late John Simpson's model of the Overfall.
Steam Drifters Recalled, Portgordon to Portsoy (Buchan, Mair, Reid, Smith & Williamson, 2000) records the Overfall as being built of steel by Colby of Oulton Broad, Lowestoft for the Admiralty as a Standard Drifter. She was launched in the closing stages of the war and “equipped as a minesweeper, 28th Oct 1918”.
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According to the Bosun’s Watch website, Overfall sailed for the Mediterranean via Devonport the following month. In May 1921 she was transferred to the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries and sold to John Mair (Shavie), Portsoy, as the Managing Owner. He registered her in Banff as BF590. Overfall, her Admiralty name, was never changed.
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John (Jock) Mair, “Shavie”, was born in Portknockie and came to Portsoy in 1886, when he married Annie Smith from Sandend. Annie sadly died in 1902. In 1904, he married Margaret Bruce from Lossiemouth. They lived at Park View, Barbank Street, Portsoy. There were children from both marriages. John died in 1945 aged 81, in Park View.
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Jock Mair with his second wife Margaret Bruce
John Mair's sons tarring ropes at the New Harbour
l to r: Sandy, Willie (cousin), Jim, Johnnie, Joe
By May 1940, the Overfall had been requisitioned for the Second World War, and her Naval crew sailed her from Yarmouth to Ramsgate. From there she proceeded to Dunkirk, to take part as one of the famed “little ships” in the Dunkirk Evacuation. The rest of the war was relatively uneventful for the Overfall, and her Banff fishing registration lapsed in 1945.
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After service in WW2, Overfall was sold on to an English fishing company and eventually broken up in Barrow in 1955.