Sea-wrack at Calgary Bay, the Isle of Mull

Photographer

Niles, John

Date

• 1982

Summary

• A pile of bladder wrack is photographed where it was washed up by the beach at Calgary Bay, the Isle of Mull. During the Napoleonic Wars of the period 1803-1815, a large work force labored on the shores of the Western Isles to harvest kelp and transport it, usually by donkey or in creels borne on the workers' backs, to sites where it could be burnt so as to extract potassium ash, an essential ingredient in the manufacture of gunpowder. Because of trade embargos, it was available in Britain by almost no other means. After the defeat of Napoleon's forces, normal trade routes were re-established. What resulted was a collapse in the economy of the Western Isles, followed by widespread destitution.