The Oban Times, 14 September 1901
The Pipes On Board A War Ship
The following cutting from the “Auckland Herald” will be of interest:–I came across Piper Sinclair, an Argyllshire Highlander, of H.M.S. Torch, the other day. It appears that Captain MacAlister is entitled, as captain of a warship, to choose his musician, and as a Highland-man he naturally chose to have a piper and the “king of instruments.” When Piper Sinclair performs on board ship he dons the kilt and wears the tartan of the chief–the MacAlister. Occasionally Captain MacAlister gets nostalgia and longs, in vision, for his native heath in the mountains of his dear native land–grand, rugged, and enduring, like the Scottish national character. It is then that Piper Sinclair becomes invaluable. He gives the gallant Captain “a blaw of the pipes,” and when Captain MacAlister hears again their skirl and the drone of the chanter on “Alister MacAlister,” or that fine strathspey, “Heilan’ Whuskey,” he becomes refreshed like a giant with new wine, and the nectar of the gods is not, “in it.”
