The book Arran; - Cook Clan

^
126 THE BOOK OF ARRAN
faring occupations.^ The result is to show in the census
returns for 1801 an excess of 425 females over males in the
island as a whole.
The preference for the sea came out quite as strongly
when it was a question of service with the colours. In 1803
the island was found to contain 1500 men able to carry arms,
and about 500 liable to enlist in the militia and reserve.
Yet those liable had rather pay the fine than enter the militia,
and when Duke Archibald, well liked as he was, proposed
to raise an Arran regiment, he failed to get more than a
handful, and those only by the temptation of excessive
bounties. ' Had he proposed to man a ship of the line,
the people would have risen in mass.' * Yet there were
Arran men with a record of land service, veterans now returned
to the peaceful island with the carnage of Salamanca
and the horrors of Corunna imprinted in their memories
a FuUarton of Lamlash, a Sym from Tormore, and a Shaw
of Shisken ; to mention only some survivors and say nothing
of those who remained for ever in the blood-soaked soil of
the Peninsula.
Some further details of individual services are given in
the following communication :— ' Among the Arran men who
entered the Navy the McCurdys (or McKirdy), uncle and
nephew, most distinguished themselves. McCurdy (the
uncle) started as a smuggler, and in one of his runs met and
defeated a revenue cutter in a stand-up fight. A reward
of £500 was then offered for his capture. This reward he
claimed himself, but instead of shooting him the authorities
drafted him on board a sloop-of-war. He married an Irish
lady of noble birth, and through the influence of her brothers
' statistical Account. ' Headrick, p. 11.
3 This enumeration was due to an Act of the previous year reconstituting the militia.
All were liable between the ages of eighteen and forty-five.
* Headrick, p. 12. Of the national militia raised in that year, numbering 45,492
men, 40,998 were substitutes, so Arran was not really so peculiar as is made out.
— ^