Big is beautiful for schoolboy

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Titanic construction is a model challenge for Jamie

YOUNG JAMIE MANSON handled a piece of history, a badge of courage, recently.
It was awarded to a crew member of the Carpathia which went to the aid of the stricken Titanic after she hit an iceberg just over a century ago.
The story has an extra- special meaning for the seven-year-old...he is bringing the ill-fated liner back to life in a model replica.
Model-maker Jamie attended a talk hosted by local charity Caithness Heart Support Group this week, accompanied by his farmer father James and learned a lot about the world’s most famous ship and her tragic end.
The illustrated talk was given by John Henderson whose grandfather John Cargill, was on board the Carpathia which rescued more than 700 souls from the freezing waters of the North Atlantic, in April 1912. Retired BT rigger John received a first-hand account of the rescue from his grandfather and the vivid memory of him helping to scoop babies from the water in coal sacks on that fateful night. Following his grandad’s death, John Henderson inherited his medal and a certificate awarded to all the Carpathia’s crew who were made honorary members of the Titantic Society.
John Cargill served with the army in WW1 and the navy in the Second World War and was decorated in both. After the latter, he returned to the fishing in Gourdon.
John Henderson of Henrietta Street, Wick, chatted to young Jamie after the talk with a power-point presentation by Jackie Mackenzie from Thurso College, and learned of the youngster’s biggest yet model challenge, a 10-ft long scale version of the luxury liner they said was “unsinkable”.
Jamie already has the bow and stern sections in place of the 10ft long ship and is working on the centre parts. The heart support group presented him with a two-and-a-half foot-colour poster of the Titanic to help him with the detail of the ship.
His dad, James Manson who farms at Upper Northfield, near Wick said: “All his models are big and they don’t come much bigger than the Titanic.”
Footnote -Jamie is short of round whisky bottle holders for the funnels. Can you help?