A REGULAR caller here for repairs is the self-discharging bulk carrier Yeoman Bank currently dry docked in Number 2 dock.

Owned by Aggregate Industries the Yeoman Bank transports stone cargoes from the Glensanda super quarry in Scotland to ports around Europe. Up to 6,000,000 tons of stone are exported by the company worldwide annually.

In 1976 the UK Government commissioned Sir Ralph Verney to analyse the shortage of aggregates for building. The resulting “Verney report” led John Yeoman, chairman of Foster Yeoman, to the idea of a super-quarry situated in a remote location from which stone could be exported by sea.

To this end, in 1982 he bought the 2,400 hectare Glensanda estate in Argyll.

The quarry which is situated on Loch Linnhe has stone reserves that will last 100 years.

Yeoman Bank is one of the five self-discharging vessels of Aggregate Industries. The ship is 205 metres long and the vessel can take up to 37,000 tons of cargo on board.