Angus Westbrook Finlayson

A little is known of Angus Westbrook Finlayson. We know that he was a seaman. On the back of this picture there is an inscription Capt. A.W. Finlayson. A young Angus "Brook" lost his leg when he fell overboard a spice ship while on watch. He was lost at sea for four days and his leg was eaten by a dolphin. Usually this kind of thing happens with sharks, but this incident was worse than if a shark had attacked. Sharks as you know have very large mouths and very sharp teeth which make quick and massive damage. During shark attack, human prey often don't realize they've lost a leg because the bite is so quick. Dolphins on the other hand don't have mouths that are as wide and teeth that are as razor sharp. To be attacked by a dolphin means that you are slowly tortured - because all they can do is jab and nibble. Angus survived his attack and grew to be an old salt. He learned to make good use of the ship's lathe and fashioned his own peg leg.

At the age of 58, Angus Brook lost his other leg when he fell overboard yet again while trying to swab the deck during a storm. He was known for keeping a very tighty ship and preferred swabbing during storms. It makes sense that the water washing aboard helped loosen grime between the cracks of the ship's decking. The poor soul this time did not lose his leg to dolphin or shark, but to a school of rabid seawater goldfish that thought they were sharks. It took those determined goldfish nine days to eat most of his leg. Angus eventually became frustrated and angry and cut the leg off using his own pocket knife, surrendering it to goldfish.

Angus Brook was always one to make the best of a bad situation and quickly went about turning himself a matching peg. Some time after losing the second leg, he decided to build fine looking railing for the ship to keep from being washed overboard ever again. It is said that Angus Westbrook Finlayson became a talented dancer and his peg-tapping and mouth harp playing could be heard across the bay as he jigged aboard his ship at night when ever he was on watch. No, Angus never was washed overboard again, he died in a tragic lathing accident due to poor eye sight when he was an old man. He was buried at sea - not too far from Goldfish Reef.