1887
A Cellardyke Fisherman Drowned at Yarmouth. – lnquest just held on Wednesday in Gorleston on the body of James Brunton, Skipper of the boat Jessie, fisherman, Cellardyke. Verdict, found drowned. Deceased was last seen alive on Tuesday night at eleven, and it is supposed that while going on board his boat he fell into the water. He was picked up at ten on Wednesday morning. He had not been long in the water, probably not more than three or four hours. A purse, containing 4s 6d, was found on him. Skipper Brunton was a well-known Scotch fisherman, and leaves wife and grown-up family.
Sudden Death. – An instance of the uncertainty of life occurred in Cellardyke yesterday in the death of Christian Cunningham, the wife of John Dickson, mariner. She appears to have been busy in some little household duty after breakfast, but, be this as it may, her mother was only absent for a few minutes to return to find her lifeless the floor. Mrs Dickson, who is survived by her husband and only child, was about thirty years of age, was greatly beloved in her own circle. In the opinion of the doctor, the cause of death was disease of the heart.
1888
The Cellardyke boats have begun to arrive from the South, and about a dozen have reached Anstruther. They experienced a very stormy voyage, and suffered great hardships. The rest of the fleet are expected home by the beginning of next week. According to all accounts the fishing at Yarmouth has been the worst for a long number of years back, and most of the crews will not be able to pay expenses. The poor fishing meant a season for the merchants at home.
It is now five-and-twenty years since the pioneer boat sailed for Yarmouth. From time to time this success has been so encouraging that Cellardyke skippers have fished £550 to £750, but this is by far the poorest season in the record in consequence of the fitful and tempestuous weather. The few you may count on your fingers have a couple of £100. Many, or rather most, have £70 to £90, but we know of those who have had their own share of the toils and perils of one of the most trying seasons in the annals of Norfolk for £6 or £7, so that in view of the disappointments of the past there is only too much cause for the uneasiness today in many a fisher home.
1889
As an illustration of the low price of herrings in the south, we may state that one Cellardyke boat, the Lady of the Lake, has fished 31 lasts or over four hundred crans for less than £150. The other day nine waggons with about 380 crans were railed to Anstruther. They are destined for “reds” or ham-cured herrings. With regard to the quality, it is enough to say that one merchant observed, “I never had finer in my kiln.” Consignments are also to hand from Lochfyne, but so small as to be little if any bargain at 3s a box. A private letter says that the Fife boats put to sea on Tuesday to return with 2 to 5 lasts, but the price was very low in consequence of the want of salt, over which there was a general outcry against the Union. The boat Aurora, of Cellardyke, was about to sail for the north in consequence of loss of nets.
At a meeting of Kilrenny Councillors on Tuesday evening, it was agreed to order 30 tons of metal from Newburgh for Cellardyke streets, and 40 tons for Kilrenny roads, and to inquire to the cost per yard for causewaying the east end of Cellardyke. The streets at this part were much destroyed by the traction engines pulling up and down the boats, and it was agreed to consult the Act and see if the proprietor could not be charged.
1890
Baking Enterprise.
A long step in advance has just been made by the energetic Cellardyke bakers, Messrs Black Son, by the introduction of the patent decker oven in conjunction with their steam machines. This oven is unique. It embraces an upper and lower chamber of fire bricks, eight feet by six. The furnace, situated at the right angle, is seven times heated, as it were, with coke, which issues by three streams into a lake of living fire, if we may use the simile, between the two chambers, which are thus bathed all round with a continuous flow current from the moment it leaves the furnace till it escapes into the air. The bricks are such excellent conductors of heat that the loaves or biscuit are baked in third less time than in the ordinary ovens, while the chambers are, of course, entirely free from the smoke, &c., which renders it expedient to use the primitive implement known as the scuffle. To this end the sides are encrusted with a kind of porcelain, which glitters like white glass—in fine, the patentee has done as much for the economy of the bakehouse as the inventor of the hot blast in the furnaces of the West. The effectiveness of the oven will be of special value to the Messrs Black their large orders for biscuit in the fishing season to all parts of Scotland. Some years ago Mr Black made series of ingenious experiments which was enabled to utilise his steam engine in the stirring, kneading, cutting out of the biscuit, so that the oven now bridges over the last difficulty in the way the firm. The oven, which is patented in Cardiff, is the first of the kind in the East of Fife.
THE SINKING OF A CELLARDYKE FISHING BOAT. —The Board of Trade inquiry into the circumstance attending the loss of the fishing boat Maggie Brown, of Cellardyke, by collision with the trawler Early Blossom, of Lowestoft, on the 28th October, near Yarmouth, was resumed yesterday in Edinburgh Sheriff Court-House, before Sheriff Rutherford and Captains Parish and Anderson nautical assessors. The witnesses examined were Alexander Doig, one of the crew of the Maggie Brown; Arthur E. Maltwood, the lad who was steering the Early Blossom at the time of the collision; William. J West, second hand on the Early Blossom; William Setterfield, master of the fishing smack Lurline; and Jacob Crickmore, mate of the Lurline. At the close of the evidence Sheriff Rutherford intimated that judgment in the case would be given on Saturday.