1885
PROPERTY IN CELLARDYKE FOR SALE. For SALE, by PRIVATE BARGAIN, THAT CORNER HOUSE and SHOP, with STABLE and GARDEN attached, situated in Rodger Street, and presently occupied by Dr Flaxman. For further particulars apply to JAMES HENDERSON, Anstruther.
THE LENT FISHING—SEA ON THE COAST AS IT WAS, AND IS NOW —The eccentric old minister of Kilrenny, William Beat, who died rather less than 90 years ago, liked to tell in his little sky blue parlour, how he had seen, when an urchin at Cellardyke, the boats pulling in not only to the gunwale with cod and ling, but with a score or two of the biggest towing at the stern, and yet how in the hidden ways of Heaven, the sea had become so barren that his own favourite dish, the shoulders of the cod, was a luxury for the rich; while the haddock, once the fare of the poorest, usually coat more than a well-fed hen, if had at all. as it often was not either for love or money. These are curious facts, let the key lie where it may to the secret; but in any case they teach the ever wave-like ebbs and flows of the harvest in Firth or river, but, luckily, it is far otherwise in ” the fresh fields and pastures new” of the peerless North Sea. Thus again betimes on Monday perhaps half the fleet were racing “Close hauled on the port tack,” as the sailor, say, to fill the bait basket with the young fry already so abundant that they were fished in thousands last week some sixty or seventy miles to the eastward of the May. The gale was up, but with Good Friday, and a silver prize in view, net and line were worked so bravely, that boat after boat came scudding in with tidy little hauls, but clutched if ever out of the teeth of the storm. Like the cautious husbandman, however, who makes sure of his seed corn before he goes out to row, perhaps a hundred boats continued the search in the offing. ‘They’re ‘ill be herrin’ the nicht or they’re no f’ the sea,” said the old skipper, as he glanced at the rising wind, and the prediction was true, for by buying or selling as the case might be, one and all were able to follow with hook and line. Gleaning, as it were, on the edge of the field so as to speed, as we see, many, if not most of these boats, were home again in the course of Wednesday. The takes as a rule were light, £10 to £20 ; but one, the” Confidence,” Of Cellardyke, had a magnificent haul, including some 40 or 50 halibut, as many ling, and perhaps 100 cod, which in the notable demand of the morning, realised over 50 guineas. Seldom, if ever indeed, has the market been so well sustained at Anstruther or St Monance, on the day in question—cod rising in some cases to 3s and 4s, ling to 6s and 7s, skate 3s to 4s, and halibut at the unprecedented figure of all but 1s a pound on the pier. Of course the price came tumbling down, some 30 and even 50 per cent, as the English buyers stepped out of the ring —the signal in “piscatorial point of view,” as I the old Dominie said, with a self-satisfied tap on his snuff-box, that Lent was over and gone for another season. With all their effort., however, many of the boats failed to reach the market in time. This was especially the case with those who, as the saying is, did most deserve it. Thus several, like the “Alaska,” of Cellardyke, after working the black net in the face of the storm some 90 or 100 miles to the eastward of the May, had to return without their errand to the Forth: But after all, this might have been the experience all round, seeing that the fleet, as a rule, were only detained in the offing by the curious adventure of Skipper George Smith, of the “Twine.” Putting to sea on Saturday night, he had the luck to fish some 5000 herring, and profiting by the lesson we see the result very much in the good fortune of the coast. The Stonehaven and other Northern boats are also said to have been unsuccessful in the search for bait. The Pittenweem boats, however, fishing from the Tyne, if the rumour is true, were more fortunate. Therefore, it would appear that the young shoals are still hovering to the southward of the May; but it is also an interesting fact that the hook has never been’ so successfully worked this week as on the broad belt or valley between the Mar and ‘Moray reefs, some 35 to the eastward of the Carr.
1886
TO LET. HOUSE and SHOP, at 1 Harbour Head, Cellardyke. Entry at May Term. Apply ALEX. MARR, Grocer.
1887
The East of Fife fishing boats encountered severe thunderstorm on Thursday afternoon. The boat Alexander, of Ferryden, proceeding up the Firth of Forth between one and two o’clock was struck by lightning. The flash seems to have struck the ring on the top of the mast, and running down, hit Charles Coull and William Mitchell Coull. The injuries of the latter were the most serious. His clothes on the right side were entirely burned off him. His whole side and face were much discoloured. His sea boots had to be cut off, and his stockings were found much singed. The whole crew were affected, and, their confusion, mistook the lights of Cellardyke houses for Anstruther Harbour lights. As a result, the boat ran ashore on the rocks to the west of Cellardyke Harbour, where she will likely become total wreck.
Another of the Ferryden fleet, the Sophia, M.E 628, Skipper James West, was struck by the lightning while fifteen miles north-west from Montrose. David West was knocked down completely paralysed, while the rest of the crew were confused for the time being by the storm. After having recovered, the boat was turned for Anstruther, which was reached in safety in the course of the evening. West was taken to the house of his father-in-law in Cellardyke, Skipper James Tarvit, and after a night’s rest he was considerably better, although he complained of numbness and a sharp stinging pain in his right arm. One of the Cellardyke boats reported to have suffered from the thunderstorm is the Reindeer, KY. 46, Skipper David Muir. The deck was more or less strained by the lightning, but the crew escaped without any injury.
THE LATE STORM—As reported in our issue of last week the young man Charles Coull who was struck by lightning while at sea in the gale, died on Thursday last. Arrangements had been made for carrying his body home to Ferryden for interment, where the unfortunate man resided. At the funeral which took place on Friday the whole of the Cellardyke fishermen turned out in their blue clothes—walking four abreast—and accompanied the body to the harbour, where a boat was ready to receive it. Sympathy has been expressed on all hands to the father of the deceased.
1888
ANSTRUTHER LIFEBOAT.—A special meeting of National Lifeboat Institution was held on Monday night – Provost Darsie in the chair. The Secretary (Me H. B, Mackintosh) submitted the correspondence by which the new lifeboat is named the Royal Stuart at the wish. of the donor, the widow of Colonel Atherton Howard, of Cheltenham, He incidentally reported that he had sold the old life- boat, the Admiral Fitzroy, for the sum of £6. Referring to the accident at the arrival of the Royal Stuart, by which the young Cellardyke joiner, James Gardiner, had so narrowly escaped with his life, but, as it was, with the fracture of one of his legs, he (the Secretary) had communicated the circumstance to the parent institution, with the result that the sufferer had been allowed £1 a week, It was resolved to launch the new lifeboat on Saturday, the 28th inst., the Committee being in the meantime expected to draw up such a programme as shall enable the fishermen to take part in the interesting event.
1889
Wreckage on the Fife Coast. —A considerable quantity of billet wood, with the fragments of deckhouse, was washed ashore Saturday between Caiplie and Cellardyke. Most of it was so split amongst the rocks as to be useless, except, perhaps, for lobster pots. It was supposed by the pilots to have been swept from the deck of the galliot which was seen running the firth the previous day with the loss of mainmast and jibboom.
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