1886
The meeting for thanksgiving, which it has been for number of years the custom to hold on the return of the fishermen from the South, was held in the Hall, Cellardyke—the Rev. G. MacAlpine presiding. The hall was filled, and the meeting was taken part in by Messrs Thomas Smith, Robt. Montador, Wm. Watson (Boyter),John Birrell, and Wm. Watson (Smith).
The annual concert of the Anstruther and Cellardyke Cricket Club came off on Friday evening. The artistes were a quartet party and comedian from Edinburgh. The audience, unfortunately, was meagre, and the drawings will not pay expenses. The assembly which followed the concert was excellently attended, and is the best the Club has had. Mr G. Shepherd’s quadrille band from Edinburgh furnished the music
1887
A grand bazaar in aid of the building fund of Cellardyke Manse was held in Anstruther Town Hall on Friday and Saturday. The proceedings were inaugurated with no little éclat on Friday forenoon in the presence perhaps of the largest and most fashionable gathering that ever assembled on a like occasion in the East of Fife, …………….. Mr Anstruther, M.P., who was cordially, or rather enthusiastically received, spoke in the most appreciative terms of the object of the- bazaar. He also alluded to Mr Ray’s success, the church, in his three years’ ministry, having increased from fifty to over three hundred members………….. The business of the day teas now begun, and continued at the several magnificently furnished stalls with so much spirit that the sale closed about 10 p.m. with drawings to the amount of £330.
1888
Nearly the whole of the Cellardyke boats which have been fishing from Lowestoft and Yarmouth have returned. The season has been a most unremunerative one, and about half of the eighty boats have not cleared expenses. The highest fished boats have realised from £150 to £200, but the great majority have only netted fro £60 to £80, while a few are as low as £10. The average will not exceed £70, the lowest it has been for a long number of years. The winter herring will not begin until another fortnight yet.
Unrequited toil. “I’m waitin’ for my faither,” sobbed the little urchin on the pier, where he had been shivering for hours in the rain. So it was to east and west, but the last of the fleet is now safe in the harbour— the Alaska on Sabbath, and the Magdalene Hughes on the ensuing day. It is the same weary tale from first to last. A father and two sons in separate boats had only 18s 6d to the fireside, and not one, but hundreds were still more unfortunate. All over the Scottish coast as a whole, indeed, this is the poorest voyage in the record the fishing. The hapless veteran, George Smith, of St Monance, perished Lowestoft bar, with the sail set for home, but otherwise we may say with all thankfulness to Heaven our hardy mariners are once again with safe and well. All accounts agree the unexampled severity of the weather. “I never saw the like o’ it,” said the veteran with a touch grey his haffits. “There were six wrecks 0n the sands when we left Yarmouth to cross the Wash, with the spray flying like spindrift. We took Sunderland with the anchor towing astern, so as to be ready for the worst. A lull saw us at sea again, but it was to encounter the gale blowing so fiercely that sea and sky seemed to meet; she danced like a curlew amongst the foam when the big Zulus were lying like broken winged geese in the wind. We were glad take shelter a second and third time in the run—by far the stormiest, as I have said, of my two twenty voyages to Yarmouth. With little or rather no inducement to uncoil hook and line for the haddock fishing, the skipper and his men are everywhere busy for the coming drave. Thus at every turn eident fingers are knitting the snow like wreaths to the head rope as to be ready with the first signal of herring life in the Forth. It is early, no doubt, but we hear of this and that trial without a single scale, but it would appear that the cod and its congeners are flitting in considerable numbers on the coast, from the success which has now and again attended the experiments at St Monance. The Onyx and the Twins had their white nets on board in the first of the week, and this is likewise the case on the other side of the Billowness, but as a rule little is to be expected till Christmas, when the English buyers begin to hover like gannets on the scene., The inshore fishing has been resumed this week, not a few of the veterans being only once or twice at sea during the month of November. We regret to observe that the haddock shoals are still as light as ever, while the returns are so low in the of the consignments to Glasgow as not to exceed 7s a basket. “Grumble, wha wadna grumble?” exclaimed an honest matron the other day at the Braid Wynd, “no sae muckle as the ootgie for bait, and bairns wheenging for a piece.” An East of Fife Magistrate visited Aberdeen this week, and was not a little astonished to find 30 steam vessels engaged in the fishing. Some were at work with that most pernicious of all implements, the trawl, but with many, if not most, it was with hook and line. One vessel with both landed a take that realised £80, but what arrested the attention of our visitor most all was find the fishermen laying their boats on the beach in order to form little clubs or associations for the hire of a steam liner. Indeed, the success of these vessels was so marked that every possible effort is being made to increase the fleet. He himself was asked to report on the North Sea boats on sale in the East of Fife. We may here observe that it was the day and night study of the late Mr Christopher Pottinger to construct an engine and propeller such principle that it could be fitted to these boats, at a cost not to exceed £100 to £150, to solve the problem in all save the expense, but he died with the conviction that the day would come when the Cellardyke fleet would be fitted with steam. He was convinced, from what he knew of the intelligence of the skippers of Fife, that they could be their own engineers, and this opinion just been curiously borne out in the experience of Captain Peter Muir, of the Fulmar, who mastered the secret that he could work the engine of the vessel in a fortnight. With, this, however, is pleasant to observe the enterprise in the kindly old ways the coast. A dashing little clipper was launched Saturday week by Mr Gardiner, Stonehaven, for another of the Catterline crews employed by the well-known St Monance merchant, Mr William Mather. She is quite a model of her class—sharp as a wedge, but so wide in the beam so as both to sail well and row well, as the greybeards like to say. She is named the Annie Mather, in honour of the beloved one of Mr Mather’s household. He was unable to be present, and this was the one cloud, so to speak, in the jubilee, but his place was well taken by his eldest son, who is deservedly favourite with one and all in the romantic little Village of Catterline.
1890
St Andrews – In consequence of the rough weather, the fishermen have not been able to get out for several days. Yesterday, however, the weather was favourable, and all the boats went off to the fishing ground. They returned in the afternoon. Some the boats had had a remunerative fishing, while others were less fortunate. Unlike the fishermen in St Monance, Pittenweem, and Cellardyke, those at St Andrews have a plentiful supply of bait. The mussels on the South side of the Eden belong to the town, and they are supplied to the fishermen at a rate somewhat less than that accepted from outsiders. Last year the town, after supplying the local fishermen, sold between £200 and £300 worth of mussels for bait to fishermen from the North and elsewhere. The fishermen at the coast should at once apply for bait to Andrews.
1892
Thomas Anderson, Fisherman Cellardyke was fined 10s 6d for assaulting PC wright – Mrs Murray (Blyth) , Cellardyke for assaulting her sister , was mulcted in a fine of 7s 6d. Both Fines were paid.
1894
At a conference of Cellardyke fishermen this week Skipper John Carstairs was appointed a delegate to the East Coast Fishermen’s Conference to be held at Aberdeen on the 22nd inst. The delegate was instructed to vote for the close time of the herring fishing to extend from the end of April to the 10th of July. Skipper Gardener held it was high time the fishermen of Scotland were uniting to prevent everything being taken from them. It was once possible to get a living at their own doors, but now long voyages had to be made, and the trawlers were working Saturday and Sunday. The Fife fishermen were being forced to compete with them on the Sunday or lose their situations. The old Scottish respect for the Sabbath, he added, was fast dying out. The delegate was instructed to bring up the subject at the conference, along with other questions.
1896
The fleet of Cellardyke boats, which have been fishing at Yarmouth and Lowestoft, arrived home on Friday. The takes for the ranged from £170 to £300.
Grocer and Wine Merchants Business for sale
The subscribers invite offers for that well established business presently carried on by Mr William Walker 25 James Street, Cellardyke.
The Stock, which will amount to about £100 to be taken at mutual valuation.
The turnover in spirituous liquors has averaged about 285 gallons, the rent for the premises is £26 per annum and a lease for a period of years may be arranged.