1866
On Monday afternoon, we believe, a Prussian vessel was discovered by Cellardyke fishing boat in a sinking condition. The vessel, it appears, had been water-logged, and the crew were glad to escape from her. The crew went into the fishing-boat, were landed in Fife, and afterwards, we are informed, came on to Dundee at night. Should this be so, doubt they will be sent home immediately by the Prussian Consul.
The vessel was the Alexandrine of Wolgast, from Tayport to Stettin.
1870
Boatbuilding trade
The success of so many local crews at the herring fishing on the Suffolk coast is encouraging our boat builders to speculate the hope of better times. There are five builders between St Monance and Cellardyke, but the trade is so unprecedently dull that not a single boat at present being built to order, though in three of the yards hulls are being constructed on sale. At first sight this may seem hazardous work, considering the different opinions and different fishings on the coast, but the experience of the last year or two has proved that there is seldom much difficulty in finding an owner for a good boat of about 45 feet long, as boats of this class can be conveniently employed all the year through. The hull of a fishing boat, including an outfit oars, masts, &c., may said to cost about £2 10s per foot, though this price is seldom exactly adhered to in the present keen competition of the trade, or as it sometimes happens, from the peculiar conditions attached to the order. It is curious to observe the wide difference of opinion which a few years may bring about. Less than six or seven years ago, so much were the boats increasing in size that practical men were convinced that a new era was at hand, when the deep sea lugger would take the place of the ordinary fishing boat, and local readers will remember how strongly this idea was by the promoters of the Anstruther Union Harbour. Experience, however, has in the meantime settled the question, and boats on a somewhat smaller scale than the models of some half a dozen years ago are now preferred as being by far the most convenient and profitable. Still, many substantial improvements have been carried out on boats of a recent build. In every case they are now provided with cabins and nearly decked, and from the very general favour with which the “flush” deck system, so successfully introduced by the ingenious Cellardyke builder, Mr Alex. Cunningham, is being regarded by our fishermen, there is good reason to anticipate that it will ere long be the rule with the first-class boats of this coast.
5 boatbuilders in 1870 would be
Cellardyke – John A Millar, Alexander Cunningham,
Anstruther Christopher Pottinger
St Monans, John Miller and John Robertson Snr
1872
This has been an anxious week the coast of Fife, from Buckhaven to Cellardyke, as the hardy crews, who have braved the herring fishing at Yarmouth, were on the voyage home, which, in these times of storm and disaster, can only be compared to stealing a march on treacherous enemy. There were fewer than seventy boats at the southward, and many eyes have consequently been wistfully gazing the waters of the Forth to catch a glimpse of the coming sail of a father, a husband, or a brother. The crews at Lowestoft made a trip to the fishing-ground Monday night, and only prepared for the voyage on the following day but several of those at Yarmouth sailed northward on Monday afternoon, and arrived home on “Wednesday evening. The first sail that specked the distant horizon was about dusk, and proved to be the boat of Skipper John Montidore, of Cellardyke but others soon followed in her wake, as wind and weather were all that could be wished. The passage is the great danger to our Fife crews engaged in this venture, as the long voyage of four hundred miles is not only beset with the tempestuous weather of the season, but the coast of England may well be the dread of the mariner, for nowhere is there such dangerous lee shore, and the large number of screw steamers trading upon is another source of serious peril to sailing craft. The success of the boats has been much hindered by the unsettled weather, and many have done comparatively little but in general it may be said to range from £109 to £250, though the great majority are nearest the first quotation.
1873 (an interesting letter in the Scotsman from a Wick Fisherman praising the Cellardyke Men)
Wick, 20th November 1873. Sir. —I beg to return, thanks to “A Cellardyke fisher “for the valuable information contained in his letter of the 17th. All of us here know that Cellardyke fishers are crack fishermen but some of us here are old enough to remember when their voyages for haddocks were not the long ones they now are, and at that time Anstruther and Cellardyke were great in haddocks. In the olden time, too, their boats were not ” large-decked boats,” their lines not long, and the hooks on them not a tithe of that they now use, and then they took as many haddocks as now, for the population they supplied was great. Is that true? How long, pray, is it since 40 to 60 miles’ voyages for haddocks were resorted to? Did Cellardyke fishers jump at a leap from small open boats to large decked boats, ‘ and from paddling inshore into those untried waters? Is the far-off ground they now fish as prolific as it has been?—that is, does the old number of hooks yield the old number of haddocks? Is it necessity that has caused the old “waters to be deserted, and big boats, lines eight miles long, with 11, 600 hooks, called into use? and that baa driven them 40 to 60 miles off shore; to get haddocks ? .
We here do not paddle inshore as our fathers did, and in boats 18 to 20 feet of keel. We use large decked boats about 40 feet of keel, with eight men each, and can do no good unless we go 15 to 20 miles off shore. To that ground we have most of ng made 80 voyages, and we only average 10 tons a boat, for which we have been paid £ 9 a ton. Off that deduct bait, 10 tons, at 52s a ton, and all that is left us for 12 weeks is £7—seven pounds a man.
“We shall profit by the information we have got. Since twenty miles won’t do, -we must try -five and twenty, or thirty, use more hooks, and leam to haul lines on pretty rough ground, and in pretty rough weather. By giving these matters careful consideration— -by fishing for knowledge—we may in time so conduct our pursuit that the out and inside waters may be so fished that both may be made to yield enough and to spare. The fact that our little-fished rough ground gives more and larger haddocks than the safe and often-fished seems to point in this direction. —I am, &c.,
A fisher
1875 –
Anstruther, at the old harbour the east pier at the bight has been forced out and is in danger of falling down; while the harbour wall in Shore Street had two breaches made in it. Upwards 20 feet of the wall recently erected at the Cross was thrown over into the street, which on Monday morning was almost impassable on account of the stones and debris with which it was covered. The piers at the new harbour sustained no damage; but 100 feet of a line of rails on the east quay was washed away. At West Anstruther, where extensive damage was done during the last storm, several new breaches were made the wall, and the old ones considerably widened. The wall at east end of Cellardyke had also two breaches made it, and a number of fishing boats lying on the beach were in such jeopardy that it was considered necessary to send the bellman through the town on Sunday afternoon ask the male inhabitants to turn out and assist in placing them beyond the reach of the sea.
In a previous posting and other discussions we mentioned the terrible storm at this period in 1875 when the Cellardyke and St Monans Boats were lost and the memorial was erected in Kings Lynn. Thane, Quest and Beautiful Star of St Monans, and the Janet Anderson and Vigilant of Cellardyke.
This is how the news began to break
No previous storm has ever created such anxiety in Anstruther and Cellardyke as that which prevailed in the end of last week. For the past two months upwards of forty Cellardyke boats have been engaged at the herring fishing at Yarmouth and Lowestoft and on Wednesday last week a large number left these ports for home. When the storm broke out on Friday thirty-one were on the sea; but in the course of that night and Saturday fourteen out of that number arrived safely at Anstruther harbour. The crews reported the storm to have been one of the most severe they had ever experienced and when no intelligence was received of the other seventeen boats up to Saturday night , the gravest fears were entertained for the safety of the 108 men who formed the crew . During the whole of Sunday the piers were crowded by the relatives and friends of the missing fishermen anxiously watching for the appearance of the boats. In the course of that day other twelve arrived, and the crews of these stated that the storm had been most violent between Saturday night and Sunday morning. One of the crews had been obliged to shoot eighteen of their nets, which in a short time were torn to pieces, for the purpose of keeping the boat ‘ s head to the waves, another put out eight nets; while a third had one of their sails in the water. One boat had one of the sails split while rounding St Abb’s Head, and was driven into Dunbar Bay. Yesterday, a telegram was received stating that one of the boats after being four days at sea, had put back to-Lowestoft. One of the missing boats entered the harbour yesterday afternoon. During the gale on Saturday morning one of the crew, a married man named Robert Brown, was struck by the fore-yard and so severely injured that but little hope is entertained of his recovery. Last night three Cellardyke boats had not been heard of. Each of the boats has a crew of six men. Intelligence has been received of the drowning of two Cellardyke fishermen during the storm, the boats to which they belonged, having taken refuge in Yarmouth and Grimsby Harbours. Their names are John Watson, aged about 22, and unmarried; and — McRuvie, 17 years.