The Cellardyke Echo – 29/6/2023 – Issue 395

1905

The wife of a fisherman residing in Rodger Street, Cellardyke, gave birth to triplets, all sons, on Tuesday, but the children only survived an hour.

PARISH CHURCH—RECENT GUILD COMPETITION. —Five girls belonging to Rev. Mr Ray’s Junior Bible Class competed in the recent Guild examination in connection with the Church of Scotland. The results have just come to hand, from which it appeared that the girls have done better than was stated in the “Record” a few weeks ago. Not only have all the girls won certificates, but one of them has so distinguished herself as to receive a certificate of merit. The names of the girls are: — Certificate of Merit – Maggie Muir, 67 ½  per cent. Pass Certificates—Jemima Corstorphine 61 per cent; Maggie Gardner 58 ½ per cent; Betsy McLeod 52 per cent; and Lizzy Bett 42 per cent.

THE MOTOR FISHING BOAT. LEAVES CELLARDYKE FOR LONDON

The Pioneer, the Cellardyke fishing boat which has been fitted with the , with the “Don” motor made her trial trip on Thursday, and with a choppy sea and light wind made  good progress steaming at about five knots an hour. In the course of her trial, the boat went close to some fishing smacks, and the crews of were much amazed see a fishing boat making good headway with no sails set, and, as far as they could see, none of the usual gear or machinery associated with a trawler or drifter. Surprise got the better one of the skippers who left the wheel and called his crew on deck to witness the strange sight of a craft of the kind moving through the water without visible means of propulsion.

The boat left on Saturday morning for London, where she will be inspected by the secretary for Scotland and members of Parliament who are interesting themselves in the experiment. Her departure for the South was witnessed by a large number local fishermen, and comments were made on the appearance of the boat and the speed obtained.

Crail – On Monday forenoon before Bailies Scott and Morris, two Cellardyke men were charged with having fully a month ago, entered the garden of Mr Sime, Temple Crescent, and maliciously destroyed a number of plants by pulling them up. One of the accused admitted guilt, while the other denied the charge. The evidence given proved conclusive, and both offenders were fined 10s or 7 days imprisonment.

1906

SERIOUS ACCIDENT. -An accident attended with very serious consequences took place last Thursday afternoon in one of the backyards off James Street. Mrs John Fleming was engaged in banging out some fishing nets belonging to her husband on the gallows, which are so prominent a feature of Cellardyke gardens, when the rung of the ladder on which she was standing broke, and she was precipitated to the ground. Her cry as she fell brought a neighbour to the scene, and Mrs Fleming was found lying huddled up between the wall and the gallows, quite unconscious. She was taken indoors and medical assistance speedily procured, when her injuries were found to consist of a severely fractured skull and dislocation of the shoulder bone. Although a week since the unfortunate accident. Mrs Fleming’s condition is still highly precarious.

1907

PRICE OF HERRING NETS RAISED. —The net manufactures have just intimated to the merchants that the price of herring nets has risen by one-third. The action is understood to be owing to the enhanced price of cotton, and the increasingly heavy demands of the cotton spinners. This increase seriously affects the Scottish and English herring fishermen. It adds 10s to the price of each net, or £30 per boats’s float, and will mean an additional yearly tax of thousands of pounds, and proportionately affects English fishermen. The steam drifters will be severely hit.

Gratifying success was met with at the various herring fishing’s in which the Anstruther district fleet was employed, and the mean gross earnings realised were the highest recorded for the district. This success did not, however, extend to the prosecution of the line fishing, the results of which were unsatisfactory, although slightly less so than in the preceding year. The average gross earnings at the great summer herring fishing amounted to £1045, or nearly three times as much as those of the district sailing boats — about £380; while there was an even greater disparity between the mean total earnings of the two classes of craft at the herring fishing off the English coast, those of the steam-driven vessels reaching £710, and those of the sailers amounting to only £200. During the year four vessels were added to the fleet. and at its close orders had been given for the construction of about twenty, by crews belonging to Cellardyke, Pittenweem, and St Monance.

PORTGORDON – Mr Wm. Geddes launched another fine steam drifter from his yard on Saturday morning in presence of an interested gathering. The vessel was built for Mr Henry Bett, Cellardyke, and the christening ceremony was gracefully performed by the owner’s daughter, who was presented by the builder with a gold watch. The new vessel is named the Alices, and her dimensions are–85 ft. keel, 18 ft. 6 ins. beam, by 9 ft. depth. The Alices was taken to Portgordon harbour prior to being towed to Dundee where she will have compound engines and machinery installed by Messrs Cooper & Greig

SPOTTED FEVER IN FIFE the only two cases of spotted fever in East Fife which have under treatment in the District Infectious Diseases Hospital at Ovenstone since the first of May last, one of them, a boy named Gourlay (5 ½ ). from Cellardyke, succumbed to the attack on Saturday evening. The other, a boy named Patrick, from Anstruther, still under treatment. (could be typhus or meningitis)

1908

Three small boys from Cellardyke were brought before Sheriff Armour at Cupar on Tuesday, charged with maliciously throwing stones at and breaking a quantity of glass at the vinery at Croma House. They all pleaded guilty. The Fiscal said this was one of the worst pieces of mischief that had come under his notice. The affair was very deliberate and destructive. The Sheriff said he had great difficulty in refraining from sending the oldest boy to be birched, but as his father had already punished him, he would let him off this time. The other boys were too young for that punishment.