1887
Fatal Accident at Anstruther Harbour. — A sad accident happened at the harbour this morning, by which a boy named Thomas Watson, son of Alex. Watson (“Barony,”), Cellardyke, lost his life, It appears that while the boat in which his father sails —KY. 75 commanded by Geo. Watson—was being discharged at the Quay on Monday afternoon, the boy being seated on board, the boat listed, and the mast breaking fell on him. He was immediately conveyed to the doctor’s bouse, who, although applying every remedy, evidently thought that would not survive. Death ensued yesterday. The accident caused another boat—KY. 1929, James Salter, skipper—falling over on one side, driving before it the boat in which the boy was seated. The masts of both boats broke, but no one was hurt by the fail the latter.
Anstruther Harbour Commission
A CLAIM BY PITTENWEEM SKIPPERS.
The Clerks read a letter from Skippers William and Thomas Gay, Pittenweem, owners of the boat, David and Isabella, at present laid up in Anstruther harbour. They pointed out that the boat was moored according to the instructions and to the satisfaction of the harbour-master, and the dues had always been paid. While lying in that position a Cellardyke boat owned by Skipper Robert Montador, had broken their boat’s mast and mitch, entailing a loss of about £7. As skipper Montador denied liability on the ground that he was acting according to the instructions of the harbour-master in sailing up the harbour when the damage occurred, they brought the matter before the Commissioners, expecting an answer from them, previous to taking further steps. The Clerks stated that the skippers had balled on them, and explained the circumstances.
They had asked the harbour-master to come to the meeting to give the necessary explanations. Captain Lyall said that when Montador’s boat came into the harbour there was a strong breeze of wind blowing. The head of the boat was turned up, and they tried to stop her but could not. It was intended to beach her, but the mast of this Pittenweem boat was lying ten or twelve feet over the stern, where it had no right to be. Montador never touched the Pittenweem boat, but struck the mast hanging over the stern. If the boat had been moored the same way as the others there would have been no damage done. It was purely their own fault in having the mast stuck out so far from the stern of the boat. They would not be allowed in any harbour to leave out their mast in such a way except at their own risk. Mr Brown homologated what the harbour-master had just stated. The rule was that if a skipper did not rigg his mast properly he had no claim. He had often seen this in the north country. The Buckie fishermen had a practice of leaving out the masts, and when a boat ran foul of them they had no claim. Unless the mast was clear of the passage the Pittenweem skippers had no right to claim damage. Captain Lyall—It is all nonsense to say the boat was moored according to the instructions of the harbour-master, because none of the fishermen ever asked me how and where to moor their boats. They know that well themselves, and these skippers ought to have followed the example of the other boats and been moored like them. But he did not do so, and he ought to have looked after his own property better. But they evidently want a new mast. Bailie Darsie asked if it was not the duty of the harbour-master to point out to skippers the dangerous position in which their boats were lying. Captain Lyall—Decidedly not. They ought to have looked after their own property by rigging their mast properly. It was their own fault in leaving the mast lying out so far astern that caused the damage. If the boat had been turned the other way, as it ought to have been, there would have been no damage, even supposing the mast had been out as far, because it would have been hanging over the bow of another boat. Montador had no control over the boat at the time, and if the mast had not been hanging out there would have no damage whatever. This should be a practical lesson to others to look after their property, and rigg their boats properly. The Provost–As I understand it, a harbour-master is not to blame if a ship’s jibboom hangs out and gets damaged. But you say if he had turned his boat the mast would have projected over the other end. Captain Lyall —Yes, and it would have been perfectly safe, because there is nothing to touch it at the other end. All the other boats are turned the other way, and he ought to have copied their example. Among all the boats lying tip none of the skippers ever asked me which end they would put out. They know that perfectly themselves, and that it is their own business to look after their property. The Provost—lt appears to me then that these skippers are to blame themselves. The boat was lying in such a position as other boats were to be passing it, and the mast certainly ought to have been rigged properly. We cannot give in to his claim. We are very sorry that the mast has been broken, but we are clearly not liable. The Clerks were instructed to write to the Messrs Gay denying liability.
CANNIBILISM IN A FISHING BOAT. A man named David Walker, 25 years of age a fisherman on board the jades, of Cellardyke, presently lying in Dunbar Harbour, was apprehended on Friday morning on a charge of having seriously injured two men by biting. It appeared he had been on shore and got drunk and on coming on board a quarrel ensued, when he seized one man who was in his bunk, and bit a piece clean out of his cheek, and spat it out on the deck. He then seized the forefinger of another man, who came to the rescue and stripped all the flesh off the fore part of it.
THE FOUNDER of The WAID ACADEMY. The feeling that every member of the Waid Academy must wish to know the history of the founder to whom the Academy owes its existence prompts this paper. Unfortunately, however, the accounts of his life are but meagre, and these somewhat uncertain. The following facts, which have been obtained from those competent to give information, may be taken as all that can be known, and will I trust be not uninteresting. Andrew Waid was the son of an Anstruther sailor. He was born In the East Green, in the house (since rebuilt) now occupied by Mr Mair. The exact year of his birth is unknown, but it is inferred from his apparent age and the date of his death that he first saw light somewhere between 1725 and 1730, and must have been a young lad in the stirring days of the ’45. His father, being poor, fell into debt, and his house and property were seized, it is said, by the city authorities. Our hero was subsequently compelled to seek his bread upon the waters, and launched forth into life at an early age. He entered the merchant service, and nothing was heard of him for many years; but it seems probable that he had amassed some money, married, and settled in America. He then wrote home to have his father’s house redeemed. This was done, and the title-deeds and other papers are still, we believe, in the hands of Mr Mackintosh of the National Bank here. When the American War of Independence broke out, Waid took the side of the mother country, and appears to have suffered loss in her cause, for it was apparently deemed necessary to give him some compensation. In consequence of his former experience of seamanship, this took the form of a Lieutenant’s commission in the Royal Navy, but it is uncertain whether he was ever engaged in active service or not. Of course, when the Americans proved victorious, he had to quit the country. He did this and returned home, and from all accounts must have lived a good deal in Anstruther. He died in London in 1803, at the age of about 75. This date is attested by a mourning ring still in the possession of Mrs Brown, his great-grand-niece, to whom we are indebted for much valuable information about Lieutenant Waid. He was married three times, and by his first wife he had one son, who was drowned in Anstruther harbour. His second wife worked the frills which he wore round his wrists when the portrait, which now adorns the Academy, was taken. His third wife was very young at the time of her marriage, and long survived him. She was well known to Mrs Brown, who received from her the portrait of the Lieutenant which she presented to the Academy. It may be interesting to mention here that Mrs Brown, who was present at the opening of the Academy, can remember Waid’s sister. Lieutenant Waid (or rather Captain Waid, for it is believed he was afterwards made Captain) is said to have brought the first umbrella to Anstruther; it was carried by a black servant, and the people were greatly amazed. It is also said that the Lieutenant was the terror of the Cellardyke mothers, as the appearance of a naval officer was a dreadful thing in threw press-gang days. His kind heart was deeply touched by a book be had read about the orphans of seamen, and his feelings had a very practical result, as he left his money, some £5000, to endow an institution for orphans of seamen and others. Like a true Scot, however, he did not forget his kith and kin, but left legacies to them, some of which are being paid to this day. Meanwhile the scheme, which was worked out by him to minute details, got out of date, and the Endowed Schools Commissioners had to arrange a new one, the result of which has been the Waid Academy. Waid’s chief characteristics were perseverance and carefulness shown by his accumulation of fortune from a poor beginning; kindheartednesses was evidenced by his real interest in struggling youths, an interest quickened doubtless by a remembrance of his own early difficulties; and gratitude shown by legacies left to the Douglases, daughters of a naval officer who had befriended him, which they enjoyed for three quarters of a century. It is said too that he possessed in a remarkable degree quickness of decision and promptness in action. In conclusion, while we regret that so little is known of our founder, we are glad to know that the man whose generosity we have to thank for our Academy, was one possessed of many good and noble qualities, which give an example worthy of imitation by all Waidensians.—A. G. E. in Waid Magazine for February 1887.
1888
BOAT FOR SALE . —CARVEL-BUILT BOAT, JOHN BUNYAN, KY 1197, length 45 feet, which belonged to the late Duncan McRuvie Apply to STEPHEn BARCLAY, 17 John St., Cellardyke.
NEW LIFEBOAT—After being so eagerly watched for so many days the new lifeboat arrived on Monday evening at the station to replace the “Admiral Fitzroy,” welcomed home with such ringing enthusiasm on Saturday the 18th November 1865. On the occasion present, however, it was thought inexpedient at least in the meantime to have any demonstration, and the boat was consequently so drawn on her splendid carriage to the boathouse at the Brae in the course of the following forenoon. But unluckily this operation was attended with a lamentable accident to one of the volunteers on the rope, a young Cellardyke joiner. James Gardiner, who missed his foot at the corner of the Post Office and fell in front of the ponderous wheel, which, before a hand could be raised passed over one of his legs. He was conveyed home in a cart, and a surgeon being sent for, it was found that the limb with other injuries was broken above the ankle. The new lifeboat, built coder the eye of the Superintendent in London, is one of the most perfect specimens of her class. It is 31 feet by eight, that is 2 feet by 6 inches longer than the “Admiral Fitzroy.” The crew is to be the same, vis., ten rowers, a bowman, and a coxswain, but she is ballasted at will with water so to avert such another appalling catastrophe as that which occurred the other year on the English coast. The old carriage has been, sent to London for further service, but the brave old boat is lying like a cast off lot of furniture on the embankment at the shore. She is not ill adapted for a steam launch, and she is to be dismantled for further lifeboat service. The new boat in accordance with the rule is supplied by the Institution, the original donor being the benevolent Cheltenham lady, Miss Hannah Harvey, who, in recognition of this and that gallant deed with the boat by the fishermen of Cellardyke, was at the expense of the safety rail and the turret light, so lovingly inscribed to Dr Chalmers on the centenary of his birth in the March of eight years ago.
At the Burgh Court held in Anstruther on Friday before Provost Darsie and Bailie Lumsden—David Scott, of Cellardyke, pled guilty to a breach of the peace, and as several convictions were recorded against him, he was fined £1, or 14 days in prison. The fine was paid. Peter Boyter, fisherman, Cellardyke, also pled guilty to charge of breach the peace, and, as lie had been on a former occasion convicted, he was fined 15s, or 14 days in prison. The fine was paid
MORE MISFORTUNES.—The old proverb–” misfortune never comes single.”— has been verified in the case of the St Monance fishing boat “Thomasina”—John Hutt, master. She was dismasted in the gale of Friday week, and so was at the mercy of tide and wind, at the Carr, till so gallantly rescued by the young skipper of the “Gleanor “.of Pittenweem. The ” Thomasina ” was towed into Anstruther, but getting re-fitted with a new mast, &c., skipper Hutt put to sea—only, however, to experience a second misfortune, for about 2 p.m. on Saturday the stout spar snapped like adry twig in the blast. It was a critical hour, for the Isle of May was little more than half a mile on the lea; but the mishap was no sooner descried by Skipper Michael Doig, of the “Onward” of Cellardyke than he at once bore down to the rescue. It was no easy task to tow the boat in the teeth of the wind and the tide; but by patience and perseverance the “Onward” with the disabled boat in tow crossed the bar at Anstruther with the dusk of the evening.
THE SEA HARVEST —A fine shoal of herrings has been fished with more or less success this month in the waters off the May. The catch at Anstruther for the season is now 10,000 crans. This is about a fourth below the average of the last ten years, but the backward swing in the fortunes of the sea is never so conspicuous as with regard to price. To-day it is doubtful if it will average 13s, while five years ago it was no less than 43s 6d a cran the fall being in consequence of nothing so much as the abnormal mildness of the winter, which has filled the great markets with the early produce of Kent and Holland to the prejudice of Scottish imports either by land or sea. It is worth noting, however, that the demand for cod was so keen during the storm that they rose to the unprecedented figure on Anstruther pier of 4s to 5s each. The cod and ling fishing was in consequence so remunerative that several East of Fife crews ” pairted,” in fisher phrase, £3 to £5 to a hand. This herring fishing, on the contrary, is perhaps the most fruitless in the annals of the coast, owing partly, by the way, to the new method of floating the gear. The object is to make the net stand like a wall ; but, however expedient such au idea may be in the open sea, it is attended with so much risk, or rather ruin, amongst the close currents of the firth, that not a few crews are so crippled that they have had to quit the fishing in the high days, as it were, of the harvest.
CELLARDYKE. THE COAST APPEAL. The Appeal, at the instance of the medical officer of Cellardyke, Dr Macellum, to provide for the necessitous poor, has been so well responded to, that the committee are now supplying sixty rations of soup and bread twice a week, while as many rations of soup are sold at a penny to the public. It also invites attention that, in the course of last week, some thirty children were supplied with new boots, and as many with articles of clothing, by means of the subscription set on foot by Treasurer Thomson. The immediate object of these gifts, we may explain, is to enable children to attend school.
THE FISHERS OF FIFE AND THE TIMES In consequence of the crisis in the fishing trade. the young fishers are turning their thoughts, like their fathers of old, to the merchant service. A party of four left Cellardyke by the first train on Monday, encouraged by the success of their comrades in getting afloat in some ocean clipper in the Mersey or the Thames. It is an interesting fact that in 1821, or sixty seven years ago, when the herring fleet of Cellardyke was counted, not at 200, as it is today, but 35, the little port could boast of no fewer than thirteen sea captains in ocean-going ships. Again, some six-and-thirty years ago, when the discovery of the Australian gold fields so thrilled the old land, between thirty and forty sons of St Peter sailed from the East of Fife in a single twelve month—in most cases, after a brief experience of the diggings, to return to work as sailors on the shores of the new world. It is not, however, to be forgotten that the young men of these days had the opportunity of learning the theory of navigation from two such successful teachers as Dominie Moncrieff and Mr James Nicol.
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