Faith KY 443 then A55, Undauted A 49 and Monarch A35 – Cellardyke skippered steam trawlers
Read about the Doigs who skippered these vessels – The Faith was built for Dyker, Stephen Williamson, local M.P, who understood that steam trawling was a going to be one of the technological growth areas. Many Cellardyke men beleived that the trwalers destroyed the spawning grounds for herring and were also detrimental to their preferred method of catching white fish, small lines for haddock etc and great lines for cod/halibut/skate and ling.
Williamson also invested in many of the early steam liners in Anstruther manned by Cellardyke crew
Lloyds held documents regarding the Faith
Lloyds held info about the Monarch
UNDAUNTED GY820 later A49
Undaunted Built 18/09/1895 Cochrane & Cooper Beverley for the Grimsby Union Steam Fishing Co. Ltd Grimsby
04/1899 Sold to Thomas Davidson Aberdeen A 49
20/10/1908 had a collision in the North Sea
29/05/1917 Requisitioned for Fishery Reserve
1919 Released
1925 Sold to Joly & Paumier Dieppe France renamed Andre Marcel
1932 Sold to S A d’Armement Mallet Dieppe Renamed As de Trefl
- Official Number 105528
- Yard Number 129
- GT 137 NT 53
- Dimensions 93.1 x 20.2 x 10.7
- Quarter deck 17
- Engines Earles SB & Eng Co Ltd 44 rhp 3 Cyl 10.0 Knots
1952 Sold for Breaking Up
ALEX KEAY
Alex Keay from Cellardyke was a manager for Smith’s Dock Trust of North Shields, in Aberdeen. He and his family had moved there in 1900. Alexander seen here with his wife Mary Watson and family. Mary was sister to Thomas Watson skipper of the steam liner Bernicia SN 199 when it was lost in 1900 and Alex urged the authorities to search for the vessel when itwas first presumed missing. ( Back left is Mary Jane, grandmother of Peter Aikman who supplied the photo and info)
1901 – The fleet of ten steam herring drifters belonging to the Smith Docks Trust Company, North Shields, which have been working the herring fishing at Shetland and subsequently at Fraserburgh and Aberdeen, and other east coast stations, under the management of Mr Alex. Keay, have had fairly successful for their 12 weeks’ business. The gross earnings of the ten steamers is £7300 or fully £700 per boat, and only four nets have been lost the season. The steamers have been crewed mostly Yarmouth men, and as the shares seven to the crew and nine to the owners, the wages of the fishermen must have been very good. Mr Keay, who is a native of Cellardyke, has high opinion of the quality of the steamers under his charge, and the Scottish fishermen who examined them are mostly of the opinion that the trust steamers are particularly well adapted for herring fishing.
Alex later moved to Fleetwood where he managed and owned Steam Trawlers
Below –
Bahama FD 414 – Owner from 1932 – 1941 – built as Louise SA50 at Smiths Dock, North Shields in 1907 ( Yard No 353)
Summer Rose PD 594 – Managing Agent while fishing from Fleetwood 1936 – 1939
Sulby FD87 – Bought by Alex Keay in 1932 – sunk by gunfire 1939
STAR OF HOPE
The harrowing story of the loss of the Star of Hope – Aberdeen steam trawler – Where Dyker John Brown Henderson the engineer lost both his sons
John was grandson of Wick fisherman Donald Henderson who had married dyker Allison Boyter and their family became some of the most successful fishermen in Cellardyke, somewhat marred with tragedy –
Donald’s sons – Andrew Henderson Snr – highest grossing fisher in the early 1870s, Daniel Henderson succesful skipper but lost with his son in law Thomas Watson in the Bernicia tragedy of 1900. James Henderson emigrated to Australia and succesfully fished out there
Sons of Andrew – Andrew Henderson Jnr John’s elder brother was a top line fisherman in 1890s, lost with both his sons in WW1 when his vessel was blown up by mine