On Monday 27th September 1875 more than 80 ‘Fifies’ left the East Neuk of Fife for the Autumn Drave*, fishing for herring off East Anglia, 300 miles away. Each carried a crew of 6 or 7 men, often members of the same family.
By mid-November they were ready to go home – writing letters, checking supplies and buying gifts for their families. 25 boats departed safely on Monday 15th, but soon the weather worsened.
A lull in the storms on Friday 19th encouraged the remaining boats to set sail, but that proved a fateful decision. Fierce gales blew up, forcing some to return to where they had started, while others sought refuge in the nearest port.
Over the next week, most of the vessels were able to complete their journey or at least to send a message home. Five, however, remained unaccounted for. These were: the Beautiful Star, the Thane and the Quest, from St Monance; the Janet Anderson and the Vigilant from Cellardyke.
James Paterson, skipper of the Beautiful Star, with his wife, Julian Allan, and three of their ten children. Paterson was one of 37 fishermen to perish in the storm.
On Thursday 25th November, the Quest was washed ashore, bottom up, at Blakeney on the Norfolk coast, her crew all missing.
The following day, the wreck of the Beautiful Star was spotted by the Sea Nymph from King’s Lynn, and towed in to harbour. The cabin was baled out and five men’s bodies discovered inside. The men were buried, with full honours, in Hardwick Road Cemetery on Wednesday 1st December, all expenses met by the Good Templars, a Temperance organisation.
No sooner was the funeral past than the wreck of the Thane was found with three more bodies on board. These men were buried on Sunday 5th December, with an even larger crowd of mourners.
Remains of the two Cellardyke boats were found some time later, but with no trace of the crew. Two Cellardyke men had been lost from other vessels, making a total of 37 losses from two small fishing communities in a single season. No-one was unaffected by this tragedy, which left 19 women widowed and 76 children – four of them not yet born – without a father.
*Drave is the Scots term for a commercial fishing excursion, especially for herring.
The Beautiful Star Memorial Hardwick Road Cemetery King’s Lynn
Immediately after the funerals in Hardwick Road Cemetery, a fund was established in King’s Lynn to create a suitable memorial for the eight Scottish fishermen buried there. Such was the generosity of local people that more than enough money was raised to build a substantial stone model of the Beautiful Star with its broken mast lying across the deck. Designed by Mr A W Bone, it was unveiled on 8th April 1876, less than five months after the tragedy.
Life, how short! Eternity, how long?
When the shore is won at last, Who will count the billows past?
While we linger on the shore of life, A wave wafts us to eternity.
-Beautiful Star Memorial Hardwick Road Cemetery King’s Lynn
The St Monans Heritage Collection 