A Fife fishing community is raising £30,000 to build a memorial garden commemorating the worst fishing disaster to ever hit the Kingdom.
Some 37 men from the close-knit fishing villages of the East Neuk all died when a storm hit off the Norfolk coast in the 19th century.
Around 80 Fife boats had spent months following the East Anglian herring season. But three from St Monans and two from Cellardyke never returned.
Mary Henderson from St Monans Heritage Centre told STV News: “You can just imagine how awful it was for the wives, children and parents, waiting at the harbour, looking out to see if these boats were anywhere, waiting for a telegram to arrive and…nothing.
“They were all related to each other – there were brothers, uncles, son-in-laws. The entire community was affected in one way or another.”
The only permanent memorial marking the disaster is hundreds of miles south in Norfolk, where eight of the men are buried.
Fife Architects via SuppliedFour of James Paterson’s ancestors died in the tragedy. He told STV News: “My great-great grandad was the skipper of the Beautiful Star.
“It’s really emotional. It would be fantastic, and we’re really hoping that everything goes ahead. We want to help as much as we can.”
Hugh Wallace, a member of the St Monans Memorial Garden Committee, said: “These were families that were known, people would have been in each other’s homes, and this would have changed everything for them.
“We want to have this place so that people who are coming as visitors, as well as people in the community, can remember and always be grateful for those who gave their lives…just as there is in King’s Lynn where the accident took place.”
STV News‘We have not forgotten’
As devastating as the disaster was for Fife, it also had a profound impact on the fishing communities of Norfolk.
A memorial, in the shape of the “Beautiful Star” boat, was erected in the town of King’s Lynn, where eight of the fishermen are buried.
STV NewsThe memorial was paid for by public subscription and records detail how people lined the streets for the funerals of men they treated as their own.
“The whole town turned out, the grief was deeply felt,” said local historian Dr Paul Richards
Representatives from King’s Lynn are to be invited to Scotland for an opening ceremony if the memorial garden can be built in time for the 150th anniversary in November.
STV NewsDr Richards said: “That community response I know was much appreciated in Fife but the people of King’s Lynn are very proud that they were able to help and to show respect and to honour their fisherfolk.
“We have not forgotten and we hope to be together in November.”
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