Fisherfolk

Home today via St Abbs. Lunch at Ebba's and a walk around the harbour.  

There's always something to see at a fishing port, and today we were just in time to see the boats coming in. Only two work there now, but the catch was quickly off and away to the waiting vans.

On 14 October 1881, the fishermen of St Abbs and neighbouring Cove and Eyemouth were at sea when a sudden storm blew up. One hundred and eighty nine men were drowned when their boats were wrecked on the rocks at the harbour entrances. Their families watched from the clifftops, powerless to save them.

Each of the villages has one of these memorials by sculptor Jill Watson. The figures are quite small, the women around twelve inches tall, and each represents one of the bereaved. The extra shows the whole sculpture at St Abbs. Most of the men lost were from Eyemouth, a much bigger village.

More than four million pounds in today's money was raised by public appeal to help the families. Quarrier's Orphanage offered to take in the fatherless children but the women refused to let them go, saying they were needed to help rebuild the town.