This edition published in 2018 by
Birlinn Origin, an imprint of
Birlinn Limited
West Newington House
10 Newington Road
Edinburgh EH9 1QS
www.birlinn.co.uk
First published in 2001
as Children of the Sea
by Tuckwell Press, East Linton
First published by Birlinn Ltd in 2006
Copyright Peter Aitchison, 2001, 2006, 2018
ISBN 978 1 912476 23 7
ebook ISBN 978 1 78885 100 8
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available on request from the British Library
The right of Peter Aitchison to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Design and Patent Act 1988
Typeset by Carnegie Book Production, Lancaster
Printed in the UK by Clays Ltd, St Ives plc
Acknowledgements
The inspiration for Black Friday came from stories told to me as I sat on my grannys knee as a boy of the great Fishing Disaster and of our ain folk who died, of characters she could remember and others her parents had told her about. Peggy Dale Waddell, and my papa, Peter Waddell fired my imagination.
Like Peter Waddell many of the people who have helped so much are now sadly gone. Christina Maltman (Teeny Matt) who had a marvellous grasp on the oral tradition of the fishing. Robbie Nisbet, a master of photography his pictures provide a true social history of the Berwickshire coast; Margaret Waddell wrote out the names of the streets as the people knew them and the tee-names the folk used rather than the ones given to them at birth. This proved an invaluable aide to other sources. Campbell Muir, the former burgh clerk and secretary to Eyemouth Harbour Trust unearthed a mass of documents, without which this book would have been much the poorer. Others like Lizbeth and John Windram ever welcomed me into their homes and spoke at length of the old days, sometimes good, often less-so.
John Home-Robertson MSP not only opened his family archives to me but also advised on parts of the script, and Jackie Miller gave both her time and expertise in helping locate appropriate photographs from Paxton House Trust. John Bellany has generously allowed the use of some of his fabulous images of Eyemouth to illustrate the cover, the transparencies of which were kindly supplied by Reg and Patricia Singh of Beaux Arts in London.
Support, advice, information and much more besides has come from Fay and Iain Waddell, Peter Fishbourne, James Evans, Elsie and Douglas Birch and David Clark, the former superintendent of the Fishermens Mission in Eyemouth. I have enjoyed lecturing to the Eyemouth Literary Society over the past twelve years or so, and would like to pay tribute to the energy and activity of Hector Sutherland and Cath Paxton. The same sense of drive and purpose is evident at the Eyemouth Museum from Simon Furness and Jean Bowie and from the community drama group, which is fortunate to have the enthusiasm of James Barrie, David Wilson, Christine Mutch, Wendy Lough and many others. I am very grateful to James Tarvitt for allowing me unfettered access to the papers of Lodge St Ebbe Number Seventy, and to David Johnston, the editor of the Berwickshire News for giving me free range over the archives contained in his offices. Jean and Alec Gilchrist permitted me to hear tape recordings from the last surviving witness to the fishing disaster. Their son Andrew was my best friend at school. His death at a tragically young age was a bitter blow. Thanks are also due to my colleagues on the Gunsgreen House Trust and in particular to Allan Swan for the provision of photographs and drawings of the secret tobacco or tea chute which has been uncovered inside the building. I am indebted to Ian Eaton and the Eyemouth Port Association who kindly provided a portfolio of photographs of the new berthing basin and the harbour. Trevor Royle gave me timely support and helped shape what had been an academic study into a more accessible manuscript.
Librarians and archivists in Eyemouth, the Queen Mother library in Aberdeen, the Mitchell Library in Glasgow, at Borders Council in Newton St Boswells and Duns, New College Library in Edinburgh, the National Library for Scotland and the National Archives for Scotland have answered my many queries and requests with speed and courtesy. Margaret Sweenie of Lochwinnoch community library managed to order up the most obscure sources in double-quick time. Such facilities should be recognised and protected for the wonderful service they provide not just to authors but to the nation.
There are many in the fishing industry in Berwickshire and elsewhere who have wished me well and made me realise the importance of finishing this book. Men like James Pe Dick Dickson and Billy Grant.
My old history master George Kinghorn gave me more than a bookish education. He urged me to always test accepted wisdom through intellectual debate and enquiry. I was fortunate enough to then go on to Aberdeen University where Donald J Withrington made me appreciate that local history was neither parochial nor unimportant. It is the building block from which all of our experiences stem. It saddens me to think if I was nearing the end of my school career today, I might be persuaded against entering higher education. All tuition should always be free; all students should always have access to some form of grant support.
I have benefited greatly by trying out ideas with people whose opinions I value. In this category I must place my good friends Phil Ramsden and Douglas Macleod. Phil in particular has given tremendous support over a long number of years. The late BBC political correspondent Kenny McIntyre never tired of giving me advice. I promised I would give him an acknowledgement. Thanks Kenny, the world of journalism in Scotland is so much the poorer for your passing.
Thanks are of course due to my family my parents, Jasmin and Craig, brother Martin and sisters Elaine and Janis. And also to Myna and Robert Fairley, Dr Cheryl Fairley, Hamish and Elspeth Macrae and Alison Macrae.
My principal debt though is to my wife Gillian and our children David, Jennifer and Jack Hamish Spears Aitchison. They have spent far too many long evenings and weekends in well-practised silence or in making do without a husband or father in the house at all. They have given me the time and the peace to complete this work, and quite simply it could not have been done without them. This book in that sense is as much theirs as it is mine.
A final word ought to go to the ghosts of the past who pulled and tugged at me to get on with the story, because it was a story that needed to be told.
Peter Aitchison
