The Courier & Advertiser (Angus and Dundee)
Sea ceremony marks wartime loss
Monday marks the centenary of Cellardyke’s greatest single tragedy of the First World War.
One hundred years on, a poignant ceremony will be held at sea to honour the memory of skip per Andrew Henderson and his crew, who were blown up by a mine 11 miles south-east of St Abbs head.
One of the East Neuk’s most successful fishermen, he was searching for herring in his hired boat, the Janes.
Lost along with him were his sons Alexander, 29, and Andrew, 27, Thomas Boyter, 55, and James Wilson (Wallace), 51, all of Cellardyke.
The fleet was being guarded by a Royal Naval vessel and the commander had just been hailed by the skipper to inform him of the mine in the drift nets when it went off.
To commemorate the tragedy the White Wing, the Scottish Fisheries Museum’s Fifie Yawl, will lay a wreath at sea.
The boat, similar to the Janes and also celebrating its centenary this year, will come to a halt just off Cellardyke, looking back on to the village and church where most of the crew belonged.
Aboard will be musician and historian Richard Wemyss, who lives in the house that Andrew Henderson lived in 100 years ago.
The wreath will commemorate the tragedy on behalf of the Henderson family and the Scottish Fisheries Museum.
Richard will also play the lament to lost fishermen which he composed.
This piece of music comes from the Bernicia Suite written to commemorate the loss, with all hands, of the steam line fishing vessel Bernicia SN 199, in February 1900.
On that crew were Daniel Henderson, Andrew’s uncle and first owner of Richard’s house, as well as nine other crew members – most of them related to Andrew and from Cellardyke.
While there are many land-based memorials to remember fishermen who lost their lives in action either in the Royal Navy or other services, Richard believes this sea memorial is a most appropriate type of commemoration.
Next year he is planning to invite a small flotilla of historic vessels to attend another ceremony, this time at the site of the explosion off St Abbs head.