View of Harbour and Shore Street, Anstruther Easter, c1885.

Description View of Harbour and Shore Street, Anstruther Easter, c1885.

Date c. 1885

Collection Papers of Erskine Beveridge, antiquarian, Dunfermline, Fife, Scotland

Catalogue Number SC 747686

Category On-line Digital Images

Copy of F 1886

Scope and Content Fishing Boats, Anstruther Easter, Fife Anstruther, a fishing town on the east coast of Fife, was once the main herring port in Scotland, with an extensive harbour and a large fleet of vessels. The town prospered in the late 18th century, and developed further after the opening of the railway in 1863 and the building of a harbour at Cellardyke in 1867. This photograph of fishing boats in the harbour at Anstruther Easter was taken c.1885 by Erskine Beveridge. These sailing drifters are the of the 'Fifie' type, a local design of two-masted boat which had a characteristic vertical stem and stern. They fished mainly for herring using nets that 'drifted' behind the boat, and had two masts, a tall main mast and a mizzen mast which could be used when required to keep the boat on a parallel course when drifting. Each had a dark brown, four-sided cotton canvas sail or lug which was hoisted from the yard, a cylindrical spar slung across the mast. The boats were registered in Kirkcaldy, and each carried a registration number and the letters 'KY' (for Kirkcaldy) on the side. One of the most successful shipbuilders in Anstruther the late 19th century was William Jarvis, who launched his first boat in 1872. He built 'Fifies' and trawlers for owners in Aberdeen, Montrose, Bervie and St Andrews as well as in Cellardyke and Anstruther. In 1885 he built the 'David and Alexander', a 'Fifie' for an owner in Aberdeen which was the largest boat in the port. The cost, without sails and rope, was £290. He built his first steam drifter, the 'Maggie Lauder' in 1891 for the newly formed Anstruther Steam Fishing Company. The steam drifters were eventually to supersede the 'Fifies'' which lasted well into the 1920s. Source: RCAHMS contribution to SCRAN.

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