THE FAIR ISLE DISASTER.

Banffshire Advertiser - Thursday 16 September 1897

A correspondent sends to the Dundee Advertiser the following particulars regarding the state of matters in Fair Isle and gives full details of the disaster. The correspondent says :

“There were four boats’ in all, and two returned in safety, and one was picked up with four of its crew dead. The other has entirely disappeared, and its safety is beyond the pale of hope. This boat contained James Irvine, who leaves a widow, three children, and an aged mother. The children’s ages range from six years to a few months, and one is, unfortunately, imbecile. William Eunson leaves a widow and 10 children, the youngest one a few months old. George Stout leaves a widow and six children, the eldest being almost nine years and the youngest a few months; he also leaves an aged mother. John Wilson (20) is unmarried, and the support of a family. The other boat contained seven men, of whom four succumbed to the violence of the elements, and three survived. Those lost are Andrew Wilson, who leaves a widow and five children, the youngest aged about five years; John Slie ( l2), unmarried, and bread-winner to a family; James Wilson (2l), unmarried, who helped to support his father’s family; Alexander Eunson (13), a schoolboy. It was the first time that Leslie had been out bartering, and he and James Wilson had only taken to fishing during the present season. In a community so small, a death list like this represents what was the flower of its labouring strength. “The survivors of the second boat are George Stout., Thomas Wilson, and Jerome Eunson, and none of them have yet recovered their full strength either of mind or body had an interview with Stout. He looked and nerveless, end one could easily see he had come through a terrible experience. His story was profoundly impressive. He and his companions had boarded a French ship bound for Dunkirk about 9 to 10 miles to the south-west of the Fair Isle.

When they left her the weather was bad-looking, and the unpleasant signs began to increase. Their boat was one of the ordinary island boats, 17 feet keel, 6 feet beam, and 22 inches deep. They sailed almost an hour and a half with a two-reefed sail; then, as the wind began to blow harder, they took in another reef. They pulled hard on their oars till they had reached within half a mile of the lighthouse, where they were obstructed by a ‘ string,’ the line formed by the waves where opposing wind and tide meet. At this juncture they were carried back by the tide, and, pull as they might, they were at every stroke carried away farther and farther from their goal. The falling night was dark, and the gale furious. The men had been for the whole day without food, save for a few bites of ship biscuit. Here they became saturated with salt, water, and their sparsely clad bodies were soaked with merciless rain and the driving sea. They became exhausted, benumbed, and then one was compelled to give up the struggle. Andrew Wilson threw up his heels and sank to the bottom of the boat. The rest pulled grimly on, till Alexander Ennson and James Wilson in turn succumbed. Still, their comrades strove at the oars, catching cheer from the hope that when their companions in the boat’s bottom had rested they would relieve them a bit in the struggle. Bat they seemed long in wakening.

They paid no heed to cries, nor to shaking, nor to the offer of a little gin to put life and warmth into their bodies. So the tempestuous night passed and morning dawned and brought with it the horrifying revelation that their resting companions were resting in the long sleep of death. The situation was pitiful. The survivors had spent the utmost of their strength, their spirits were depressed with the fatal knowledge the dawn had brought, the sea still ran high, and they were still 10 miles from home, when a rescuing boat was spied speeding towards them. The sight proved too much for poor John Leslie, who, while he saw the approach of succour, also sank down and died. “Let me tell one short story of a boy’s heroism that recalls the fate of Casablanca. Little Alick Eunson was placed in the stern to hold the tiller. Things were then at a bad pass, but the boy smilingly stuck to it through the vicissitudes of storm. The cold chilled his little body and benumbed his fingers so much that he could not, replace his cap when it had fallen from his head. Still, smiling encouragement to the others, he renewed his grasp of the tiller till his head dropped, and he gave up his young life without a cry or a murmur while still clinging to his poet of duty. “ It was to relieve in some measure the distress caused by this sad calamity that I came here. On my arrival at Kirkwall, about midnight, 1 had by wire from Mr Nl’Lean the cheering intelligence that the sea was calm around the Isle, and that he would be meeting me about six in the morning. The St Tinian had drawn up under the lee of the south shore, Captain Nicholson, himself a splendid specimen of a Shetland sailor, getting up to those on the bridge and seeing to my safe debarkation. Boats came dancing over the sunlight sea, and, with my goods and chattels, I was quickly on board. “ Soon after, in the company of Mr McLean. I visited one or two of the bereaved households. The houses, I may here add parenthetically, are very substantial stone and lime buildings with slated roofs. But, oh, the misery exposed within I have seen many exhibitions of grief, I have read of the wailing of the mothers of Israel, but in the existence of such grief as I saw I could not have believed. Women moaning in the agony of despair, their bodies bent, their faces haggard, their eyes red and swollen with a flood of tears flowing from a stream that seemed inexhaustible. They rocked themselves in their chairs, they seemed insensible to every external things but even in accents anguish came from their pale lips the name of the deal. The children huddled around, looked and listened with grief-stricken faces, frightened at the signs of misery besetting them on every side.

They gazed beseechingly into the stranger’s eye, as if seeking from him some consolation which was beyond his power to bestow. It is this intense grief which makes the tragedy so terrible. It has paralysed the people, rendering them almost physically helpless. Time may if some of them do not succumb to their present suffering, but meantime national help is urgently needed.’

The following is testimony from the Tribunal of Tom Wilson

“We have to sell the fish to Mr John Bruce. Jnr. and to him only, Six families left Fair Isle and came to Kirkwall. We all left because the meal was so dear and wages so low.”

News of the disaster was reported in the Edinburgh Evening News

“For some time past the population of the island has been somewhat straitened. Circumstances, owing to the failure of the fishing, and the greater number of the inhabitants were contemplating leaving the island and seeking a livelihood elsewhere.”

Extract from Edinburgh Evening News Saturday 04 September 1897

The disater made national and international news. On the back of the media attention Queen Victoria donated £20 (around £1900 in 2022) to aid with cost of emigration.

1899

“In early summer 1899, it was decided to prepare another mini-emigration to Orkney, Aberdeen and Edinburgh. Forty-four people left Fair Isle including, Eunsons, Wilsons, Stouts and Williamsons and, by the autumn, several were working in the fish trade in Kirkwall and Aberdeen. Of those who found their way to Edinburgh, some found employment with Robert McVitie of the well-known biscuit manufacturers.”

Emigration from Fair Isle by Jerry Eunson edited by George Stout

It is likely that William and family are among the 44 mentioned. The dates co-inside with the information on the Birth, Death, Marriage and Census.

William and Alice’s children are:

1890 - Stewart Stout

1891 - Mary Ann Stout

1893 - Jessie Ann Stout

1895 - Alexander Stout (known as Sandy) a favourite uncle of Rita Deans

1902 - Robert William Stout

1903 - William Stout

1905 - Georgina Stout (Known as Ina)

Stewart Stout

Stewart Stout is the first relative that is within living memory along with his wife Margaret Brunton Williamson. He was born in 1890 on the Busta Croft, Fair Isle.

Stewart appears on the 1891 census age of 3 months. Living in one of the houses on the Busta croft. The head of the household is his maternal grandfather Stewart Eunson. His father William is listed as (Son in Law) and mother Alice (listed as daughter).

Stewart’s paternal grandfather and grandmother are living in the other house on Busta.

Based on the timeline available (see information on William Stout B.1866) he is around 10 when his family leave the Fair Isle.

The 1901 census shows the Stout family living at 9 Gordon Street, Leith.

He gets married on 31/12/1915 in Leith, Edinburgh. 9 months and 2 weeks after they are married Stewart and Margaret’s first child William Stout is born. The birth certificate for William states that Stewart is a ‘Biscuit Cutting Machineman’ but is serving as a Private in the 2/4th Royal Scots - Service Number: 303123 in 1917.

Stewart and Margarets’ children were

1917 - William Stout

1922 - Harry Williamson Stout

1924 - Stewart William Stout

1926 - Elizabeth Reid Williamson Stout

1930 - Margaret Henrietta Williamson Stout

1932 - Thomas Morton Stout. - Stewart Stout was not his biological father.

Stewart is described as a gentle and kind man by his grandchildren. Stewart appears on the census and electoral role living in Gordon Street and Waddell Place.

Stewart dies on 30 March 1964 in Leith Edinburgh.