Widows and Bairns Sculpture Eyemouth

October can bring with it a swift change from balmy Indian summer days to more abrupt, shorter days of dark, with fierce winds and heavy rain. It's known in old Borders folklore as a weather gaw...unseasonably fine weather, which portends terrible weather ahead.

Eyemouth's Widows and Bairns sculpture is a solemn reminder of the ills of reading the weather with your heart and not your head.

The 14th October 1881 began with the pier head barometer unusually low, but the sky was clear and cloudless. The previous week had been a washout for the fishermen who'd been soaked and stranded on land, so keen to pay bills and feed families; the younger fishermen were eager to set sail, against the better judgment of the older fishermen.

The youngans swiftly set sail by 7:30 am, but out at sea, a storm was brewing from the south. It was hing for rain and propa caad, hoying it doon. The fishermen had sailed for three hours and were just starting their catch when an onlooker from St Abbs noted -

The men had been caught in the eye of the storm.

Lines were abandoned, and boats turned around, but it was too late and too far to reach shore. The storm was enveloping the small boats and men, and as families gathered at Eyemouth, Burnmouth, St Abbs and Cove, the tensions grew.

Caught in the storm, many of the men perished in what became known as the Eyemouth Fishing Disaster. The storm was so violent across the UK that it uprooted trees on land, blocked roads, and thwarted all means of communication, as boats broke and splintered against the tumultuous tide, the perilous waves and the rocky coastline.

351 bairns from the Borders were left without their dads, and 109 women were left to bring up their bairns without a father. 129 men from Eyemouth alone were lost to the sea. Known locally as Black Friday, the 1881 fishing disaster took the lives of 189 fishermen in total who lived amongst these small communities. The hole that these men's lives left was immense.

Four sculptures were designed and made by artist Jill Watson, one in each of the villages affected by the 1881 Black Friday catastrophe.

In Eyemouth a five meter long bronze wall stands on the Bantry overlooking the bay where the tragedy unfolded. It replicates all 78 women who lost their husbands and 182 children who lost their fathers. Some look on in horror while others turn away in disbelief. Some clamour with hope.

It's worth walking up and down both sides of the sculpture to grasp the sheer force of emotion among these fretful onlookers. Each figure is based on an actual person with a name and an age, whilst the boat's names are written on the side of the sculpture, sliced into the bronze so as to never forget.

The thin and narrow wall is emblematic of the harbour wall from where the women helplessly watched the tragedy unfold, but also symbolises the thin precipice between life and death.

As the men made their way back to the harbour, boats and their crew were visible to the onlookers, and many of the families could identify and recognise their husbands, brothers and fathers. The harbour had become congested, and as the wind and rain buffeted the boats, three were caught by the swell, tipping twenty men recklessly into the sea and drowning in front of the helpless onlookers.

Jill Watson's work, unveiled here in October 2016, embraces and holds the fear and agony of that fateful day as a permanent marker of history that shaped the lives of the people of Eyemouth.

Each time you look at this work, you pick out new details, new faces that are wrought with loss, a small child praying for the safe return of his dad; an elder sister comforting the younger about the life that's ahead.

Last week marked the 145th anniversary of this catastrophe, and the four sculptures by Jill Watson ensure these men's lives weren't in vain.

You can find the additional Widows and Bairns sculptures at Cove, St Abbs and Burnmouth.