Children of the sea - Peter Aitchison

One hundred and eighty-nine men drowned in a single afternoon in Scotland's worst fishing disaster. It is a forgotten part of the nation's past, yet it only happened in 1881. It decimated the coastal community of Eyemouth where the effects of Black Friday are felt yet. But the carnage wasn't the result of a freak storm. It was a disaster waiting to happen. The roots of that awful October day can be traced back to the Reformation and to a stand-off between the fishermen and the Church of Scotland which demanded a tenth of their precarious earnings. This is the story of a village on the margins of the sea and at the edge of the country. It is a tale of survival through the wars of independence and the witch-hunts of the 17th century; of danger and high kinks when Eyemouth was the centre of a massive smuggling ring; and above all of the hope and tragedy of fishing and of battles with the minister.