1898 Crail Lifeboat Coxwain - John WATSON

[sparkle60]

Thanks everyone for your interest and help. 
Apologies, my typo, yes John Watson the coxswain's parents were
Alexander Watson and Catherine (not Helen) Stobie.
I checked  the marriage of his grandparents Robert Watson and Isobel Bowman;
familysearch.org  Batch M114176 shows 25 Jan 1772 Crail, Fife.

I agree that there seems no obvious connection...
However, the Crail Lifeboat coxswain John Watson lived at Nethergate (1881 census onwards)
and my John Watson Brown and wife Joahan Walker Watson moved to Nethergate
(1891 census onwards) so the families may have been acquainted.

John Watson Brown and Joahan Walker Watson’s son-in-law was my great grandfather.
As a young salmon fisher from further north, he moved to “Old Haiks via Wormiston” 
and courted their daughter. On their marriage certificate his occupation was fisherman.   
So maybe he also did sea fishing and may have known the Crail lifeboat coxswain John Watson.
And as his mother-in-law was a Watson, you may appreciate why I was wondering
if those two Watson families were related.

Further, the newspaper article I mentioned earlier. My great grandfather,
now a gamekeeper and his wife had moved up to Kincardine and he began writing.
On 19 October 1898 there was a great storm. The Crail Lifeboat coxswain was telegrammed
that a vessel was in distress near  May Island. So the lifeboat was launched.
A full page article about this appeared in The People’s Journal on 5 Nov 1898,
along with a sketch of the crew and their names.

This was in my great grandfather ‘s collection of published pieces (for which he received payment)
though I'm uncertain whether actually wrote this one, as there is no by-line.
Then he had a short piece published 30 Nov 1898 in the Weekly Welcome about the same topic .

While writing from Kincardine,  all his other articles and anecdotes refer to game keeping
and the glens, but for these two articles about John Watson the coxswain in Crail.
No other articles about Crail.  Hence my ongoing suspicion that in some way
the two Watson families were related though I may never discover how :-)

[hdw]

The Nethergate is one of the main streets in Crail and a lot of fishing families lived there. I was born in my maternal grandmother's house at 39A Nethergate.

My maternal grandfather Jimmy Peebles was on the Crail lifeboat Edwin Kay in December 1914 when she was involved in the rescue of the crew of the torpedo destroyer Success, which had been holed on the Cambo Briggs rocks off Kingsbarns. The episode is vividly described in an article in the Scots Magazine
of January 2002.

My maternal great-grandfather, another Jimmy Peebles, was known as "Pilot Jimmy" from his sideline of piloting Dutch and German boats into Crail's tricky and narrow little harbour entrance. The "tauttie boats" came for the fruits of the East Neuk potato harvest - our potatoes were as well known and sought-after as the local herring. My mother remembered the foreign sailors in Crail's High Street.

Harry

[sparkle60]

Here are the names of the Crail Lifeboat crew in 1898
which I've transcribed from the People’s Journal 5 November 1898
ALEXANDER BOYTER, aged 20, married
GEORGE BOYTER, aged 40 – six boys and four girls
PETER CUNNINGHAM, aged 32, unmarried
ANDREW CUNNINGHAM, aged 35, second coxswain, married – four boys and three girls
JAMES DEWAR, aged 29, married – one boy and one girl
ARCHIBALD DEWAR, aged 25, married
JAMES GRUBB, aged 26, unmarried
GEORGE GRUBB, aged 22, married – one boy
JOHN WATSON  aged 57, coxswain, married – three daughters and five sons
JOHN MURRAY, aged 36, bow man, married – two girls
ALEXANDER SMITH, aged 26, married – three of a family
ALEXANDER TAYLOR, aged 45, married – two boys and four girls
ANDREW MILLAR, aged 31, one of a family

[Bexhill12]

Hello
I realise I am replying rather late as I think this was posted in 2013 but the John watson coxwain of the Crail life boat is a relative of mine in my family tree I am researching I was wondering if you could put the newspaper articles on here or let me know how I could see a copy of it
many thanks
Bexhill12

[sparkle60]

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[MonicaL]

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[winnie7]

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It would seem Bexhill12 has not looked since... unfortunate

[jaybelnz]

Bexhill logged in 29 February, so last month.

 Unfortunately, she hasn't posted any more, so still can't send her a PM to alert her back to this thread.  B has still only made 1 post, and needs 3 to activate her PM facility, so she will need to post 2 more before that will happen.

[BW252]

Would anyone have any details on the Alexander Taylor, age 45 mentioned as a member of the crew of the lifeboat??