This account is from Friday 10th December, 1954 at the time of the 1954 Scarborough lifeboat disaster. The huge seas which were reported here were the same that capsized the Scarborough lifeboat just 7 miles away.
The next time you wait in the steamy warmth of a fish and chip shop for a newspaper wrapped "fish and three", just spare a kind thought for the men who almost daily sail out from Filey in search of fish.
The fishermen of Filey are a hardy breed. They have to be, for they follow a calling which makes no allowances for weakness or mistakes. They sail in open boats - cobles - on seas which are frequently storm swept - boats which offer little or no protection from wind and rain and buck with more ferocity than any wild mustang when icy grey waves try to climb the sky.
On Wednesday afternoon, as a gale force wind and heavy flood tide turned the water of Filey bay into a wilderness of seething white foam, I watched our local fishermen at work and admired their skill.
After being at sea since early that morning they had been caught in a sudden gale, but with, with the lifeboat standing by them, had managed their craft back into the bay without mishap.
Their troubles were far from over, however, for huge inshore breakers were making landing an extremely hazardous and uncomfortable task.
As the boats edged cautiously in to the beach they were at times almost upright on their beam ends by the waves.
I should think this an uncomfortable experience for many members of their crews.
They were rolled this way and that without respite, despite being only two hundred yards off shore, disappeared from sight altogether behind masses of turbulent water.
As they approached the beach it was an anxious time for the landsmen and fishermen watching from the coble landing.
Eventually every boat had got safely ashore and the work of selling the fish - some boats brought ashore over seventy stone - got under way without further ado.
The whole episode had, apparently, been to the men directly cpncerned just another part of the day's work.
As I left the coble landing the lifeboat was still riding the terrible rolling seas unable to beach until the tide ebbed, because of it's size, and thought to myself, in future I, for one, will eat my humble fillet with a great deal more respect.
