Beautiful Star, KY 1298
This memorial in King’s Lynn cemetery is a crafted stone replica of the fishing boat in which eight St Monans fishermen perished in a storm on the way home from the East Anglia fishing in November 1875. Five East Fife boats were wrecked and 37 men were lost at that time.
There are poignant inscriptions on the memorial, but the passing of time has made them difficult to read. The names of the men who were drowned can be made out - the oldest was James Patterson, the skipper, age 49, and the youngest was Robert, his son, who had just turned 18.
Then these words are written beneath -
When the shore is won at last,
Who will count the billows past?
While we linger on the shore of life,
A wave wafts us to eternity.
Life, how short!
Eternity, how long?
Isn’t it true that life on earth is short and unpredictable, whereas the eternity which follows is long and sure to come?
