“Pickit” is the Scots word for plucked. This was a phrase often used to describe the death of the men during the disaster. “Ye wad juist think they had been pickit”

The Pickit Men, an installation, designed by Emma McKenzie, commemorates the Eyemouth Fisher men who lost their lives in The Great East Coast Fishing Disaster of 1881.

The 129 clay figures, bodies wrapped in shrouds for burial at sea, are made to represent the fisher men, lost on Black Friday. They are placed in groups signifying whole boat crews lost or single figures washed overboard.

You can learn more about the Pickit men and the 1881 fishing disaster at Eyemouth Museum.