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John and Helen died within months of each other in the upstairs bedroom at 11 Wood Street in 1950-51, across the road from where they first set up home almost 60 years before. By the time of their deaths in 1950-52 approximately thirty five great line fishing boats sailed from Torry Dock. This was the generation of Torry fishermen who pioneered the great linefishing on the banks at Faroe, Iceland, Greenland and Rockall. With a range as far as the Davis Straits, near Greenland, they could fish for larger, more commercial fish such as halibut - as well as larger quantities of cod, skate and ling. By the mid 60s, however, the 1965-66, the fleet had dwindled to only four 'liners' fishing. By 1969, Albert Christie - who had earned his 'skipper's' ticket in 1950 - had left the trawlers and was working as a seaman for the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries on their research vessel 'Explorer', sharing a cabin with brother Thomas Christie. With their deaths in the mid-70s ended the long seafaring tradition of the Christies of Skaterow
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