Sea Stories from Master Mariner Ancestors - Sepia Saturday

"Ships" feature in this week’s Sepia Saturday prompt photograph -  a theme I featured earlier this year HERE.  So this time I am taking a look at the lives of my husband's ancestors who were 19th century mariners,  who sailed out of the River Tyne at South Shields, County Durham  in north eat England.  

Great Great Great Grandfather - Robert Donaldson, Master Mariner  (1801-1878)
Mariner records at the National Archives at Kew  showed that Robert Donaldson was  registered as a mariner on 20th July 1852.

Tyne and Wear Archives provided information on the sea-going  life of Robert Donaldson and the ships he sailed on, listed in "“A Dictionary of Tyne Sailing Ships: a record of merchant sailing ships owned, registered and built at the Port of Tyne 1830-1930”, compiled by Richard Keys. This is a complete A-Z of Ships, master mariners and owners, detailing ships, voyages, disasters and share-ownerships, and much more - a must for anyone with maritime ancestors in this region.

The entries make fascinating reading, with all six ships on which Robert Donaldson sailed, having an eventful history and coming to a sad end  - though not under his charge.  

 

Image - Pixabay

• The Thetis became a wreck after sinking off the Yorkshire coast in 1869.

• The John was stranded in 1861 and became a wreck during a severe easterly gale. Twenty-eight other Tyne ships went ashore in the same area during the same gale.

• The Emerald, in December 1855, when on passage from the Tyne to London, foundered in five fathoms on the Dough Sand (Long Sand) Thames estuary. Three survivors were brought ashore by two Bridlington smacks. Eleven others were unaccounted for, including some of the crew of the rescuing smack who were in a small boat, which disappeared.

• The Hebe was wrecked in Robin Hood’s Bay, along with other vessels on 27 January 1861. The Ann & Elizabeth disappeared after leaving the Tyne in November 1863, with her captain leaving a wife and six children.

• The William Metcalfe was Robert Donaldson's largest ship.  On her maiden voyage, it transported 240 male convicts from Portsmouth to Hobart,TAsmania  on a passage that took 102 days. In January 1855 eight of her crew were sent to goal for three months each by the North Shields magistrates for refusing duty. In October 1858 her master and one man were washed overboard. Nine days later, the ship was abandoned, with the crew taken off.

These incidents were by no means unusual and bring home the hazards our mariner ancestors faced in their daily lives.

Great Great Grandfather John Robert Moffet (1814-1881)   

John Robert Moffet in a Napoleonic pose - the only photograph I have of my husband's mariner ancestors - shared with me by internet contact who was also a descendant of John.  
 

John's family originated from Tynmouuth, north of the river Tyne,  with his father Robert and brother William both mariners. Two puzzles about the family  remain unanswered.   John was born in Chatham, the site of the Royal Navy dockyard on the River Medway on the south  of England.  What had brought his family there?    John's   wife Frances Dunn Thomas, daughter  and widow of a mariner,   had three children, with two  born in the USA.   It would be wonderful to find the background to that, but nigh impossible without any indication of which state.  The family first settled in the London docklands area before returning to South Shields..   

In the 1861 Census,  John  was listed as master of "The Brotherly Love" sailing off Flamborough Head in the North Sea.     The crew of eight included three young apprentices, four seamen, and a mate, with most born in South Shields.

The caption  reads"The Brotherly Love" model. made for her  master Captain  Moffet."    

llustration supplied by a Moffet descendant. 

In South Shields Museum and Art Gallery, there is  a portrait  " The Brig "Brotherly Love" and the Tug "William" painted by  John Scott (1802-1885).

 Other mariner ancestors of my husband included, on his mother's side:

Great Great Grandfather  Matthew White (1821-?).   

The 1861 census listed Matthew  as master mariner on board the brig "Caroline" off South Shields.  Lloyd’s Captains’ Register,  recorded the ships he sailed on, travelling as far as the Adriatic, Mediterranean and Baltic ports.

 

From: the National Archives at  Kew, London 

 

 Great Grandfather  Matthew Iley White. (1849-1901)

On his marriage to young widow Louisa Moffet Pierce in 1884 at South Shields, Matthew was described as a mariner.  However he had a change of occupation and was next found as a member of the Tyne River Police, along with his brother Henry.

 

A  long-held story in my husband's family recollected a photograph (sadly lost) of a White ancestor in a top hat in the uniform of the River Tyne police.   A silver uniform button  (below) is  still held by the family.   

 

 

 

Tyne and Wear Archives provided some answers. The Nominal Roll of the Tyne River Police gave details that  two sons of Matthew Iley White  (senior),   had been  members of the river police force – but both with rather a chequered career.    Henry White  joined 9^th January 1882 and brother Matthew June 1896.  

 

The Police Defaulters Book recorded on 11^th June 1889 their  misconduct in the same incident -  "for assaulting a seaman A. W. Hanson and other irregularities, whilst off duty".   
 

Matthew was fined 2/6 and transferred to the Newcastle Division at his own expense.  However he resigned a few months later. Henry was fined 2/6 and transferred to Walker Division at his own expense.  The Nominal Roll of 1904 noted his age as 42 and that he had 22 years of service, with a wage of 29/6

 

Storms off South Shields
 "The Shields Gazette" on  (FindMyPast Newspaper Archive)  abounds with  headlines and reports on disasters at sea, storms and gales;  the lifeboat responses. and the ensuing work of the Mariners' benevolent societies in helping families in distress.  Below is one typical  of what mariners faced. 

 

 

  

 

 Image - Pixabay 

 

 

Fascinating Fact  - one of the first purpose built lifeboats  was constructed in South Shields in 1789, prompted by a tragedy  when a ship with all its crew was  lost  at sea just off shore.  

 

 

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 Sepia Saturday gives bloggers an opportunity to share 
their family history and memories through photographs. 

 

 

Click HERE to see more posts  from Sepia Saturday bloggers. 

 

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A Span of Bridges - Sepia Saturday

Bridges have been a popular theme for Sepia Saturday posts.  So the challenge this  week was on what to focus on   - arches, rivers, stone detail, decorative designs.  people looking down -  A bit of all of all of these  in my post.  And I even managed to unearth some photographs I had not shown before! 

Here the stone detail is  the focus  with a footbridge   spanning the Leader Water on the Carolside Estate, near Earston in the Scottish Borders.  Carolside House is an 18th century mansion   with its gardens open to the public in summer.  

 

 

Looking down, you can just make out the bridge in the middle of this  photograph,   taken when out on a walk up the Huntshaw Hill .

More looking down - but not for the faint hearted! A footbridge over the rocks at Tintagel Castle in Cornwall. The castle is best known for its links with the ancient King ARrhurs.  

 

 

 

Also looking down -people on this covered wooden bridge in Kaprun, Austria. 

 

 Lattice work on this footbridge at Aviemore Rail Station in the Scottish Highlands.  

 

Another footbridge with attractive wooden fencing in this autumn scene. 

 

 

 

An Archway and Pillars for this bridge over a stream in Lazienski Park in Warsaw, Poland, designed in the 18th century 

Back to Britain 

 

 

 More archways in this  charming vintage image of the Arches on the impressive Leaderfoot Viaduct,  built in 1865 on the cross country route  of the Berwickshire Railway  between the east coast and the central Scottish Borders. 

 

My father  grew up in the village of Broseley, near Ironbridge, Shropshire, known as the birthplace of the industrial revolution with  the world's first ever cast iron bridge, built in 1779  over the River Severn. Dad's father worked at the power house at Coalbrookdale, which meant a 35 minute walk each way each day over the bridge.   The local historical society has been particularly helpful in my family history. The Ironbridge Gorge is now a UNESCO World Heritage site. 

 

 

 

 

 

Another historic distinctive bridge because of its design  - The Forth Rail Bridge, crossing the Forth estuary near Edinburgh   is a celebrated Scottish landmark, and a milestone in the development of railway civil engineering,  

 

Built in the aftermath of one of the most infamous railway engineering failures  - the Tay Rail Bridge disaster in 1879, it was the first major structure in Britain to be made of steel and its construction resulted in a continuous East Coast railway route from London to Aberdeen in north east Scotland.   

 

The railway bridge, had the world's longest spans (541 m) when it opened in 1890.  At the height of constructive, it employed a workforce of 4600 with the loss of  57 lives.  It remains one of the greatest cantilever trussed bridges and continues to carry passengers and freight today. It now has been given   a World Heritage status.

 

 

 Forth Rail Bridge photographs courtesy of Pixabay. 

 

Until 1964 and the building of the Forth 'Road Bridge.   the only other way for vehicular traffic, cyclists, and pedestrians to cross the River Forth was by  a centuries old ferry service.  It  We lived 6 miles away and my father often travelled north on work, and left early to try and avoid the long queues for the morning ferries - a real bottleneck for everyone. 

 

You get a glimpse of the River Thames here through this garland archway at St. Kathrine's Wharf in London.  It was opened in 1828 as part of the London Docklands, but is now a marina area, popular with visitors. 

 

 

 

 Looking down from a hilly view point  - the Skye Road Bridge in the Scottish Highlands It  cannot be called historic, as it only opened in 1995, but the island is an iconic  symbol of Scotland's history.  The bridge across Loch Alsh links Kyle of Lochalsh on the mainland with Kyleakin on Skye  with one pillar  on the small island of Eilean Ban. 

And if you  hanker after the romantic route, singing  "Over the Sea to Skye",   you can still cross by ferry from Mallaig to the south of the island. 

 

 

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 Sepia Saturday gives bloggers an opportunity to share 
their family history and memories through photographs. 

 

Click HERE to see more posts  from Sepia Saturday bloggers.

 

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Generations in the Back Yard - Sepia Saturday

A happy family group sitting in their  "back yard"  is this week's prompt photograph from Sepia Saturday.   Below are five generations of my family taken in their varied back yards.  

 

 

 

This was the family photograph I took with me when I left home for the first time for a year working in the USA.  Taken in the back garden in our home in Edinburgh, 1965.

There is an anecdote  here connected with "back yard". Many years ago I spent a year working in the USA and was invited to visit a work colleague, who commented that we would sit in the "back yard".  I wasn't too sure about that prospect .  It conjured up an image of TV's soap opera "Coronation Street" set in the north of England, with back-to-back terraced houses with a small paved or cobbled   back yard for storing the dustbins and bikes - very utilitarian.  I was wrong,  of course,  with my interpretation, for Instead I found that this American "back yard"  was a large garden with a beautiful lawn and flower beds - so much for transatlantic misunderstandings!  

 

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Taken in a typical English back yard, my grandparents William Danson and Alice English posed for a photograph before he set off for war in  1916.   They lived in a terraced house on Bull Street, just off the Square, in Poulton-le-Fylde, Lancashire,  The houses were demolished in the 1960's and replaced by a small shopping mall. 

Bull Street, Poulton-le-Fylde, where my Danson grandparents lived until 1926. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Playing in the back yard, my mother Kathleen Danson and her sister Edith. c.1914, daughters of William and Alice above. 

 

 

A typical back yard in South Shields, County Durham.  Here my husband perched on the bike with his older brother keeping watch. c.1941. 

 

My husband with his maternal grandparents  Matthew Iley White & Alice Armitage.  South Shields,   c.1939. 

              

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My husband this time on the shoulder of his Uncle Matty 
with his father Jim alongside  in a very natty pullover, c.1940

 

 

 

 

 My mother in their first married home, mnear Poulton le Fylde, Lancashire c.1938. 

 

The same back gardeb  c.1944  and the first picture of myuself with my father.  m

 

 

 Outside our back door.  

 

 

 

 Little me, perched on  my very own chair  which was passed down (with new covers) to my daughter and grandaughter - but we never thought to take a photograph of   them in it - a pity! 

 

 

Enjoying sun, wearing the popular style of the day - a skirt with straps.  

 

To  the younger generations

 

  

 

Daughter on the back door step,  Hawicm in the SCottish Borders c.1990

                                                

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Granddaughter in  the back garden exploring this new world of snow for the first time in 2010.  Earlston, Scottish Borders. 

 

 

 

 

Somebody's idea of fun!  Playing at snow angels in he back garden 2018.  

 

1998  - a lovely family group of three generations, taken after my brother's wedding - and yes he did wear that red shirt for the occasion! v Dad in the middle, with my niece and daughter seated. 

Happy family photographs that make me smile! 

 

 

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 Sepia Saturday gives bloggers an opportunity to share 
their family history and memories through photographs.  

  

 

Click HERE to see more posts 

from Sepia Saturday bloggers.

 

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My Uncle Harry Rawcliffe Danson - A Man of Many Parts

This week's prompt photograph from Sepia Saturday features a man posing in front of a car.  

Well,  I covered owners and their  cars a few week's ago.  So instead, the tall, slim figure of the man in the prompt reminded me of my favourite uncle, Harry Danson, who drove not only a car  and  motor bikes with sidecar, but also sailed a small yacht off the Lancashire coasts at Fleetwood.  

 

 

Lots of words can be used to describe my uncle.  He was a man of many parts  - a joiner, soldier, Dunkirk survivor, a skilled do-it-yourselfer, productive gardener, keen photographer, yachtsman  - and ballroom dancer. 

 

 

  A young Harry

 

 Harry Rawcliffe  Danson (1912-2001) was the middle child of five, born to my grandparents William Danson and Alice English in Poulton-le-Fylde, Lancashire. His middle name came from his grandmother Maria Danson, nee Rawcliffe. The photograph above is the only one  I have of him as a child, and is part of a group photograph of the family, taken in 1916, as my grandfather set out to war.

Harry followed his grandfather into becoming a joiner. and I remember him making a miniature table and chairs for my doll’s house.  Not surprisingly he was skilled in  do-it yourself.  

My next knowledge of Harry was from his army photographs.

Young man around town - look at that  hairstyle! 

The reverse of the photograph indicates it was taken in Salisbury -when Harry was undergoing Army training? 

 

  

I think there is an Errol Flynn look about him here! 

            

This signed menu of December 25th 1939,   written in French and typed on very flimsy paper,  was found 60 years later  amongst Uncle Harry's papers.    He was in France with the British Expeditionary Force, 9/17th Field Battery.  

 

In the Sergeant's Mess,  breakfast was cold ham with piccalilli, eggs, coffee and roll and butter;  for dinner  - turkey with chestnuts, pork with apple sauce, potatoes, and cauliflower followed by Christmas pudding, apples, oranges, and nuts, with cognac, rum and beer - a wonderful feast in difficult conditions and testimony to the skill of the catering corps!

Five months later Harry was one of the many men evacuated from Dunkirk, saved by the flotilla of small ships.  Sadly many of the men who were at this meal may not have survived.   My mother used  to tell how Harry arrived back home from Dunkirk  still in the uniform in which he entered the sea to be rescued.   He never talked about his wartime experiences, but seeing commemoration services or documentaries on TV could bring tears to his eyes, so the memories remained very strong.

 

 Harry  later served in North Africa.

Harry had a short lived marriage in the 1940's and never remarried.   He returned to the family home (below),   living with my widowed grandfather and his sister.  He resumed his joinery trade  renovating the house, and taking pride in his  garden, with floral displays in the front and productive fruit and vegetables at the back and in his greenhouse.  

 

 

 

 I recall him taking his sister (my Aunt Edith) out for a Sunday run in his motor cycle and side car.  He later progressed to a car, extending the driveway, by knocking down the gate and tresllis, and turnip the hen hosue int oa garage.  

 

Living close to Blackpool,  the UK home of ballroom dancing, Harry could often be found on the dance floor of the Wint r Gardens or Tower Ballroom - and he was never short of partners.   

 With a good friend, neighbour & dance partner, c.1970's. 

Harry was a keen photographer, at one time having his own dark room to develop pictures. He took this photograph of St. Chad's Church, Poulton-le-Fylde, noted for its carpet of crocuses in Spring.  Dansons back to 1736 were baptised, married and buried here.  

Harry lived  to the age of 89,  remaining active to the end of his life - and he retained his good looks! 

 

 

With fond memories of a dear uncle 

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 Sepia Saturday gives bloggers an opportunity to share 
their family history and memories through photographs.  

  

 

Click HERE to see more posts 

from Sepia Saturday bloggers.

 

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