Ship Ahoy - Sepia Saturday

This week's Sepia Saturday prompt photograph of shipping, immediately brought to mind my husband’s maritime ancestors and happy memories of ships I have travelled on.

MARINER'S LIFE 

To me "snow" was the white stuff falling in winter and a "smack" was a slap to a recalcitrant child. But that all changed as I began researching my husband's maritime ancestors and learned about the different names for ships in the 19th century - barque or bark or barc, brig, sloop. smack and snow - an illustration of the diverse routes that family history can take you. 

Donaldson, White and Moffet ancestors were master mariners, sailing out of South Shields on the River Tyne in north east England.  Extended family members were in related occupations as a caulker, seaman, river policemen, shipwright, roper, ship's carpenter and marine engine fitter.

I traced the Donaldson family back through census returns and Scottish Old Parish Records to the 1756 marriage of Samuel Donaldson, merchant in South Leith (the port of Edinburgh).  His grandson Robert went from South Leith to the port of South Shields on the River Tyne and his son Robert moved to Portsmouth on the English south coast - the linking factor the sea.

Tyne & Wear Archives were invaluable to providing further information on the families' working lives, with added details traced in the mariner records held at the National Archives at Kew.   

In the 1861 census, great great grandfather John Moffet  was listed as master of "The Brotherly Love" sailing in the North Sea. off Flamborough Head      The crew of eight included three young apprentices, four seamen, and a mate, with nearly all giving  South Shields as their birthplace.  I was lucky enough to find a painting of the ship in South Shields Museum and Art Gallery.

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The Brig "Brotherly Love" and the Tug "William"

Painting by John Scott (1802-1885)

[Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums]

John Moffet (c.1814-1881) - master mariner, here in a Napoleonic post in a photograph received from an internet contact.   

OVER 120 YEARS LATER:

Here is an aerial view taken as we were coming into land at Newcastle Airport, with a clear picture of the River Tyne estuary, its north and south piers. and on the left South Shields.  The first purpose-built lifeboat in the world was built in South Shields in 1789. 

River Tyne at South Shields,  
with the Norwegian ferry across the river at North Shields.

 

PERSONAL SHIPPING MEMORIES

My own connection with ships is slight, but here are some memories. 

In September 1966,  I returned home from a year's working in the USA, travelling aboard the Cunard liner "Sylvania" from New York, calling at Boston and Cobh, Ireland,  before reaching Liverpool.  The ship, small by today's cruise ship standards, was very quiet and I was lucky to get a cramped 4 berth cabin all to myself.  Goodness knows how four adults could have managed in the space, without someone  being perched on top of their bunk.  Commercial jet planes services  were hitting the transatlantic  scheduled shipping and the Liverpool-New York sailings were axed in November after my return.  

 I enjoyed this experience  and had my first glimpse   of Ireland with dawn over Cobh.

The town's former name was Queenstown, after Queen Victoria who visited there in 1850.  Seventy years later in 1920, with the foundation of Eire as the Irish Free State, it was renamed Cobh.   Queenstown/Cobh was a major  departure point for the millions of  Irish people who emigrated to North America  during the 19th and 20th centuries.

A statue (above)  on the waterfront commemorates this leaving of Ireland.  It depicts Annie Moore and her brothers.  Annie was the first person to be admitted to the United States of America through the new immigration centre at Ellis Ireland, New York on 1 January 1892.    On 11 April 1912 Queenstown was the final port of call for the "Tatanic"   as she set out across the Atlantic on her ill-fated maiden voyage.

[Source:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cobh#History].

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The Western Isles of Scotland is  one of our favourite holiday destination, and the "Cal Mac"  (Caledonian MacBrayne) ferries are a familiar sight.  

 Sailing out of Oban

 

Fishing boats in Oban Harbour 

   A Tall Ship Training Ship moored at Oban

Oban, meaning "little bay" in Gaelic, lies on the Firth of Lorne on the west coast of Scotland. and is often regarded as the unofficial capital of the West Highlands. and "Gateway to the Isles", with the  Cal. Ma. ferries sailing from there  to Mull, Iona, Coll, Tiree, Colonsay, Barra and South Uist.  

McCaig's Tower (or Folly) stands high above Oban, named after its originator John Stuart McCaig (1824-1902). His intention was to provide work over the winter for local stonemasons and to build an imposing monument to the McCaig family. However the ambitious  project ran out of money and on McCaig's death, his relations successfully contested provisions in his will for the Tower's completion.

During World War Two, Oban was an important place  in the Battle of the Atlantic, with a Royal Navy signal station, and RAF flying boat base.   In the Cold War, the first Transatlantic Telephone Cable, carrying the hot line between the USA and USSR Presidents came ashore at Oban.

                   

 We had the top desk to ourselves on this dreicht day, sailing from Oban to the Isle of Mull.  Even our dog did not look very happy! ~

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To sunnier climes

The ferry on Wolfgangsee, near Salzburg, Austria
where we celebrated our ruby wedding anniversary.

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And finally:  the shipping topic immediately made me think of the final verse of John Masefield's poem "Cargoes".  We were taught at school to read this out aloud to get the full power  of his words.  The first two verses convey beauty, but this last one was always our favourite as we spat it out, enunciating the words in an exaggerated manner.  The poem takes me back to the maritime ancestor who plied much of their trade carrying coal between Newcastle and London. 

"Dirty British coaster, with a  salt-caked smoke stack,

Butting through the Channel in the mad March days

With a cargo of Tyne coal,

Road-rail, pig lead

Firewood, iron-ware and cheap tin trays."

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Sepia Saturday gives bloggers an opportunity

to share their family history through photograph

Click HERE  to read how other Sepia Saturday bloggers 

are enjoying being at sea.