A-Z Challeng 2023: Family Traits: A for ADVENTUROUS

My Theme for 2023 A-Z Challenge 

 Family Traits,  Quirks and Characteristics 

A for ADVENTUROUS 

My Husband’s Maritime  Ancestors 

& My GG Aunt's Emigrant Journey 

My husband's maritime ancestors (Donaldson, White & Moffet)  must have had a streak of ADVENTURE in them to venture out from South Shields on the River Tyne  in north east England  into the North Sea in all weathers, as they plied their trade as master mariners. They faced storms at sea  as part of their daily lives - as evidenced by local newspaper reports of shipping disasters.  

A Genealogical Sideline:   To me "snow" was the white stuff falling in winter and a "smack" was a slap to a recaltrant child.  But that all changed,   as I  began researching my husband's maritime ancestors and learnt 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.  

 

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 asore 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, 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.

Robert Donaldson died at home in 1876, leaving his wife Elizabeth (Nicholson)   and adult  children Ann, Janet  and Robert – also a mariner.   

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Lloyds Captain's'  Register (at National Archives)  provided information on the ships under the command of another mariner ancestor, Matthew Iley White. 

 

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 ports of Belgium and Holland, to Spain & Portugal, the Mediterranean, Black Sea, Adriatic Sea, and north to the Baltic and the Gulf of Finland. 

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.

Great Great Grandfather John Robert Moffet (1814-1881)
John Moffet on his marriage certificate gave his father's name, as Robert Moffet, also a Mariner - his wife a widow Frances Dunn Thomas, daughter of a mariner. 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.

 

A painting  in South Shields Museum and At Gallery  by Artist John Scott (1802-1885) depicts in stormy seas the Brig "Brotherly Love" and the Tug "William.

 

 

 

 A photograph of John Robert Moffet, supplied by an Internet family contact - the only image I have of my husband's mariner ancestors.,

 

Storms off South Shields

 “The Shields Gazett” 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.  Some typical   examples from just one month  are given below:

14th February 1861:

"The terrible and destructive storm of Friday and Saturday will not soon be forgotten on the North-East Coast. The loss of property has been enormous, and there has been a lamentable loss of life."

14th February 1861:

"LIFEBOAT UPSET AND TWELVE MEN DROWNED. A severe storm raged here on Saturday, and several vessels were driven on shore, amongst which arc the Gamma, belonging to this port; John and Ann, of Sunderland; and the Prussian barque Clara."

21st February 1861

 

 

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Braving the seas on a different kind of journey was my great grandmother's sister Alice Mason, nee Rawcliffe of Fleetwood. Lancashire.  For you have to admire the sense of ADVENTURE that drove our ancestors to take a leap into the unknown and emigrate.

 

Alice in in 1887 set sail  with six children aged 1 to 13,  (plus "two pieces of baggage") to join her husband John  and live in the teeming tenements of  Brooklyn, New York.   The couple went on to have five more children  in America, the eldest Arthur Valentine, born appropriately on 14th February 1888 - a reunion baby!

 

It was a blog post on the Rawcliffe/Mao family which resulted in contact by a  third cousin  in the USA and a wonderful exchange of information and photographs. 

 The power of blogging!

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ONTO - B for BIGAMOUS

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