1. Start of My Grandfather's story.
My
grandfather (Click the thumbnail to see a larger pic.) was a Cape
Horn sailor. He ran away to sea at the age of fourteen and did
not return to dry land for another 10 years. Like many boys,
he was caught by the romance of the sea. Even when an old man,
well into his seventies, it never left. My abiding regret is
that I was too young to tease the tales, I am sure he could have
told, from his lips. However, some things have remained.
My own romantic love of the grand old ships that sailed their way
into history, and a few relics of those years that have somehow
found their way into my hands.
Albert (Bert) was his
name. He was shipwrecked in the Magellan Straits, Cape Horn
territory, on January 12th 1898 and, together with most of the crew,
managed to survive until rescued by ships from Chile that put out
for that purpose. The account was written on a piece of canvas
backed chart and was eventually published by a London paper, The
Graphic. This included two sketches drawn by Bert of the event, one
of them of the ship, the Steamer Mataura, foundering in the surf.
The Mataura was a hybrid steam and sail. She had two masts, the
jigger or mizzen appears not to be rigged for carrying sail and was
probably used for hoisting her cargo on and off the ship, the other,
a foremast is fully rigged with square sails. The second sketch
shows the survivors and the ships boats gathered on the shore. It
must have been a bitterly cold and rugged experience and one he
never forgot. I also have in my possession the letter he wrote to
his parents which they received just a few days before he arrived in
Liverpool. The letter is dated the 18th February 1898 from the
Pacific Line steamer, RMS Orcana.
Wreck
Drawings of the SS Mataura by AJ Thomas, c Jan 1898
In the letter he
mentions that he is none the worse for wear, except that he has lost
all his clothes! He also asks them to make haste if they can and
deliver the letter with the account of the wreck and his drawings,
to the Graphic offices for publication. He mentions that they are
"sure to fetch a good price when they know where they came from". He
also mentions that he is bringing a parrot, but that the "boys", his
younger step brothers, "must not be too sure of it because the cold
weather is destroying a lot of them". So, one would assume that
other members of the crew were bringing home parrots as souvenirs as
well.
To continue the story,
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