Seafarer Jones is a
collection of stories about mariners from previous generations, all of whom
shared a relationship with this particular family of that name. I examine the
familial links amongst a proliferation of seafarers and recount their
experiences from the eighteenth century up to the Second World War.
In addition to the
profusion of ships’ captains were local fishermen, first, second and third
mates, cabin boys, ordinary seamen, able seamen, bosuns, coxswains, engineers,
carpenters, stewards, pursers, marine insurers, victuallers, watchmen, landing
stage superintendents, explorers, inventors, ship owners, shipping agents and
shipping company directors, as well as five women who went to sea with their
male relatives. Seafarer Jones describes their adventures and triumphs, their
mishaps and tragedies.
From the age of sail
to that of steam driven, steel merchant ships, the Jones clan travelled the
globe, from Porthmadog to the Baltic, the Mediterranean, Newfoundland
and New York ; from Liverpool to the Americas , East Africa, the Far East, Australia and the Great Barrier Reef and to the Pitcairn Islands
in the Pacific Ocean and back round the Horn.
They carried slate, coal, timber, grain, salt, fish, manure - and migrants
seeking new lives in the New World . Others
helped to protect their fellow mariners along the Welsh coast by manning the
lifeboats.
They suffered
mountainous seas, collision, shipwreck, foundering, scuttling, arrest, mutiny,
torpedo attack and attempted assassination. They worked at sea in peace time
and served their country during two world wars. They ran the gauntlet of the
German U-boats and some lost their lives whilst thousands of miles from home.
By the end of the
Victorian era they had all congregated in the port of Liverpool and it had
become the focal point for their continuing exploits, typical of so many other
families in that period, who went “down to the sea in ships” for their
livelihood.
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