A Sailor's Life...

We always enjoy a chance to share our enthusiasm with other like-minded people and if this also gives us an opportunity to learn something completely new, even better.

Over the last months we’ve been involved with the Gloucestershire Mariners’ project led by local historian Tony Conder and funded by the Lloyds Register Foundation.  We investigated some of the families involved in the coastal trade working out of the port of Gloucester.  As you can imagine we discovered many astonishing stories which often shed a very poignant light on the lives of the sailors themselves and their families.  For us a very important aspect of any research is to retell the stories of those ordinary people who have been long-forgotten.

We soon realised how very risky the life of a seaman could be and, unfortunately, very few of the stories we found ended well.  One of the saddest but also most interesting tales involved Charles Edwin Prewett, whose body was eventually washed ashore near Tayport in January 1906.  Although his story is very typical in many ways, involving a combination of appalling weather, a rapid sinking of the vessel and the loss of the whole crew, it seems especially poignant.

A badly damaged photo, seen here, was washed ashore at St Andrews in November 1905 along with other wreckage including a lifebelt marked ‘Beaconsfield Gloucester’ but no bodies.  So when local people saw the name of the photographer: H E Jones, Gloucester, they sent it to him in the hope that he’d be able to identify the man.

It was Captain Prewett. However the story doesn’t end there.  When Captain Prewett’s body was found in early January 1906 the newspaper reports included a detailed description of his clothes, right down to his mismatched socks, and his tattoos, particularly the name ‘Edwin Prewett’ on his right arm.  His fiancée, Catherine Duncan of Tayport, confirmed his identity, mentioning specifically his socks so perhaps she knitted those herself.

This opens up more questions. How did a sailor based in Gloucester come to have a Scottish fiancée?  We know from the newspapers that ‘Beaconsfield’ was carrying china clay from Cornwall to Tayport and was going to take potatoes from Alloa back to Gloucester.  So perhaps this was a regular route.  Edwin Prewett was in his mid-40s and he’d been the Mate on ‘Gem’, another Gloucester ship, so perhaps he’d visited Tayport many times.  We’ve found other sailors who married far from Gloucestershire so this seems quite reasonable.

 

Then there is the tattoo of his name.  We’ve found many references to tattooed images and initials but no other example of a sailor’s full name.  So was Edwin Prewett especially concerned that he might not be identified and his family informed? 

And there is the photograph.  ‘Beaconsfield’ was Captain Prewett’s first command so perhaps he had his photo taken to commemorate this.  Maybe he was planning to give it to his fiancée.

 

Drop into our Research Centre to discover how you can start (or continue) your own family history journey. www.gfhs.org.uk