Captain William Congalton, RN, of Aberlady, East Lothian : 無料・フリー素材/写真
Captain William Congalton, RN, of Aberlady, East Lothian / Robert Cutts
| ライセンス | クリエイティブ・コモンズ 表示-継承 2.1 |
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| 説明 | Not having portrait of William Congalton I have used a representation of a sea captain created by Choong Yeul Yoo to whom I am indebted. Of course, if you happen to have a portrait of him . . . William Congalton was born in Aberlady in East Lothian in 1827. He was a son of the local cobbler John Congleton and his wife Diana. Two of uncles were sea captains. Samuel Congalton (1798-1850), as master of the Zephyr and the Diana, had a very successful record in ridding the Straits of Malacca of pirate ships. Meanwhile Thomas Congalton (d 1850) served as master to trading ships off the east coast of Scotland. He was master of the Jane McKenzie from May 1831 to May 1846. He then transferred to the Heroine. he served as master of the ship for four years until December 1850 when, whilst attempting to board his ship at 8 o'clock in the evening, he drowned.After serving for nine years in the British merchant service in foreign parts, William Congalton is on record on 21 April 1851 as having arrived at Greenock as captain of a ship which had sailed from Havana with a cargo of molasses and sweetmeats. At the time he had not even been awarded his mate’s certificate but, on 9 May that year, that was put right. Two weeks later he was awarded his master’s certificate. From 1851 to 1853 he was master of the Duncan, a 350 ton barque owned by W Muir. In April 1854 he was admitted into the Royal Navy Reserve. On 27 November the, Robert Lowe set sail for the Crimea from Portsmouth heavily loaded with armaments and men. She was a newly-built screw-assisted iron ship, built on the Clyde and owned by W S Lindsay & Co. Her master was Captain Pentreath. During the voyage there was a succession of catastrophes and, in an inquiry, Pentreath and some of his officers were accused of alcohol-related incompetence. Back in Portsmouth, the ship made a second voyage to the Crimea, this time under William Congalton. On the way he picked up Florence Nightingale at Scutari and took her across the Black Sea to Balaclava in eight days – which was much the same time as any similar ship would have taken at the time. Nevertheless, Miss Nightingale is said to have remarked “Not the Robert Lowe but rather the Robert Slow!” When the ship reached the Crimea Miss Nightingale found that the resident doctor forbade her to set up base on shore. Congalton responded by allowing her to use the ship as her HQ while negotiations took place for her to set up base on shore. In 1860 the Robert Lowe under Congalton made the passage from Queenstown (the port of Cork in the south of Eire now renamed Cobh) to Auckland in 82 days, a record at the time. On 30 June, 1862 Congalton was promoted to lieutenant in the Royal Naval Reserve.On 17 September 1862 the Robert Lowe, commanded by Congalton, left Gravesend for Victoria, BC. Amongst others, she carried my great grandfather and 36 young women from Lancashire who had been selected by Maria Rye on behalf of the Columbia Emigration Society as potential brides for miners in the Cariboo. She arrived in Esquimalt, the port of Victoria at the time, on 10 January 1863. She had made the passage in 114 days non-stop. In that context she was the fourth of the five bride-ships that sailed to Victoria from 1859 to 1870. That voyage is recounted in Henry Taylor's Journal and in Bride Ships. In the Journal, Henry wrote:"Our Captain, Mr Congalton, we found to be a very fine man. Though entertaining rather aristocratic notions, he was ever ready to hear any complaints the passengers might have to make, and he was always willing to give us the full benefit our position entitled us to. We had every confidence in his ability as a skilful seaman for, more than once, we had the opportunity of seeing that he knew what he was about. He could keep cool in moments of the most imminent danger for, although the passage was on the whole a pleasant one, we had several severe gales and squalls during which we often did on our knees commend ourselves to Him who holdeth the winds in His hands and who rules the vast oceans as well as the Earth."And, as reported in the British Colonist of 12 January 1863, Captain Congalton and his crew were spoken of . . .". . . in the highest terms of commendation. The former was kind, courteous, and attentive to the wishes of all on board, and the latter, like true British tars, ably and efficiently gave effect to their commander's wishes."From Esquimalt Congalton navigated to San Francisco where the ship took on $400,000 in gold and other valuables destined for Hong Kong. She probably berthed there in mid-April. From Hong Kong she sailed to Shanghai and on to Hankow at the confluence of the Han and the Yangtze Rivers. She then took on the role of a tea clipper. On pp 467-468 of Volume 4 of History of Merchant Shipping and Ancient Commerce – his magnus opus – William Schaw Lindsay, proprietor of W S Lindsay & Co, recounted this episode:"On the 8th May of that year, another of my auxiliary steamships, the Robert Lowe, of 1250 tons, commanded by William Congalton, left Shanghai for Hankow for the purpose of loading a cargo of teas direct for London: two other English vessels had, however, preceded her."The navigation of this river was then very little known, and there were many difficulties to encounter which have since been removed; under these circumstances, and as the engines of the Robert Lowe were only 80 nominal horse-power, her passage between Shanghai and Hankow, a distance of 608 miles, occupied ten days: one day, however, was lost in changing her propeller, while she had to anchor every night. The current against her averaged three knots an hour, but in some parts ran fully five knots. The least depth of water (the river being then at its ordinary height) found by soundings was 4¾ fathoms on the bar of the Longshan crossing: the average depth being from 8 to 9 fathoms, but, in many places, Captain Congalton did not obtain soundings at a depth of 14 fathoms, and, in long reaches, where the waters were contracted, the depths were from 20 to 30 fathoms."At Hankow, where the Robert Lowe anchored to receive her cargo (about 300 yards from the bank), the depth of water was 14 fathoms, with a current running at the rate of 3½ knots an hour. The new teas generally arrive in boats (chops) about the 10th of June, and, on the 23rd of that month, she sailed with a full cargo for Shanghai and London. She was fifty-seven hours under weigh on her passage from Hankow to Shanghai; the current, the river being then fuller, running at from four to, in some places, seven knots an hour." On 8 July 1864, Congalton set sail for England arriving in Gravesend on 17 October, that year. That was probably Congalton’s last voyage on the Robert Lowe. By June the following year she had a new master, Captain Frost. Meanwhile, in November 1864, Congalton was granted a patent for a device that aided the fitting of sales to ships and other vessels.Nothing further is known of Congalton’s activities until June 1868 when it was advertised in the Whitstable Times that a service of fast screw steamers would run between Littlehampton and Jersey. The proprietor of the company running the service was none other than William Congalton! However, it doesn't look as if the enterprise was a success because, on 21 January, 1870, he was elected the examiner in navigation and seamanship for the port of Hull. Then, in the Mercantile Navy List and Maritime Directory for 1871, he appears as an Examiner in Navigation and Seamanship and, shortly after, he became an Examiner in Navigation and Seamanship for the Glasgow Marine Board. William Congalton was by that time in his mid-40s and, like his Uncle Sam, he had not married. But, in 1875, that was to change. He married Eliza Meikle Ferguson née Glen, the wealthy widow of Alexander Ferguson. He had been an Edinburgh confectioner known as Sweetie Sandy who was famous for having invented Edinburgh Rock. Alexander and Eliza had lived at Glenardoch House in Doune, then in Perthshire. When Alexander died, Eliza inherited the house and she and William lived there until William’s death on 22 August, 1890. Eliza followed him in 1894. There is a strange footnote to this story. Congalton is a rare name – even in Scotland. And most people of the name are related to an aristocratic family based in Haddington in East Lothian, just south of Aberlady, though Captain Congalton probably wasn't. However, parish records show that the William Congalton who became a sea captain was one of only two men of that name born in Scotland in the first half of the 19th century. And the other was born in 1807 in Doune – the very place where Captain William Congalton died 83 years later! No family connection can be established.Robert Cutts, November 2013 |
| 撮影日 | 2011-08-18 00:32:47 |
| 撮影者 | Robert Cutts , Bristol, England, UK |
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| 撮影地 | Aberlady, Scotland, United Kingdom 地図 |