June 2005 RootsChat Challenge

[Boongie Pam]

7 January 1863
Sells his land in Wollongong New South Wales to James Waddell Frazer for 100 pounds. The deed of conveyance signed under Power of Attorney by his half brother James Molison.  See No. 427, Book 81 Registrar Generals Office, Sydney.

19 Oct 1863
Edwin Fox sailed for Bombay with her regular cargo of London General and India Pale Ale. Arrived at Bombay on 8 February 1864. The ship lay idle until 7 May 1864.

7 May 1864
Sailed for Calcutta with coastal cargo. Arrived 26 May 1864.

11 July 1864
Sailed in ballast for Hong Kong looking for cargo. On 17 July the First Mate died of dysentery and was buried at sea. Arrived Hong Kong on 10 August. Unable to secure cargo the ship lay idle for two months.

12 Oct 1864
Sailed in ballast for Singapore. A full load of general cargo was obtained in Singapore.

28 Dec 1864
Sailed for Capetown and London.  Arrived Capetown about 15 March 1865. Took on "wool, and skins" from Capetown. Called off St. Helena on 7 April and reached Gravesend on 8 June 1865.

June 1865
A new Master came on board the Edwin Fox in London, a Captain Alexander J. Molison, 29 years old.

10 August 1865
The Edwin Fox was again chartered by the Transport Service and loaded units of the Royal Horse Artillery, 26th Cameronians, 33rd, 45th, 103rd, 106th and 113th Regiments of Foot, all from Aldershot Barracks. There were 195 men, 20 women and 22 children. She sailed from Portsmouth and arrived in Bombay on 9 December, 121 days. During this voyage 12 of the soldiers died as well as 3 infant children. Two births were recorded.

3 Feb 1866
Sailed from Bombay, called at St. Helena on 6 April 1866, and arrived at Spithead on 30 May 1866. Still in the service of the Transport Service she carried 143 military personnel, many of them invalids, 14 women and 31 children. During the voyage 15 invalids and 1 child died, plus 1 saloon passenger who died just 14 days out.

30 May 1866
ASM increases his shares in the Edwin Fox to 20.

24 November 1866
'Edwin Fox', goes aground on the South Male atoll, Maldive Islands while captained by his son AJM, who by a masterpiece of seamanship got the ship off the reef and sailed it without a rudder from South Male to Bombay for repairs.  Masters certificate suspended pending an enquiry-which exonerated him of blame, and returned his certificate praising him for his seamanship.

Captain Alexander Strachan Molison assumed command following the death of his son. He was still one of the ship's owners at this time.

4 May 1867
ASM- Sailed as Captain on a homeward voyage Bombay to London with general cargo and 4 officers and 59 invalid soldiers, 12 convicted men, 11 women, 33 children and 2 "lunatics". Six soldiers died enroute. As the ship's doctor later wrote, the cold southern waters seemed to carry more mortality potential than the heat of the tropics. The ship arrived in London on 30 August 1867. The ship received a new Master, Captain William Black.   ASM left the Edwin Fox as Captain at this time.

29 Oct 1867
ASM sold his shares in the ship to Gellatlys.

[liverpool annie]

Good Girl Pam .... fill up the pages !! - but what a tremendous amount of information you have there........

( "I have thinker's block" ......!!

I don't know why - can't get anything to work out.......!! )

But there's some really good info here and confirmations too !!

Thanks for all of this - this is so cool isn't it??


Annie

PS Just figured out why I can't think - it's 1pm and I haven't had a ciggie all day

[Manchester Rambler]

Do you think the unaccustomed heat is getting to us and slowing us up?

Temperatures here in England are 21degrees C + today and the sky is blue.

Maybe the garden is proving more tempting than the PC, as posts to this thread have slowed up a little!

MR - time to get the whip out!

cheers

Paul

Thanks Paul!  My own garden's in dire need of weeding, and the housework is building up ominously - I don't object at all if folk need a breathing space to take in the incredible amount of information we've amassed so far!

Now shhh!  If I don't do some flute practice before Friday, I'm going to be in serious trouble, so please type your posts QUIETLY for the next half-hour....  

Rambler

[Boongie Pam]

I am going to post these and I apologise to those who think this is spoiling the game.  But anyone out there with Master Seaman can see what a great lot of info is out there.

DUNCAN DUNBAR MOLISON:

A reg'd Captain with Lloyds Cert no. 29.670 first issued London 1869.

His record of service at sea was extracted from the registers of Lloyds Ships Captains held at the Guildhall Library, London

1869
'Celia' till July 27th
'Medway' till Sept 23rd.

1870  
'Sabrina'  2 voyages Out 1 March, back May 7, and out May 12 and back Aug 14.

1871
'Medora"  Jan 11-June 11
'Sabrina'  Aug 2-Nov 21

1873
Capt  'Great Eastern'  Lloyds ships register for Captains at the Guildhall Library shows the entries against DDM's name as '21891 NA May 5.  US Sept 19.'  This indicates he sailed her to the United States on that date. (from 1865-1874, the Great Eastern submerged 5 Trans.-Atlantic lines and repaired 4 of them in mid-ocean) 1873 Jun. 6, sailed from Valencia to Hearts Content

1874
Aug. 23, arrives at Hearts Content to lay cable West to East

1874
Aug. 26, begins laying cable West to East to Valencia (took 2 weeks)

1874 ?
Sails to Millhaven to be "mothballed". Stays until 1876 when it assists in making 2 dry docks

ARTICLES: #1

'IN THE 1860'S, the 'Great Eastern' was the only ship large enough to carry the single length of cable needed to span the Atlantic. She began life in 1858 as the Leviathan, designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel. She was used as a passenger ship on the Australia and Far East route and her name was changed to Great Eastern. However, this route was not a financial success and by 1864 she was in dock.
On the 4th April 1864, the cable manufacturers Glass Elliot of Greenwich came to an arrangement with the Great Eastern Steamship Company and her new life as a cableship began. She laid the successful Atlantic cable of 1866 with James Anderson as her captain. In 1872 the Great Eastern was docked in Liverpool. She rusted away until she was scrapped in 1888.  
The Great Eastern weighed 18,000 tons and was 700 feet long and 85 feet wide. When converted into a cableship she had three enormous cable tanks.      
The only known photograph of the commander and ship's officers of the Great Eastern. It was taken on November 5, 1869.'

NOTE:  This article is clearly wrong on its dates.  The ship was at sea extensively in 1873 and 1874

ARTICLES: #2

The Great Eastern was the largest steamship in the world in the second half of the 19th century. Launched in 1858, the Great Eastern was unsurpassed in length until White Star's Oceanic II in 1899 and not in displacement until Cunard's Lusitania in 1906.

The ship was designed by the British engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel and constructed for the Eastern Steam Navigation Company.

The ship took five years to build, had a displacement of 22,500 tons, a length of 211 meters (693 ft), a width of 37 meters (120 ft), and a depth of hull of 18 meters (58 ft).

The iron hull had both screw and paddle wheel propulsion, with auxiliary power from 5435 square m (6500 square yd) of sail on six masts. The masts were named after the days of the week (Monday, Tuesday..)

The ship had five funnels, each 100 feet high and 6 feet in diameter. The two paddle wheels were 58 feet in diameter, and the propeller 24 feet.

The Eastern Steam Navigation Company was a British corporation formed in 1852 to maintain an ocean steam route from Great Britain to Australia around the Cape of Good Hope. In 1853 the directors concluded that, because of the cost of maintaining coaling stations on the way, such a route would not pay unless the carrier could carry enough coal for the voyage out and home, besides a large number of passengers and a sizable cargo. The result was the Great Eastern.

Despite the elaborate planning for the Great Eastern and the renown it gained because of its size, the vessel did not make a financial success as a passenger vessel. It is best remembered as the ship that laid the first successful Atlantic cable and several other cables. The ship was dismantled in 1889.

With the help of your imagination we hope to give you a glimpse of 1858, the year the great Eastern was completed.

Brunel built the ship for a side launch. Due to a number of factors, the difficulty of getting the ship from the building ways and into the water became an immense undertaking. The Great Eastern was initially called the "Leviathan".

1874  
Richmond
Arratoon Apcar

1875
Arratoon Apcar to Uruguay again.

1876
Ostrich

1877
Earl of Aberdeen

1878
Merlin
Dragon  from 25 July 1878

New Cert issued C07666

1880
Clan Frazer

1881
Flamingo
Dryburgh Abbey

1882
Dryburgh Abbey

1883
Abydos

1884
Petrarch
Mula

1885
Lutetia

The record in the book ends there.  They were the original books kept by Lloyds.  DDM only qualified for steam, and not for sail.  To have captained the Great Eastern must have been a great thrill.



That's it.

Pam
 

[MaryA]

I'm going to totally change the subject from the Molisons so Pam can you tell me when you finish this thread and then I'll check in with my next bit.

[liverpool annie]

Thanks Pam!!

Somebody has done an awful lot of work - there is NO WAY we could have got a tenth of that - I'm amazed that people even think to write that down - my family will have an awful time with me - for that very reason - I don't keep diaries or logs or journals or anything like that - and it is so cool to read other people's information - fascinating ....!

I'm imagining Yul Brynner taking charge of a sheep!!

Thanks so much for sharing that  

Annie

[Keziahemm]

Paul - I reckon we should all retire to the garden with a stiff drink to digest all the above info 

I don't know if this has been posted before

1881 RG11/0134  Folio 40  page 21      29 Margaret St.,  Marlebone, London

Annie Horndey (Houndey) (?)   -   Unm  75   Householder  b: Somerset
 Alice M Robertson   visitor  Unm   22   Lady of Means   b: London


Susan 

[MaryA]

So much stuff there Pam, really informative, I'm a bit like Annie, like to know where and what the ships are doing, so many places they must have seen, although I don't know whether I'd like to have been a wife of one of these guys, you would never know where you were going to have your next child, on dry land or water.

Now my thread back to Charles children again, that is these people who like to confuse us, with ages, names and other stuff.  I know we have the Ewing name running through this thread but do we have any connected with Nottingham?  The only mention of Nottingham I can find is where Claude was at school.  But then this is a widow, soI suppose that could explain it, or maybe her name is just a coincidence.

September 1877 Liverpool 8b 450
TAYLOR   William   JOHNSON   Jessie   Liverpool, Register Office   Liverpool
Source LancashireBMD – extracted from Parish Registers so “Register Office” ceremony may well mean that this marriage took place in a Catholic Church and the registrar attended.

RG11/3639 Toxteth Park Folio 34 Page 2
1881 10 Upper Hill Street, Toxteth Park
William Taylor Head Mar 28 Ship Carpenter Scotland
Jessie Wife M 28 Lancashire Liverpool
James Son 1 “ “
John Allan Boarder Unm 23 Ship Carpenter Scotland

RG12/2926 Toxteth Park, Folio 108 Page 46
1891 6 Upper Hill Street, Toxteth Park
William G Taylor Head M 37 Shipwright Born at Sea
Janet Wife M 38 Liverpool
Margaret G daug 13 scholar “ “
James D son 11 “ “
Jessie A dau 8 “ “
Harriet B “ 6 “ “
Florence V “ 3 “
Amy E “ 1month “
William Evans Boarder S 29 Break Examiner ? ? N Wales Brymbo
George H “ S 18 Plumber Manchester
Annie Ewing “ Widow 38 Stewardess Nottingham

RG13/3433 Toxteth Park Folio 104 Page 1
1901 6 Upper Hill Street, Toxteth Park
William Taylor Head M 47 Shipwright Scotland
Jessie Wife M 48 Lancs Liverpool
James Son S 21 Ships Engineer “ “
Jessie daur S 18 Dressmaker “ “
Harriet “ 16 Milliner “ “
Florence “ 13            “ “
Amy  “ 11                 “ “
Annie “ 7                 “ “

Once again we seem to have a missing child in 1881, we SHOULD have a 3 year old Margaret with them and how on earth has Jessie suddenly changed to Janet?  I thought he had remarried until I found them in 1901.

[Paul E]

Pam - there's no way that 'spoils the game': that level of information would have taken months for someone to assemble and our task is helped if we can use the researches of others.

Now...  Liverpool Annie has dug up an interesting record of entry to to San Francisco of a Douglas Robertson, born London 1 May 1901, on the SS Siberia Maru in September 1919.  Shown as the son of a US citizen, destination Leavensworth Kansas.

I *think* the record we have for Douglas' birth is an IGI submission.

Definately worth keeping an eye on ths one - thanks Annie!

Paul