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Escape to the Sea - Memoirs of a Victorian Merchant Mariner (Paperback, New)
Loot Price: R430
Discovery Miles 4 300
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Escape to the Sea - Memoirs of a Victorian Merchant Mariner (Paperback, New)
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Loot Price R430
Discovery Miles 4 300
Expected to ship within 12 - 17 working days
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Written by Tom 'Jack' Sullivan Green, AB of Bristol in the 1920s,
"Escape to the Sea" is an inspiring, first-hand account of survival
against the odds of an orphan boy in early Victorian England.
Recounted in a fluent style and peppered with dialogue, this
gripping tale of a seaman's life chronicles both tragedy and comedy
amongst the everyday lot of a working world unimaginable in the
modern era. Tom traces his early life when cholera claimed his
Irish immigrant parents in the London slums of 1848; being
apprenticed to a tailor before running away to sea to escape a
'miserable life'. His new life as an Ordinary Seaman began at
Rochester on a West Hartlepool-based ship, but when a new and
tyrannical skipper made terrifying death threats he was again
forced to run away.Walking from London to Liverpool in 1866 to try
his hand on trans-Atlantic passages, he gives a chilling account of
the last public hanging at Stafford of a murderer, William Collier.
Later in the same year, Tom's travels take him to Georgia, USA
where he gives an eye-witness account of the tragic plight of
slaves who were freed after the American Civil War. Homeless and
weakened by starvation and disease, they came to the river bank to
collect driftwood only to be grabbed by alligators. This
description and other harrowing sights he saw ashore leave a
searing impression of the aftermath of a devastating conflict.
Following various brushes with authority, Tom changes his name to
Jack Green and lies low taking shore jobs near Cardiff where he
turns down working digging the Severn Tunnel due to claustrophobia.
Eventually settling and marrying near Bristol, he experienced more
exotic times as a mariner before he 'swallowed the anchor'.These
included plying the former slave routes to West Africa;
accompanying the third mate of his ship with some locally-recruited
native sailors to collect the future bride of a chieftain which
incurred a series of adventures, some at gunpoint. "Escape to the
Sea" is complemented with documents such as the author's discharge
certificates, illustrations of vessels and harbours visited, maps
and photographs including his handwritten will, which required that
'when the breath is out of my body' it should be buried 'with no
ceremony whatsoever'. A modest end for a colourful character whose
wish was that his experiences should be made available to a wider
audience than his immediate family. This action-packed maritime
autobiography will be of especial interest to anyone with an
interest in maritime history, ships and shipping and anyone looking
for a good read.
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