Overview

In order that Emrys Hughes's gazetteer of Porthmadog ships (compiled thirty years ago when there were still many survivors of the age of sail about Porthmadog) should be made available to a wider public, the Gwynedd Archives Service invited Aled Eames, the eminent maritime historian, to edit Emrys Hughes's manuscript.

Full Product Details

9781845271411

Table of Contents

Reviews

In 1975, thanks to the vision, persistence and irrepressible enthusiasm of county archivist Bryn Parry, the invaluable list of Porthmadog ships that had originally been compiled by Emrys Hughes was published by Gwynedd Archives, with an introduction and annotations by Aled Eames. These late pioneers of Welsh maritime history, whose researches appeared regularly in the journal Cymru a'r Mr, laid the foundations for the Institute of Welsh Maritime Historical Studies that has recently been established at the University of Swansea. This new edition of Emrys Hughes' List contains a wealth of additional complementary material that both invites and facilitates further research. Gwasg Carreg Gwlach is to be congratulated on its publication. For these were no ordinary ships. In his Foreword, Basil Greenhill, Director of the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, quotes approvingly from Aled Eames: the later Porthmadog schooners were quite outstanding vessels, the ultimate development of the small wooden sailing ship in Britain. For some three generations, vessels made entirely by local communities along the Meirion shore sailed the coastal waters of the British Isles and beyond to the seven seas. They sailed to ports in the North Sea, engaged in Baltic and Mediterranean trade, and sailed the length of the Atlantic Ocean and on around Cape Horn into the ocean misnamed Pacific by Ferdinand Magellan. The chronology is specific: from the completion of the harbour works in Porthmadog in 1825 to the collapse of the slate trade in the wake of the Great War. In three substantial essays that precede Emrys Hughes' List in this new edition, Aled Eames describes the nature of this remarkable maritime community, its ships and their builders and the seafarers who worked them. Professor J. Glyn Davies is quoted describing the situation of Porthmadog as being a nasty corner of a nasty bay, a reference to the twin hazards of a lee shore and the reef of Sarn Badrig which concerted local talent to excel in ship design. The ships were entirely the product of the local community: carpenters, rope-makers, foundry-men, sail-makers, chandlers and, of course, the mariners themselves, trades much in evidence on memorials in coastal cemeteries. Vocational instruction was provided by navigation schools; more general education via The Portmadoc Mariners and Mechanics Reading Society. These communities, although self-sufficient, were the antithesis of insular. They functioned according to rhythms of trade that encompassed Chilean nitrates, Aruba phosphate, Newfoundland timber, London stable manure and, pre-eminently, the supply of slate to cities as distant as Hamburg or Charleston. Locally, coastal lime carrying was greatly facilitated by improved ship design that enabled cargo to be discharged on exposed beaches. The Emrys Hughes' List was made use of his brother Henry Hughes' Immortal Sails (1946). The 1975 Gwynedd Archives publication contained valuable annotations by Aled Eames and in this edition those are supplemented by additional notes provided by John Alexander, who emphasises that this remains a work in progress, pointing to a wealth of as yet unassimilated sources in local record offices and national archives. Details are provided for close on one thousand ships, their rig, tonnage, voyages and ultimate fate, for the sea is a sorrowful place. The brig Harlech Castle, we learn, was returning from St Petersburg in 1795 when she was captured by the French and the crew interned in France. The Master and two of the crew escaped and landed in Kent where they were greeted in Welsh by members of the Flintshire Militia who were stationed there at the time. Two sets of unlisted but clearly titled black-and-white illustrations complement the List which is further augmented by over a dozen further studies, mainly short essays on particular vessels from the pens of Aled Eames, Emrys Hughes and Lewis Lloyd. [Just one salty quibble. Ships are by custom feminine and, when named, do not take the definite article even if the name of the ship is masculine. Thus, although one might have watched the schooner Volunteeer being launched at Borth-y-gest, Capt. Evan Jones was master of Volunteer.] David Barnes It is possible to use this review for promotional purposes, but the following acknowledgment should be included: A review from www.gwales.com, with the permission of the Welsh Books Council. Gellir defnyddio'r adolygiad hwn at bwrpas hybu, ond gofynnir i chi gynnwys y gydnabyddiaeth ganlynol: Adolygiad oddi ar www.gwales.com, trwy ganiatd Cyngor Llyfrau Cymru. -- Welsh Books Council

Author Information

Tab Content 6

Customer Reviews

Recent Reviews

Countries Available