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Sailing to New Countries (and other family boat tales)

This is our latest fun project - very much a work in progress

1710 - Charles Hampton sails to Calcutta on the East India Galley "King William".

1700s - Nicholas Middlecoat Jnr and his brother-in-law William Hambly (Mayor of Falmouth 1798-99) get inot international trade using the Falmouth Packets (but they stay in Cornwall).

1756 - Martin Costelly, who married the widow Anna Hick in  February 1749/50, was the owner / Captain of the sloop "London" which was sunk in the recapture of Calcutta late in 1756.

1780 - Ensign Henry Webber (Madras Army) travels to Madras on the "Belmont" to begin a successful career in the Madras Army - he retires in 1819 as a Major General and returns to take over the family pad "Buckland" in Braunton, Devon. 

c1800 - Ensign James Hampton aged 16 returns to India to join the Madras Native Infantry.  Sailing ships are to be his undoing as he drowns aged 36 in the wreck of the Lady Lushington on 11 August 1821.

Ship unknown as yet

c1807 - Thomas Locke sails to Madras as a cadet / ensign in the Madras Native Infantry.

Ship unknown as yet

1816 - John Adolphus Burton Snr travels from St Pauls, Dublin to Chatham, thence on the East Indiaman "Regent" to become a Matross in the 2nd Battalion, Madras Artillery.

c1822 - George Middlecoat sails to Madras as an Officer Cadet in the Madras Artillery.

Ship unknown as yet

1838-39 - The Waugh Family travel as assisted migrants from Belfast to Sydney on the barque "Garrow" - thence on to Melbourne on the "John Barry".

1857 - James Cooper Stewart sails first class to Melbourne on the sailing cutter "Marco Polo" - "the fastest ship in the world" - and writes a diary on the way.

c1860 - Joseph Sproule leaves Co Tyrone and crosses the Atlantic to New York with his family.  Thence on to Canada to start a new life in Peterborough, Ontario.

1881 - Dr John Adolphus Burton Jnr steams (back) to Madras on the well appointed "HMS Serapis" to join the Indian (Army) Medical Service .

1917 - Captain (Dr) Rex Fletcher enjoys the "Durban Castle" en route to war in Mesopotamia via Cape Town and Durban.

1920 - Captain (Dr) Jimmy Sproule Sails to India on the "Konig Friedrich", thence up to the Kyber Pass, to be joined soon afterwards by Clare and Peggy.

1969 - January - Adrian Fletcher sails on the "Edinburgh Castle" from Southampton to Cape Town, and later (January 1972) on the P&O "Himalaya" from Durban to Sydney, arriving on the 17 January 1972.

After that it was all done by air!

All original material on this site is © Adrian Fletcher  - the contents may not be hotlinked, but they may be reproduced on other non-commercial family web sites or similar with appropriate linked source attribution.