Hard down! Hard down!. Captain Jack Isbester
was the last his family ever heard from him. In Quebec he died by drowning on Saturday 5 June 1869, aged 17, although the record12 of his burial in the Hôpital de la Marine on 14 June describes him as aged 22. (In those days seamen in their sixties understated their ages while youngsters evidently did the opposite.) Arthur Irvine was shown in the Ship’s Articles as aged 20. The ship’s official log book records, in an entry signed by the master, the mate and one of the Shetland ABs:13
June 5th 1869 8PM Arthur Irvine while in the act of taking a rope into the boat fell into the river and sunk [sic]. The alarm was immediately given when all hands got onto the booms to use every effort to save him but the man never again rose to the surface. The body was dragged for but [they] did not succeed in finding him.
From his subsequent burial it is clear that his body was later found. Family tradition is that he fell from the ship’s gangway. It is likely that Ratcliff was at an anchorage and access to the shore was by boat. Saturday evening, after drink has been taken, is a dangerous time, and the access to the ship is often a dangerous place. Whatever the circumstances this was a tragic loss of someone at the very start of adult life and serves well to illustrate the precariousness of life at sea in the 19th century.
Arthur Irvine’s effects, after more than two years at sea, are listed in the Official Log Book14 as:
Three pair of trousers, two guernsey frocks, two red singlets, two coulered flannel shirts, 3 jumper frocks, 2 pair of drawers, 2 sleeves, 1 waistcoat, 1 black waistcoat, 1 coat, 1 blanket, 1 rug, 5 pairs of socks, 1 towel, 2 caps, 2 comforters, 3 mits, 1 pair of braces, 1 bible, 1 pann, 1 knife, 3 sticks of tobbaco, 2 handkerchiefs, all stored in his chest.
Arthur’s wages for six weeks work as an AB were £5 7s 6d, from which were deducted a £2 advance and 5/- for the tobacco, leaving wages of £3 7s 6d due to him. It is likely that his family only learnt of his death from fellow Shetland crew members as the Ship’s Articles showed simply that he came from Shetland.
David Hobart, on holiday in Scotland in the autumn of 1869, had apparently been making enquiries on behalf of the family about any outstanding wages due to Arthur Irvine. He wrote:15
James Spence gave the number of the vessel required; it is 15686 and the port she belongs to is London. The only thing wanted now is the amount of wages he received when she sailed. But that might be found out by writing to the owners Hall Brothers, Great Chare, Newcastle-on-Tyne. I shall write and ask them to send you word, or if you thought it would be too long to wait you might send in the official number & the port she belongs to at once to Mr Nicolson & he would fill up the shedule & give it to me.
Happily John Isbester, the primary subject of this book, survived and was strengthened by his early years at sea. It was not until 45 years had passed that my grandmother, a little girl when her brother died, was to be exposed to another heart-breaking maritime disaster.
1 Hobart, David, letter H3 of 03.10.1867 (Isbester Collection).
2 From the context it is clear that this was 1.00 pm.
3 Hobart, David, letter H16 of 27.09.1869 (Isbester Collection).
4 Irvine, Arthur, letter A1 of 05.04.1867 (Isbester Collection).
5 Irvine, Arthur, letter A2 of 21.04.1867 (Isbester Collection).
6 Irvine, Arthur, letter A3 of 16.07.1867 (Isbester Collection).
7 Irvine, WM & MJ, letter WMI1 of 03.05 1867 (Isbester Collection).
8 Irvine, Arthur, letter A4 of 23.08.1867 (Isbester Collection).
9 Irvine, Arthur, letter A5 of 02.08.1868 (Isbester Collection).
10 Irvine, Arthur, letter A6 of 21.04.1869 (Isbester Collection).
11 Ratcliff Articles of Agreement, 1869, The Maritime History Archive, Newfoundland, list Peter Goudie and Peter Anderson, both from Shetland.
12 Quebec, Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1621–1967 Record for Arthur Irvine.
13 Ratcliff Official Log Book, 1869. The Maritime History Archive, Newfoundland.
14 Ratcliff Official Log Book, 1869, ibid.
15 Hobart, David, letter H16 of 27.09.1869 (Isbester Collection).
Family tradition has it that my grandfather started his seafaring career at the Shetland herring fishing in 1866, when he was aged 14. Herring fishing was a summer activity, with the shoals being found to the west of Shetland in May and June before moving east of Shetland in July and August. In Whiteness, as elsewhere in Shetland in the 1860s, fishing was a major activity – there were 363 boats and about 1,500 men and boys employed in the Shetland herring fisheries in 1859, and 17 ship or sloop masters lived in the parishes of Tingwall, Whiteness and Weisdale.1
It is not difficult to guess John Isbester’s motives for turning to a life at sea. Captain Thomson of Sandness in Shetland was writing about my grandfather, but was drawing on his own experience of growing up in the same vicinity a few years later, when he wrote2
Haggersta was his early lookout station and the mouth of Weisdale Voe with its islands and the great ocean beyond, was the panorama before him. Every croft around the voe had its noost [place where a boat could be drawn out of the water] with one or more boats according to the family requirements, for fishing, travelling and inter island transit. In addition there were schooners, smacks and herring boats making their way to and from distant waters in search of those denizens of the deep, the cod and herring.
In the 1860s much of the Shetland fishing was done from open boats, sixareens, fourareens or quilleys. The sixareens, used in most parts of Shetland were double-ended boats about 10 metres in length overall with a crew of six. They were alternatively known as sixearns, the spelling and pronunciation varying from one part of Shetland to another. The fourareens, about 7 metres long, were used on the southern part of the west coast of Shetland, including Whiteness, where they were better suited to the local harbours and beaches. The sixareens were used for what was known as the ‘Haaf’ fishing, for cod and ling, up to 40 miles offshore in boats that might be at sea for up to three days. The fourareens were fished up to about 15 miles from land, while