Hard down! Hard down!. Captain Jack Isbester
every Sunday at the sailor’s chapel since I came.
Kind love to Granny, Uncle, Mrs M and the children and tell them that if I am spared to come home I shall bring them something nice Write next post both you and granny
I remain your loving nephew
Arthur C Irvine
My adress is Mr Burgess Seamens Bordings 34 Brown Street Glasgow
By July 1867 Arthur was well into a voyage aboard the barque Emerald and, writing6 to his sister Mary Jane, a year older than him, was voicing his distress at the failure of his family to write to him and at the heavy demands of the work required of him while in the port of Genoa. The absence of letters from family and friends has for centuries been a problem for seafarers, and on several occasions John Isbester was distressed when letters expected after a long voyage failed to reach him. In Arthur’s case the problem was probably caused by his failure through inexperience to provide full addresses or to take account of the time required for mail to travel home and then out to the next destination. But there can be no doubt that he was frequently in the thoughts of his mother, sister, aunt and grandma! If there were any prospects of work to be found ashore he wanted to be informed. He had also decided that his name was Al or Alle.
My Dearest Sister,
What is the reason I have got no letter? I have written twice and received no answer. Is our people angry with me or what? I am sick tired of this place and ship and seeing the Shetland lads geting letters from home and me geting none.
Private Make dear sister would you write to Constantinople and tell me if I should come home in winter or what are people is thinking about me? I know that there is something up, else I would have had a letter. If any of them is dead it is gust [just] as good for me to know it now as after but if I don’t get a letter in Constantinople this is the last they shall ever have from me so I must close for want of time tell D to write Love to all I remain your loving brother
Al
Adress to all on board the Barque emerald to the care of Hild & Mathers, ship brokers Constantinople
Private Dearest Sister
I have forgot to tell you something If you see any opening on shore about the time that I come to England for this is hurting me I can agrie fine with the sea work, but this harbour work would kill a horse Write me about 3 weeks and tell me.
Alle
It reads as though he and his fellow sailors were being used to do heavy work, discharging or loading the cargo. One letter which he never received, because it was never sent, was from his mother and sister. It provides a reminder that the laird and his family lived on a working croft, planting potatoes and oats, and were aware of much of the local gossip. In 1867, when Arthur was on his first voyage, his mother writes:7
Strom Bridge Whiteness Shetland 3rd May
My own darling boy,
We were all glad of your letters last week. I hope by this time you are getting on with your voyage & I hope you have fine weather. We have fine dry days now with north wind. We finished our oats on Friday and set some potatoes on Saturday. Andrew Garrick is finished. Annie sends her love to you. That is the only one of them we have seen. Kate writes that she wishes you had come to see her
After giving news of nine family friends and neighbours, she continues:
Now I think I have told you all the news Mary Jane will finish this to you with much love to your dear self I do hope you are taking care of yourself and not fighting with anyone dear darling boy do write soon. your own Mother WM Irvine Stromebridge
Mary Jane was ready to tell him of the scandals rocking the rural community:
My dear brother, How are you getting on? We are jugging along the best way we can. Laurie Morrison was bailed out but was no sooner out than Charles Duncan put him in again for £70 which he was owing him as his lawyer when they went to law about Jane Gibbs Rhilo, so he has to sit till he pays it. Peter Jamison Stromness hens are all dead & he has gone to law, for he say Nellies folk have poisoned them. The Police have been out & taken some of the hens in to inspect I doubt it will go hard with them, they are telling so many lies with love your Mary
Arthur was feeling better about life a few weeks later when he wrote8 from Constantinople to David Hobart, his former schoolmaster and lodger in his parents’ home; or perhaps, writing to a man and not a woman, he was looking for admiration rather than sympathy.
My Dear David,
We are Bound to Odessa to load grain and then I will have more time and write you a long letter Just now I am swearing for the Mate because he wants me to throw a line to the tug & I won’t. I shall try and bring home a turk home with me in winter give my love to all I am as fat as a pig and as strong as a lion you can writ to the General Post Office her and I will get it as I come down again [i.e returning south through the Bosphorus] we are Lying under the sultan’s Palace and the Mahomedans is saying their prayers so good bye for the present I remain yours truly
Ale
In a photo (Fig.2.1) taken about that time, Arthur does indeed look substantially built; but refusing the mate’s order after only four months’ sea service seems rather reckless. Perhaps he is really admitting that he couldn’t, rather than wouldn’t, throw the line to the tug – it’s a skilled task. What sort of turk he proposed to bring home remains a mystery to me.
Arthur did not return home in the winter of 1867–68 and the next surviving letter9 was written to his father a year later, in August 1868, from Runcorn.
Figure 2.1 Arthur Irvine
Dearest Father,
This is to tell you that I have left the New House & shipped on board this one which is called the Norwich Trader of Sunderland We are going to Peterhead with salt and expect to go from there with salt the Syran left here with salt for Lerwick yesterday I thought it very homely to hear my own native Language among the cockneys Dutch Welch and Scotch as soon as I hear it I was not long of singing out Do you belong to Shetland If I had got 20 or 30 £ I would have come with her You can tell David if he does not rube his Face well with crotin oil I shall have more whiskers than him as I can get hold of it with my Teeth
But I will send my things and then you can judge for yourselves as soon as I get to Peterhead. Give my love to all and write by return of post to peterhead so no more at present I remain your loving son
Arthur C Irvine
Adress Arthur C Irvine Care of Capt Sutherland Schooner Norwich Trader Peterhead Scotland
After 15 months at sea Arthur had grown a bit of a beard, had not saved much money, was aroused by Shetland accents and was thinking of returning home. However he did not do so, and his next surviving letter10 was, from the context, written in Greenock in April 1869, before he joined the Ratcliff.
Dearest Mother and Father,
I have shipped for Quebec and am as happy as lary The wages is £4. No advance but we have all taken £3.15 and £2 advance. She carries all Shetlanders tell Mary that Peter11 is with me so that he will be comming home neset winter. I won’t promise to come home neset [next] winter but I will see I am in a hurry as we sail tomorrow and I have got to go up to Glasgow for my things Kind love to all. Write in about a week to Quebec. Your loving boy
Ale