Skelendipity

As with my earlier posts in this series, the research into a single sailor who died in unusual circumstances in 1859 has drawn me into a rabbit warren of other intriguing individuals and historical events about which I had previously known nothing. For me it’s never time-wasting, but a wonderful cornucopia of discovery and education. This time, I’ve delved into the background of one of Africa’s first black bishops, a Liverpool shipowner who was against the slave trade, an Irish captain who started a navigation school in San Francisco, a British colonial administrator who became governor of the Leeward Islands and Newfoundland and, not least, a fair amount of the British Empire’s mid-19th Century gunboat diplomacy. (1) Back to my sailor who had the not uncommon name of James Kirkpatrick. As he died in 1859 and without his age, home address (possibly Liverpool) or easy access to the log book of the vessel in which he served or other shipping company personnel or consulate records of the ...