Captain Jack Isbester

Hard down! Hard down!


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weeks of the wedding. John Isbester needed to earn some money but did not want to risk a deep sea voyage which might put him on the other side of the world when their first child was born. Instead he was fortunate to obtain a short-term appointment as master of a schooner sailing from Lerwick to the Baltic.

      The law required that when a British ship travelled outside Home Trade Limits a master with a full foreign going master’s certificate must be carried. Captain Mactavish, owner and master of the schooner Ann Mactavish had no foreign going certificate, so when his ship was offered a cargo from Lerwick to Danzig he needed a master for the voyage.; John Isbester took the job, sailing from Lerwick on 22 August 1884. Being in love’s grip and on his best behaviour and having little experience of writing love letters his communication usefully reads very much like a voyage report.

      Arriving at Hornbæk at the northern entrance to The Sound, the waterway between Denmark and Sweden, he wrote:

      John Isbester was visiting the Baltic for his first and only time, and it is no surprise that he was enraptured by the Danish village, with its clean and brightly painted houses set in a verdant countryside basking in still, clear summer weather. He continued:

      Later, when in The Sound, he wrote:

      After explaining that he hoped to land his letter when passing Copenhagen, John Isbester enquired about the farm work and visitors to Olligarth, then continued with some intriguing domestic details.

      It reads as though Susie was laying down some rules about when a change of clothing or a spot of religion was needed, and John was prepared to go along with that provided he could remember what he had been told. In their correspondence throughout their marriage there are hints that Susie, using tact and charm, exercised her influence on him to make the best of himself.

      On 24 September the Ann Mactavish was discharging in Danzig but with no news of a homeward cargo. Captain John wanted to buy a pair of slippers for Susie but it was difficult:

      In 1884 Danzig was part of Prussia, part of the German Empire. In the 19th century, when the British merchant navy comprised half of world shipping, British merchant seamen expected the whole world to speak English.

      Writing again from Danzig while the crew, assisted by three local men, were loading a timber cargo, John Isbester responded to Susie’s questions about drink.