{"id":31693,"date":"2024-03-01T09:52:55","date_gmt":"2024-03-01T08:52:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/8862bfe6-4312-488c-8036-08077c34966e"},"modified":"2024-03-01T10:34:28","modified_gmt":"2024-03-01T09:34:28","slug":"my-great-grandfather-was-trapped-on-his-ship-in-a-storm-while-his-wife-was-giving-birth-to-their-first-child","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/wdytya\/rss_feed\/my-great-grandfather-was-trapped-on-his-ship-in-a-storm-while-his-wife-was-giving-birth-to-their-first-child\/","title":{"rendered":"My great grandfather was trapped on his ship in a storm while his wife was giving birth to their first child"},"content":{"rendered":"

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By Gail Dixon\n <\/p>

Published: Friday, 01 March 2024 at 08:52 AM<\/p>

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For many years, Barry Maguire drove a bus on the beautiful route between Keswick and Lancaster. \u201cOne day in 1976, I was driving a heavily loaded coach out of Kendal,\u201d Barry explains. \u201cAs we struggled up to Windermere, I noticed an elderly lady pushing her way to the front. She asked me to drop her off at the \u2018whale\u2019s jaw bones\u2019, which seemed an odd request.\u00a0<\/p>

\u201cI pulled in beside a pair of large bones that formed an arch over a farm gate. I joked, \u2018It must have been a high tide when they arrived here.\u2019 The lady replied, \u2018The whale was fine when he arrived, but that\u2019s what happens when you\u2019re waiting for buses.\u2019<\/p>

\u201cHer remark reminded me of a tale told years earlier by my great grandfather, Captain Charles Edward Jones. He was a master mariner and a great storyteller.\u201d<\/p>

Charles was born at Connah\u2019s Quay in Flintshire, North-East Wales<\/a>, in 1875. His father owned a schooner that carried bulk cargo out of Porthmadog, Gwynedd.\u00a0<\/p>

Charles was gifted academically, and his teachers suggested that he attend university. He had different ideas, however, and at the age of 12 stowed away on his father\u2019s ship to begin a seafaring career.\u00a0<\/p>

He gained his Coastal Masters Certificate aged 21, and a year later had his own command. It was a remarkable achievement for a young man.\u00a0<\/p>

\u201cCharles had many tales to tell of maritime life, including an occasion when he towed a stricken vessel off Goodwin Sands in Kent, saving the crew\u2019s lives.\u201d<\/p>

In 1906, Charles married Bertha Brown and they settled in the coastal village of Heysham near Morecambe. Charles operated a suction dredger in the bay named the Laga<\/em>, which drew sediment from the seabed to keep the harbour safe for shipping.\u00a0<\/p>

On the night of 16 March 1907, a storm was brewing. Tides 30 feet high were predicted, and an 80 mph south-westerly gale was blowing. A fortnight of rain had raised the levels of the local rivers, and the tide was battling against the floodwater to come in.<\/p>

\u201cAs night fell the tide rushed in like a tsunami. It must have been a very anxious time for Charles, especially because Bertha was in labour with their first child. There was a real risk of the Laga<\/em> filling with water and sinking.<\/p>

\u201cHe did all that he could to ensure his ship\u2019s safety, doubling up mooring lines and leaving the engine room manned with the mate and two sailors.\u201d<\/p>

Charles\u2019 vivid account of the storm included a tale of seawater rushing into the local isolation hospital and carrying away two of the patients.<\/p>

Despite the maelstrom, Charles and Bertha\u2019s eldest child Ethel was born safe and well at home, and the Laga<\/em> survived the chaos. Barry\u2019s grandmother Dorothy was born a year later.<\/p>

As the water receded, the body of a sperm whale was discovered beached by the flood. Thousands of people came to view it.\u00a0<\/p>

\u201cThe decomposing whale began to stink, so the carcass was set ablaze in a local field. The farmer rescued the jawbones and put them over his gate. It\u2019s a massive coincidence that they later became a bus stop on my route.<\/p>

\u201cCharles passed away when he was 92,\u201d Barry concludes. \u201cHe was a remarkable man \u2013 strict but endlessly patient, and he used to enthral us with his stories.\u201d<\/p> <\/body><\/html>\n