JAMES WATSON WATSON AT SEA
It is worth contemplating our ancestors at sea. Some long distance travel may have been overland eg to Poland, but many others made even greater journeys. Regular trips by plane, in family history terms, fairly recent. Everyone else would have sailed - literally.
Various Watsons certainly had experience of long sea voyages. One example is the then new settlement in the Bathurst area of what was to become South Africa's Eastern Cape, in 1820. Another were the voyages of Thomas Boswell Watson followed by Alexander Skirving Watson to Macao and Hong Kong.
Yet we only find one that took up a career in the navy. James Watson Watson. Also see WATSON JAMES WATSON. The family links to Plymouth were still in the future. And so were links to the navy through other relatives, such as the Scotts, to which they married.
I got particularly interested in James Watson through a handwritten journal of his of South American voyages that I have inherited. It has “H. M. S. SPIDER” in India ink across its cover.
James was born in 1835 in Poland, one of 7 siblings to Alexander Scott Watson and Agnes Kedslie. As the circumstances there turned sour, this generation looked further afield. Mona Mcleod in her book (Agents of Change : Scots in Poland 1800-1918) mentions one that went to India, but I have no idea who that was. Alexander Skirving Watson followed an uncle out to Hong Kong. Agnes Catherine Watson married Robert Thomas Charles Scott and settled in Shetland (as we see in the first section of this article). And James joined the Royal Navy and sailed the seas visiting far off British colonies and various other countries.
James was my paternal great grandfather so he has specific relevance to me.
The fly leaf of his journal has a sepia coloured photo with a group of men, smartly dressed, most with bow ties and beards, one with a panama hat. Chaps out on the town, wherever that was, or perhaps simply adventure photographed in style.
The page opposite notes :
Rosario
Santa Fe
South America
4th February 1868
------ Perry - Schmitz - Heyward R. N.
Mc Nab Wright
Martin R. N. Johnston Layton
Our James is not mentioned, but that dapper chap at the left-rear is apparently him. His signature appears on the preceding page as Ja. W. Watson. (Beards and glasses certainly make faces look similar!). Although in civilian dress, this appears to be a group of both naval personnel and others either from his ship or who he met ashore. His text notes how he met up with others from other ships.
The rest of the book has dates in the left column and almost daily accounts of their progress and excursions (TBC) and ends with tight columns of latitudes and longitudes noted as being From Monte Video to Devonport …... (part illegible). The book is more a journal than a diary. And it enables a very tangible link through to this adventurous ancestor.
This is a small ink and watercolour map by Alexander is entitled Track Chart of HMS “Black Prince” between Gibraltar, Halifax & Portsmouth.
This is a small watercolour by Alexander. On the reverse is Near Invergordon Scotland August 1884 JWW
James was to marry Dinah Richards in London on the 14th December 1834. He died in Plymouth on the 23rd February 1913. Plymouth has become significant with the family having moved there presumably because of it being a major naval base.
Dinah was born on the 14th December 1834 and died on the 23rd February 1913 and was buried in St Baurdeux Cemetry, Plymouth aged 78 years.
James and Dinah had 4 children of which Alexander Richards Watson, born in Plymouth on the 30th January 1873, was to be my paternal grandfather. More on him under his own section, but we note that Alexander was born while he was on a voyage. My father noted: His mother Dinah registered his birth as Father James Watson Watson, an Engineer Officer R. N. was on the China Station in H. M. S. Thetis. (For China Station see : http://www.thefullwiki.org/China_Station. This may explain an heirloom that I have of a japanned photo album. It has some extraordinary photographs from various parts of the Far East. More of that later).
Returning to James Watson Watson :
The tendency to use surnames as middle names had become tradition. That is not a misprint. He was really James Watson Watson and that explains the W in his signature in his journal. (My father was to be Brian Watson Watson). He was to become an engineer in the Royal Navy. From Plymouth he made several trips around the world – the journal in my possession, probably just one recording a particular trip. I have included some transcription from his journal below to give an idea of the voyage on H.M.S. Spider. These notes of my father's give a synopsis of a voyage on H. M. S Narcissus. I don't know the original source.
On 9th May 1865 he arrived in Rio de Janeiro, South America, on H. M. S. Narcissus on 3rd June 1865. He left on H. M. S. Narcissus for Monte Video where he took over H. M. S. Spider on 21st June 1865 – on which he was to remain until they arrived back home and anchored in the “sound” on 21st April 1869 and were finally paid off on 1st May 1869.
H. M. S. Spider was armed with 100 pounder and 40 pounder Armstrong Guns and saw service between Buenos Aires and up the River Plate to Uruguay including Parana and Rosario and was present during the battles between Paraguay and Brazilia at Asuncion.
From 1st November 1878 to 16th December 1878 James journeyed on H.M.S. Black Prince across the Atlantic. James took this very seriously and produced a small ink and watercolour record of the voyage which I have. It is labelled Track chart of H.M.S. “Black Prince” between Gibraltar, Halifax & Port.
I have been trying to find out more about his ships. Ship names are reused for new ones in the Royal Navy and sometimes they seem to overlap, older ones remaining in service while new ones are launched. Wiki tells us a little. If these dates are correct, then so are these ships. (However the only illustrations that I can find apply to subsequent ships of the same names).
HMS Narcissus(launched 1859) was a wooden-hulled screw frigate in service from 1859 to 1883. Steam.
HMS Spider (1856), a wooden gunboat built on the Tyne by T W Smith in 1856, which later served in South America and South Africa. Dimensions: Length Overall: 106' x Breadth: 22' x Depth: 8
HMS Spider is also mentioned in the website below as:
Spider, 1856
Type: Gunboat ; Armament 4
Launched : 23 Feb 1856 ; Disposal date or year : 1870
BM: 232 tons
Propulsion: Screw
Machinery notes: 60 hp
Notes: All gunboats from 1 Jan 1856, are to be commissioned as independent commands with a crew of 36 men and officers.
23 Apr 1856 Present at Fleet Review, Spithead ; Blue Squadron ; Commander Davies
14 Jan 1862 Devonport. Commissioned.
1864 on the South East Coast of America. Report of fever and seizure onboard : number of Cases of Disease and Injury.
HMS Thetis was a Briton-class wooden screw corvette built for the Royal Navy in the late 1860s.
The same website lists ships of the Royal Navy and also gives very interessting descriptions of conditions through the centuries : Naval Social History - Circa 1793 - 1920+ http://www.pbenyon.plus.com/Naval.html
I have this loose photograph of HMS Thetis, presumably from his own collection.
The Narcissus is described much as above, but with a lengthy summary of movements.
This where I begin with some guesswork. Not all of the photograph collection that I have inherited is labelled. The following two photos are examples.
Based on both the photo from the Spider journal above and later photos, I am fairly confident that it is James slightly obscured to the extreme right, almost in a row of his own, almost shyly. You can just make out his rank of Lieutenant Commander.
This next picture is labelled Fleet Surgeon Barry R. N. The initials M.T.H. Appear below, but I suspect they are of the photographer. I think this was taken aboard H.M.S. Hermes. That certainly appears to be James, this time promoted to Commander and posing with the fleet surgeon.
James with Fleet Surgeon Barry R. N.
When he retired from the navy the family moved to 25 Seaton Avenue, Mutley Plain, Plymouth.
The house still stands. (As do some others which they evidently moved to. The birth of children records their homes too).
James and Dinah had 5 children. Of these I wish to focus on Alexander Richards Watson. He was born on 30th January in Plymouth. He moved to South Africa, married and became my paternal grandfather. This is all described in the main website listing.
This photo is labelled : 1910. Colin. Joan. GrandPa Watson & Hal. In back garden of 25 Seaton Avenue Plymouth
