My Welsh Masters

In the late 1990s I set about researching my family history on my father's side. I chose this branch to research simply because I knew very little about this side of my family.After some four years or so of my research it became clear that this family during the nineteenth and into the twentieth century was very involved with the sea and the maritime life, not only of Cardigan and South Ceredigion's coastal ports and landing places but also the oceans of the world. Their lives on those great sailing ships to far away mysterious destinations were often thought of as perhaps adventurous, exciting or even romantic, but in reality they had much to endure, cut off from their families and normal life ashore on long voyages for months or even years. The conditions on board were pretty awful to say the least. They would have slept in cramped conditions on boarded bunks or on straw mattresses if they were lucky, sometimes perhaps in a hammock. Everything they touched would be cold and wet and the food not only in short supply but also disgusting to eat, such as weevil-ridden hard tack, salted meat and maybe a bit of cheese. They faced the daily dangers of the sea and the weather. Climbing the rigging to trim the sails in all weather conditions was not for the meek, be it wet, cold, icy, stormy, windy or in the blazing hot sunshine of the tropics, but up they had to go. They did all this for very poor pay to boot. It was an extremely dangerous occupation as examples in this book have shown. They had to be tough to survive. Most mariners in this family for example made a lifelong career of seafaring, so what made them return time and again to the sea and to what seems to us today as intolerable conditions in their working lives? Have we missed something? Perhaps there was a grain of truth in the thought that somehow it really was adventurous, exciting, and romantic and worth enduring.What is striking about the mariners in this family is that they were a very ambitious lot. They went to sea at a very young age, some at the age of twelve. They learnt their trade and as soon as they felt able they strived to become a second mate, then first mate and the final goal of master mariner. The majority did reach this eminent position, and who could blame them for wanting to aspire to such heights? Ship's captains have always been held in high regard and are much-respected pillars of the community. In the early years they bought shares in ships, owning ships in their own right and managed the business of trade and cargo. There was much to admire about these seafarers.