Jul
25
Monthly Archives: July 2014
Jul
20
PROPS Annual Adventure Around Bristol Harbour – Treasure Island Cruise 2014
Our Treasure Island Cruise 2014 was a huge success once again with our friends at special needs charity PROPS in their element roaring and harooing the visitors to Bristol’s 45th Harbour Festival.
The trip nearly didn’t happen after some scallywag blew up the engine of the Brigantia but the Bristol Ferryboat Company came up trumps with an able replacement in the venerable Matilda. Crew were driver Mike Fripp – a favourite of the LJST – and shipmate Gabriel who did a great job keeping us safe and sound and taking no prisoners.
Special thanks must go to John of Westward Travel for getting us there, Liam from the ss Great Britain for ‘doing a deal’ on our much needed ice creams (at cutlass point), the ss Great Britain cafe for the napkins for our messy PROPS pirates and all of the people we held up on Cumberland Road manoeuvring our land carriage for some of our less able seamen.
Many thanks to Brian Henley for the pic’s.
Seb and Cap’n Dumplin’ stealing the show once again, it turns out Seb’s a mate of Ferry Driver Mike from years back and this was the first time they’d seen each other in 35 years!
"Dumplin''"
First time on our Cruise, Howard ended up buying the ice creams, what a star!
Long John Steedsy with Rich and Mo awaiting latecomers (Billy Bones, Blind Pew, Jim Hawkins’ Nan and Uncle)
Rich and Mo studying their picture presentation from the LJST and PROPS and thinking ‘where the heck shall we put this’ – seriously, Mo said she had always admired the Shipsides Tribute picture and now she had one! Rich and Mo have sponsored several of our Treasure Island Cruise’s with PROPS and this was long overdue recognition of that
PROPS pirates in the front again, including Assam having a great time
PROPS pirates in the front including “Where’s the Matthew gone” Ross
PROPS pirates at the back of the boat – including ‘Flash’
SS Great Britain
The "Matthew" in all of her Tudor glory
Seb and Cap’n Dumplin’ stealing the show once again, it turns out Seb’s a mate of Ferry Driver Mike from years back and this was the first time they’d seen each other in 35 years!
"Dumplin''"
First time on our Cruise, Howard ended up buying the ice creams, what a star!
Long John Steedsy with Rich and Mo awaiting latecomers (Billy Bones, Blind Pew, Jim Hawkins’ Nan and Uncle)
Rich and Mo studying their picture presentation from the LJST and PROPS and thinking ‘where the heck shall we put this’ – seriously, Mo said she had always admired the Shipsides Tribute picture and now she had one! Rich and Mo have sponsored several of our Treasure Island Cruise’s with PROPS and this was long overdue recognition of that
PROPS pirates in the front again, including Assam having a great time
PROPS pirates in the front including “Where’s the Matthew gone” Ross
PROPS pirates at the back of the boat – including ‘Flash’
SS Great Britain
The "Matthew" in all of her Tudor glory
Jul
14
Long John Silver Trust letter regarding proposed statue of Alexander Selkirk/Robinson Crusoe in Bristol (published in the Bristol Times, Tuesday 1st July)
Dear Eugene,
I hope you’re keeping well and not over working.
I was delighted to see in last night’s ‘Post a proposal, with funding of nearly £100k, for a Selkirk/Crusoe sculpture in Clifton marking Goldney’s friendship with Woodes Rogers.
As you know, we at the Long John Silver Trust have long campaigned for more representation of Bristol’s maritime and literary past, and this opportunity to celebrate our links with a landmark in British literature seems almost too good to be true.
If the residents of Victoria Square don’t want it though, could we please have it in Castle Park? There are already many fine works of public art there and an internationally renowned figural addition would be just the jolly job I suspect.
I know the Llandoger Trow has long claimed to be the meeting place of Selkirk and Daniel Defoe (the writer of Robinson Crusoe in 1719) but all of my research indicates another meeting place, in Castle Park!
The Scottish seaman Alexander Selkirk was the 7th son of a 7th son, but his early life was awkward and he ran away from home and joined the ill fated Darien expedition, where Scotland tried to set up its first colony strategically placed close to the isthmus of Panama – he was a lucky survivor.
He was not so lucky the next time, he set sail on Dampier and Stradling’s quest for a Spanish treasure ship and was left marooned on Juan Fernandez Island after quarreling with his shipmates over the seaworthiness of the ship he was on. He was subsequently proved right but was left to dwell on his decision for an agonising and lonely 4 years and 4 months.
He was rescued in 1709 by Woodes Rogers’ privateering cruise which was also on a quest for treasure during the Spanish War of Succession, Dampier was now Rogers’ pilot and commended Selkirk as a sailing master and he joined Rogers’ crew immediately, playing a full role in their adventures until ultimately sharing in the spoils.
On return to Britain, Selkirk escaped the press gang and made his way to Bristol with his pal Rogers, staying first in his house in Queen Square before securing lodgings in the Cock and Bottle Inn in what is now Castle Park. According to old Bristol history books, Selkirk enjoyed his celebrity; often dressing in his goatskins and parading before the public, these books also state that he met Defoe in the Star Coffee House which was located above Bristol Castle’s old dungeon keep.
It must have been quite a contrast as Defoe wore the fashions of the day, putting on his powdered wig and lace finery and only going out on a Sunday – the only day ‘Sunday Gentleman’ could escape their creditors!
Local people gave their ‘sworn affy davy’s’ (to paraphrase Long John Silver) that Selkirk handed over his papers to Defoe and that it was these that inspired him to write Robinson Crusoe.
As for Selkirk, after staying for over a year in Bristol he had to run away again after beating up a fellow sailor in a brawl in St Stephen’s Parish.
He went back to Fife, married, brawled, ran away again, married again without divorcing his first wife, and then ran away to sea again this time joining the Royal Navy. He died of disease aboard HMS Weymouth off of the Guinea coast tracking down the world’s most successful pirate ‘Black Bart Roberts’.
So there ‘tis, if Clifton residents really don’t want him, can we all enjoy him in Castle Park? And if you don’t think Selkirk deserves another statue – there’s already a fine one of him in Lower Largo in Fife – then can we please have one of Long John Silver?
ATB
Mark
Above: Dr Thomas Dover (former slave ship surgeon and captain) went as second captain on Rogers’ voyage to represent the backer’s interests. This mural is in the Glenside Museum (Dover was the first to offer his services FOC to St Peter’s hospital in 1695, the lure of money in the African Trade overcame him though)
Above: Daniel Defoe (Bristol and its famous associations 1900ish)
Above: The Cock and Bottle Inn (1888)