Apart from the tangible reasons for wanting to go sailing, there is a more, for want of a better term, "spiritual" side to my desire to get out on the ocean waves ... or at least the coastal ripples anyway.
Some years ago, whilst suffering from a fairly severe bout of manic depression (or bipolar disorder as the medics like to call it) I became obsessed, as only a manic depressive can become obsessed, with researching our family history. For over a year every waking moment was spent researching on-line document sources and collating every scrap of information that came my way from an ever growing number of distant relations with whom I made contact.
Whilst I had always been aware that my family had recent maritime connections, my father served his time in the shipyards and then spent several years in the Merchant Navy, several uncles were at sea in my childhood, both my grandfathers worked in the yards and so on, I was surprised at the extent and the long history of my families involvement with merchant shipping.
I was equally surprised to discover that the bulk of those maritime connections, and particularly those stretching back into antiquity, are on my mothers side of the family - particularly the Dykes and the Almonds (my mothers maiden name and her paternal grandmothers maiden name)
The Dykes family in Sunderland descended from one Edward Dykes who was an Essex lad, born in Heybridge and raised in Maldon by his agricultural labourer father. He and his six brothers all went to sea - one as a mate on a sailing barge, the rest on coasting colliers. Edward and his eldest brother John, who was a master of a collier and later a Tyne river pilot, settled in the North East, other brothers settled in London, Portsmouth and Lancashire.
One brother disappeared and is rumoured to have been captured by the Congress navy whilst blockade running on a Royal Navy frigate (two such RN frigates were captured but there is no record of a George Dykes to be found). Family legend has it that he took the offer of becoming an American citizen rather than being held prisoner and thereafter feared the retribution of the Royal Navy should he ever fall into their hands. He would have had good reason for fear too however I have found no firm evidence to corroborate the tale..
The Almonds were originally from Scarborough, via Middlesbrough, where for generations they were shipwrights. One of my ancestors was on the crew of the first Scarborough lifeboat.
On another maternal ancestral line I found the wonderfully, and for a "Swallows and Amazons" fan aptly, named Robert Blackett - a ships master until in his 60's he finished up as a ships cook!
Mind you, whilst my maternal ancestory contains many nautical connections, my paternal side is not entirely lacking in mariners. My Great Great Grandfather, from whom our surname is derived, was one Paul Pettke, a Prussian (or possibly American of Prussian descent) seaman who married a local girl and settled in Sunderland - a common theme amonst my seafaring ancestors. Those Sunderland lasses must have been really something in the 19th century!
Several generations of the Thompsons, my paternal grandmothers family, worked in the shipyards and some went to sea when no work ashore was to be had, albeit reluctantly according to family legend.
My Great Great Grandfather John Marshall was a member of the Wear Watch or in other words a river policeman for many years policing the docks, staithes, wharves and the river itself in one of the busiest, if not the busiest, ship building and coal exporting ports in the world.
Whilst Sunderland did not build big ships, the river being too narrow and shallow for that, they built a LOT of smaller ships and in some years built more tonnage of shipping than the whole of the rest of the UK put together. The Clyde and Belfast may be able to point to the big showy numbers like liners and battleships but it was on the Wear that the thousands of run of the mill merchantmen that made up the backbone of the world sea trade were launched and my family had a hand in some of those ships for many generations.
So to cut a long story slightly shorter, for I could ramble on in this vein for thousands of words, my pre-existing attachment to the sea and matters maritime was greatly deepened and strenghened by the discovery of my long ancestral maritime heritage.
It was poignant and saddening to realise that in my generation, for the first time in hundreds (who knows, possibly thousands) of years, there features not a single boat builder, shipwright, mariner or seaman. It is a source of deep satisfaction to at least partially rectify that situation by becoming, I hope, a competent mariner albeit on a small leisure yacht. Perhaps my illustrious ancestors would sneer at our little boat and deride my foolish romantic notions but it makes me happy so there! One day, perhaps, if time and money permit, I may join the boat building ranks of my ancestors as I still harbour thoughts of constructing my dream boat from scratch. For now, refitting and maintaining Brigantia will involve a degree of marine engineering - small stuff compared to the massive engines my father worked on but for me the connection is real and important.
