Nautical History

My father, my grandfather and his two brothers, and eight of their nine uncles, became sea captains. Most of my grandfather's other male relatives went to sea too, usually when they were quite young. many of them died at sea. One, who became a captain, disappeared with his crew in 1829 when the brig Amalie went down off Ireland. There were relatives of mine lost aboard the Nor when she went down on the Newfoundland Bank in 1864, after colliding with an iceberg in heavy fog. One was the captain, aged 42; the mate was his 23 your old nephew. Another relative died in Quebec in 1878, aged 45, on the bark, Fremad. His son, aged 17, was killed the following year in an accident on board Progress in the Mediterranean.

Fore and Aft, p10