Epic Voyages 1917 - 2017
Donation protected
Epic Voyages 1917 - 2017 Project.
Hello Everybody!
My name is Jean MacGrath - Beattie and I am about to embark on a big sea voyage! I would really, really appreciate any help I am offered to finance this venture.
Here is an explanation, (sorry, quite long!) of the project.
One hundred years ago next year, in March 1917, my father boarded a ship, the Potosi, in Liverpool as the 1st Marconi Operator. He was just 19 years old and had recently graduated from the Marconi training school in London. This was his first post in the Merchant Navy and his first time embarking on a sea voyage. This journey took him on a round trip from Liverpool, via France, the Mediterranean, West Africa, across the Atlantic to South America, down the east coast and up the west coasts of Chile and Peru via the inland seas of Patagonia to ports such as Valparaiso and Mejeillones and on through the recently opened Panama Canal to Jamaica, then Virginia where a flotilla of thirty ships gathered and were given an armed escort back across the Atlantic to France eventually arriving in Liverpool in November 1917 at the end of an eight month trip.
He then travelled on other ships until spring 1918 when one of his ships was torpedoed and sunk. Then again in May 1918 his then ship, the Medora, was sunk in the North Atlantic and he was taken prisoner on board a U Boat and spent the last seven months of the First World War in Brandenburg Prisoner of War Camp, near Potsdam, returning to England on the 24th December 1918.
My father was Maurice MacGrath, 'Mac', born in London in 1898. He wrote of his life at sea in two separate autobiographies published in the 1930’s and while he took some poetic licence, changing some of the details of ship names and dates, I also have his discharge book which, together with my own research at the British Maritime Museum Archives in Liverpool and via contacts in Germany with maritime, military and rail historians, verifies the accuracy of his writing.
It is my plan to relive his war time sea voyages, traveling by cargo ship, (as a paying passenger) and tracing the routes as nearly as possible and further to visit the German war time museums, both naval and prison camp and to interview historians, shipping, harbour and port personnel in the various locations and to write both a journal type blog and a book and also to film this re-visiting of his story and of my experiences from historical/social change/cultural perspectives.
The centenary of his first trip is next year (2017) and the obvious time to do this and there is considerable interest in cultural/social history of this period at present. I currently work in community development at a local level and my professional qualifications are in the areas of heritage and anthropology; (B.A. (Hons.) Heritage Studies, M.A. (NUIM) Anthropology and Development).
Some details:
Leg 1 of the voyage begins at Tilbury Docks in Mid - February '17.
A combination of savings and borrowings have so far paid for booking passage on cargo ships to complete part one of the trip, (from London to London via South America).
There are many more related elements to this part of the venture that still require funding, such as shore costs: transport, accommodation, etc.
My father lost his hearing in his late twenties as a result of the torpodeo damage to his ears and therefore had to have a change of career. He lived to be ninety and my sisters and I grew up communicating with him through a combination of lip - reading and the deaf alphabet. His life was a fascinating one and it has been a dream of mine to carry out this project for quite some time but it is only now that I have the opportunity to do so.
Thanks for your interest and if you decide to help fund me I will be extremely grateful and will put all donated funds to very good use.
Jean McGrath - Beattie
Hello Everybody!
My name is Jean MacGrath - Beattie and I am about to embark on a big sea voyage! I would really, really appreciate any help I am offered to finance this venture.
Here is an explanation, (sorry, quite long!) of the project.
One hundred years ago next year, in March 1917, my father boarded a ship, the Potosi, in Liverpool as the 1st Marconi Operator. He was just 19 years old and had recently graduated from the Marconi training school in London. This was his first post in the Merchant Navy and his first time embarking on a sea voyage. This journey took him on a round trip from Liverpool, via France, the Mediterranean, West Africa, across the Atlantic to South America, down the east coast and up the west coasts of Chile and Peru via the inland seas of Patagonia to ports such as Valparaiso and Mejeillones and on through the recently opened Panama Canal to Jamaica, then Virginia where a flotilla of thirty ships gathered and were given an armed escort back across the Atlantic to France eventually arriving in Liverpool in November 1917 at the end of an eight month trip.
He then travelled on other ships until spring 1918 when one of his ships was torpedoed and sunk. Then again in May 1918 his then ship, the Medora, was sunk in the North Atlantic and he was taken prisoner on board a U Boat and spent the last seven months of the First World War in Brandenburg Prisoner of War Camp, near Potsdam, returning to England on the 24th December 1918.
My father was Maurice MacGrath, 'Mac', born in London in 1898. He wrote of his life at sea in two separate autobiographies published in the 1930’s and while he took some poetic licence, changing some of the details of ship names and dates, I also have his discharge book which, together with my own research at the British Maritime Museum Archives in Liverpool and via contacts in Germany with maritime, military and rail historians, verifies the accuracy of his writing.
It is my plan to relive his war time sea voyages, traveling by cargo ship, (as a paying passenger) and tracing the routes as nearly as possible and further to visit the German war time museums, both naval and prison camp and to interview historians, shipping, harbour and port personnel in the various locations and to write both a journal type blog and a book and also to film this re-visiting of his story and of my experiences from historical/social change/cultural perspectives.
The centenary of his first trip is next year (2017) and the obvious time to do this and there is considerable interest in cultural/social history of this period at present. I currently work in community development at a local level and my professional qualifications are in the areas of heritage and anthropology; (B.A. (Hons.) Heritage Studies, M.A. (NUIM) Anthropology and Development).
Some details:
Leg 1 of the voyage begins at Tilbury Docks in Mid - February '17.
A combination of savings and borrowings have so far paid for booking passage on cargo ships to complete part one of the trip, (from London to London via South America).
There are many more related elements to this part of the venture that still require funding, such as shore costs: transport, accommodation, etc.
My father lost his hearing in his late twenties as a result of the torpodeo damage to his ears and therefore had to have a change of career. He lived to be ninety and my sisters and I grew up communicating with him through a combination of lip - reading and the deaf alphabet. His life was a fascinating one and it has been a dream of mine to carry out this project for quite some time but it is only now that I have the opportunity to do so.
Thanks for your interest and if you decide to help fund me I will be extremely grateful and will put all donated funds to very good use.
Jean McGrath - Beattie
Organizer
Jean Beattie
Organizer