Dear Speymouth blogger,
How do I correct – or perhaps I ought to say helpfully augment, a post on your website?
In the page on shipbuilding – http://www.speymouth.co.uk/shipbuilding-on-the-spey/ mention is made of the Geddie families heading for Natal, South Africa when the wooden ships building business became less viable.
However, far more Geddies – along with Kingston/Grangemouth Duncans, Andersons and at least one Milne and one Innes, headed to the Eastern Cape of South Africa, mostly to a place called East London, where James Geddie (1840 – 1911) had been invited by the Kaffrarian Steam Landing Company.
Here is a portion of their letter to him
“The Company requires a Head Carpenter who could, besides attending to the carpenter work of the Company generally, draw working plans, i.e. for lighters and build the Lighters. They also require good hands all of whom must be steady men and good workmen. The company would be prepared to give the Head Carpenter £15 per month and the others £12 the Company paying the passages out under the Immigration Act.”
I hope you will have the time to put the complete picture into your shipbuilding history. I have more detail should you wish to see it.
Many thanks,
moira
Dear Speymouth blogger,
How do I correct – or perhaps I ought to say helpfully augment, a post on your website?
In the page on shipbuilding – http://www.speymouth.co.uk/shipbuilding-on-the-spey/ mention is made of the Geddie families heading for Natal, South Africa when the wooden ships building business became less viable.
However, far more Geddies – along with Kingston/Grangemouth Duncans, Andersons and at least one Milne and one Innes, headed to the Eastern Cape of South Africa, mostly to a place called East London, where James Geddie (1840 – 1911) had been invited by the Kaffrarian Steam Landing Company.
Here is a portion of their letter to him
“The Company requires a Head Carpenter who could, besides attending to the carpenter work of the Company generally, draw working plans, i.e. for lighters and build the Lighters. They also require good hands all of whom must be steady men and good workmen. The company would be prepared to give the Head Carpenter £15 per month and the others £12 the Company paying the passages out under the Immigration Act.”
I hope you will have the time to put the complete picture into your shipbuilding history. I have more detail should you wish to see it.
Many thanks,
moira