[
    {
        "id": 216477,
        "series_id": 26,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine",
        "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊",
        "series_use_hku_proxy": false,
        "document_key": "RAS-2003",
        "page_number": 236,
        "title": "RAS-2003",
        "content_text": "186\n\nalthough for the first few years after their wedding, the family home remained in Suffolk while he went to sea. It was in the village of Hoxne that their eldest son Robert Benjamin was born in 1860 to be followed by Emily Ada in 1864. Young Samuel came along in 1866 after the family had moved to Framlingham and was given the second name Cornell. It would appear from an entry in Harriet Plant's New Ladies' Memorandum Book 1829 in which she recorded important family events, that Cornell was a family name, possibly the maiden name of her mother or Samuel's mother. One entry records a visit to Chedburgh, a village in Suffolk, by a Mr and Mrs TH Cornell. Whatever the origin, Cornell was the name by which he was known throughout his life both inside and outside the family. Cornell's younger brother Charles Henry was born in 1870 and it was not long after that time that the family moved to London and into a house in Tottenham. Perhaps this move away from the country into the big city came about as a result of Samuel Plant's promotion to becoming a ship's master.\n\nIn 1881 he was in command of the Iron Ship Reigate, made of iron but powered by sail, for the trade with India. It so happened that the 1881 Census took place on the very day that Reigate was in Middlesbrough when, in addition to Captain and crew, those on board included Harriet Plant, the Master's wife, with Cornell and Charles, the Master's sons, all shown as passengers. But in truth, none of them were passengers - the 14-year-old Cornell had joined the ship for his first voyage while his mother and brother were there to see him off.\n\nThe start of a life at sea\n\nThe Reigate set sail from Middlesborough in early May, 1881 for the long passage round the Cape of Good Hope to Madras with no stops along the way. This was young Cornell's introduction to a life at sea and being a dutiful son, he spent some time every Sunday writing a few paragraphs of a voyage letter to his mother in strong, well-formed copper plate writing. It is a remarkably well written letter for a fourteen-year-old young man that now forms part of the Plant Archive at the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich. Although the letter is in good condition, the writing on one side of the paper occasionally obscures the writing on the other side but it is still clear enough to make a full transcription. The letter is almost 2,000 words long but the following extracts give some idea of the young man who wrote them and the dramatic events that he experienced.",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2003.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2v242g390",
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    {
        "id": 216478,
        "series_id": 26,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine",
        "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊",
        "series_use_hku_proxy": false,
        "document_key": "RAS-2003",
        "page_number": 237,
        "title": "RAS-2003",
        "content_text": "187\n\nShip \"Reigate\"\n\nat Sea\n\nSunday May 8th (1881)\n\nMy Dear Mother\n\nI am glad to tell you we have a fair wind at last and I now begin to write my voyage letter to you. It is a beautiful day so I have turned my bed out for an airing. We live very comfortable in our berth and get on very well together in the dog watches. We take it in turns to play. Wilson plays his fiddle and I my whistle so we pass the time away very pleasantly. Mr Ritchie [First Mate] has kindly been teaching me a good many things in the seamanship way and on Monday I am to go to him in my watch below in the afternoon and spend an hour at arithmetic. I have been wearing those old trousers and dungarees on weekdays and blue cloth suit on Sunday\n\nSunday 15th. Dear Mother, we have had a fine fair wind all this week and are on warmer weather. Now I am glad to tell you we are all quite well. I have been getting on very well at sea. Mr Ritchie has us in the cabin every other afternoon teaching us arithmetic. Yesterday night I stowed the mizzen royal for the first time on the voyage. This week we have been making boat covers and Father has been teaching us the way to sew. Father is very kind to me and Wilson and I get on very well together. We have finished nearly all our little store up. I have only one onion left. The steward has just brought us in a piece of plum pudding left from the cabin. We have not taken long to eat it. I am keeping a little log in the pocketbook Ada bought me.\n\nSunday 29th. Dear Mother, this week we have had doldrums and head winds yesterday night I went up to stow the mizzen Royal and in getting along the yard my belt unhooked and went flying overboard. It has been a great loss. This week I have washed all my dirty clothes. It is very hot now so I am wearing my duck trousers and a flannel shirt. We caught some bonitos yesterday and all had a good feed of fish\n\nSunday June 5th. Dear Mother, the weather has been very squally this week Last night it blowed hard and we reefed top sails for the first time. I got wet through three times during the night. It makes six times I have been wet through this week. I wished I was at home in bed last night.",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2003.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2v242g390",
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    {
        "id": 216479,
        "series_id": 26,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine",
        "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊",
        "series_use_hku_proxy": false,
        "document_key": "RAS-2003",
        "page_number": 238,
        "title": "RAS-2003",
        "content_text": "188\n\nnight instead of walking the poop wet through with it blowing and raining hard. This week I began to learn to steer the ship. This week too we crossed the line.\n\nJuly 10th. My Dear Mother, You will have heard this sad, sad news long before my letter reaches you. I am very much afraid dear Mother that it has nearly killed you. It was a terrible blow for me, much more so for you. On Saturday morning July 2nd when I came on deck dear Father was looking quite well and walking the poop as usual. At II o'clock he was at the wheel and suddenly took ill and he fell down the companion ladder and hit his head. The 2nd Mate and David were there as soon as he fell and David came running forward and told the Mate what had happened. The Mate and I immediately ran aft and found my dear Father at the bottom of the ladder with blood coming from his head. The Mate immediately stopped the blood and got him into bed, bathed his head with cold water and poured a teaspoonful of brandy down his throat and did everything a man could to bring him to. But dear Father did not come to. His heart beat violently. He laboured very much in breathing and he shook violently, I had one of his hands in mine to keep it warm. After being in bed a while he grew warm and we thought he was better but he never opened his eyes or spoke and his breath became shorter and he laboured more. At a quarter past one our dear poor Father died without the slightest expression of pain quite calm. He never spoke or opened his eyes once the whole time. Anything that could be done was done to save him but God took him away from us. He had a very calm and peaceful expression on his face and I kissed him once for each of us and cut a lock of his hair from his head which I enclose in the letter for you dear mother.\n\nThe Mate, David and myself were by his bed when he died and when the 2nd Mate, carpenter, steward and sailmaker called in to see him everybody cried. The men forward were deeply touched. Something with me tells me that dear father has gone to heaven and is in a far better place.\n\nThe Reigate arrived at Madras some five weeks later on Sunday 7th August and Captain Samuel Plant's body was taken ashore in the afternoon and buried at six o'clock the following morning in the cemetery behind the Sailor's Home. Cornell Plant's letter goes on to describe these events and his feelings about them including his determination to continue his life at sea. Harriet Plant put the lock of",
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    {
        "id": 216480,
        "series_id": 26,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine",
        "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊",
        "series_use_hku_proxy": false,
        "document_key": "RAS-2003",
        "page_number": 239,
        "title": "RAS-2003",
        "content_text": "189\n\nbair mentioned in the letter in the pocket of her New Ladies Companion Book where it is still kept.\n\nPersian adventures\n\nCornell Plant remained in the Reigate for another two years leaving her as an Ordinary Seaman in 1883. He then spent a year in the SS Iberia on the Pacific Steam Navigation Company's Australian Service and another year in the iron ship Mermerus as an Able Seaman. In 1885 Plant returned to the Reigate as Third Mate and left the following year after having obtained his Second Mate's certificate. From there he joined Lynch's Euphrates and Tigris Shipping Company, serving in the River Steamer Khalifa.\n\nIn 1891 he was offered the command of Shushan, a stern wheel paddle steamer, built by Alfred Yarrow on the Thames and shipped out in parts to Egypt for the expedition up the Nile to relieve General Gordon at Khartoum.\n\nShushan was 98 feet in length including the paddle wheel, 18 feet in width and had an eighteen inch draft. A boiler with a tall funnel was at the bow end of the flat main deck with the engine that drove the stern mounted paddle wheel at the after end. A wooden saloon containing some cabin accommodation stood in the centre of the main deck with the conning position above it from where the wheel controlled a triple rudder. Access to this position was by a wooden ladder and awnings to protect the main deck were spread forward and aft although how they were kept clean and white just astern of a wood fed boiler is hard to understand. No photograph or drawing of the Shushan has yet been found although there are representations of many of the other similar river craft built by Alfred Yarrow. He was acknowledged at the time as the best builder of those vessels that were used to extend and protect British interests along the rivers of Africa, Asia and beyond. They were built to a standard pattern in watertight sections that could be shipped anywhere in the world and bolted together on site. It was claimed that those required by the expedition to rescue General Gordon were ready for shipment within 17 days of the order being placed. (Yarrow - the first 100 years)\n\nIt is quite evident that young Cornell Plant was immensely proud",
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