Robert William Dawson Sewell was my paternal great grandfather, youngest child of Henry Frederick Sewell RN. Henry Frederick was the youngest son of Robert Sewell, Attorney General of Jamaica, and grandson of Sir Thomas Sewell. Robert William Dawson was a merchant marine officer [Mates Certificate of Competency no. 6755] who had settled in Wexford, Ireland, where his father was Officer Commanding the Kilmore Coastguard Station. There, on January 30th 1855, he married my great grandmother, Anna Maria Green. He was 5th Officer on the 1859 ill fated maiden voyage of the SS Great Eastern when she suffered a serious explosion just off Hastings and I have a photo of him on the deck of the ship standing amongst the wreckage. He was, according to my grandmother, on the Great Eastern when the first transatlantic cable was laid. Some time after that, she said, he resigned from - or maybe was pushed from - the service and went off to Australia prospecting for gold. Being very successful he bought a sailing ship and fully crewed set sail for home. Somewhere, my grandmother said, in the Red Sea the ship ran into a savage typhoon and sank with all hands. Only the cook was saved. This was in about 1868 or 1869. I cannot find any record of his sailing to Australia, his prospecting, or of his death. If anyone comes across any mention of him, I would love to hear about it.