Robert William Dawson Sewell

[Naomi]

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.

[John Rees]

Capt. R.W.D. Sewell was master of the iron clipper "Van Capellen. Launched in 1864 he took her out to Australia (there are a couple of adverts for her if you search the newspapers at http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper). The vessel capsized and was lost on 1 March 1865.
I'm afraid that's all I know.

[Naomi]

Capt. R.W.D. Sewell was master of the iron clipper "Van Capellen. Launched in 1864 he took her out to Australia (there are a couple of adverts for her if you search the newspapers at http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper). The vessel capsized and was lost on 1 March 1865.
I'm afraid that's all I know.

Many thanks for this, John. Answers several previously unanswered questions. The Australian newspaper files are very interesting.

[Naomi]

Thanks to John Rees signpost and Ray Warren of Ray Warren's Tall Colonial Ship's blog, I have made a lot of progress. My Great Grandfather parted company from the Great Eastern perhaps in 1861 when the new owners laid off 10 officers. By 1864 he was a trusted captain of the Liverpool Messrs Sandbach Tinne & Co who entrusted their new iron tall sailing ship, the 835 ton Van Capellan to him on the Australia run. She made several voyages between Liverpool, Australia and India and was considered a fine ship. Tragically on March 16 1865 sailing from Calcutta to Hull across the Indian Ocean at about latitude 6 S. and longitude 58 E. she was hit by a sudden squall and capsized. Six of the crew including her captain, my great grandfather, went down with her. The sixteen remaining hands had managed to launch a small boat, but they had very little food or water. Over the next 13 days eleven men died. When the food and water ran out, the rest survived largely by eating the flesh and drinking the blood of their dead companions. The morning of March 25 the five survivors remaining were rescued by the Naturalist, also out of Calcutta, but sadly later that afternoon the weakest of the five died on board the Naturalist. Captain Sewell left behind his wife Anna Maria and two little girls - Esther my grandmother then aged about six years old, and Wilhelmina aged two.

[Hilary]

Hi Naomi. I was most interested to read your posting about the Van Capellan and the death of your ancestor Captain Sewell. My husbands great grandfather was also on that ill-fated voyage but was one of the 4 survivors. His name was Charles Eade. He was 20yrs old on the trip, which was I believe his one and only long ocean voyage. Prior to this trip and after the wrecking he spent his life working the coastal shipping trade around the British Isles. He died in Bristol aged 86yrs. You will no doubt be familiar with the dire circumstances the ship wrecked sailors faced adrift in the Indian Ocean from the numerous reports that filled the world press during the following year. Tales of cannibalism make good press then as now. The experience haunted him and the stories were passed down the family. In 1912 following the sinking of the Titanic he wrote an article for his son's works paper " Wills Works Magazine" entitled " Shipwrecked! and what it once meant. 14 days in an open boat." Reading your post reminded me of the lives lost on that voyage and made be think of all the lost crew. Recently I have also learnt that the ship " The Naturalist" which rescued Charles Eade, was itself lost at sea. It left Calcutta in 1879 and disappeared in that same Indian Ocean that swallowed the Van Capellan.