Lives lost at Sea
Yesterday afternoon (1st June) Lizzie O’Sullivan (FoSOC Guide) led a small but enthusiastic group of people and a dog, for her “Lives lost at sea” walk. The weather was dry, warm and sunny when we set off from the chapel to the first grave and stayed this way until the group reached the last grave near the chapel.
Before the walk started Lizzie gave a very brief history of the Southampton Docks and explained how the docks developed into the modern day Eastern and Western docks and that there were stories involving both docks.
Over the course of the walk Lizzie told the stories of 10 men who had met their deaths in various ways all involving a ship or the sea. The first grave was Daniel Flynn, an American sailor, who was entrapped in machinery. Then Michael Flynn (no relation) who blew himself out of a stokehole when he lit a match. Thomas Travers, a steward on the SS Majestic, fell down some steps and died of a head injury. William Franklin was so upset he would not be paid when he was away at sea that he committed suicide in his bedroom. William Godber an engineer, was on the RMSS Elbe when a steam pipe cracked in the boiler room filling it with steam and he was scalded to death. The walk ended at the grave of John Topping, Chief Engineer on the SS Hilda who drowned when the ship floundered on the rocks outside St Malo port. Photos taken by Bruce Larner
