My grandfather Michael Reid told us that he had been on ships carrying saltpetre from South America and that he had been based in Hamburg for a period. I should like to find the names of ships he sailed on.
He left Australia in 1906 and he returned circa 1913.
My initial stimulus for interest was my grandfather's stories of his time on sailing ships. Recently I rediscovered his school exercise book from January 1906 .....and, and since that stops early in 1906 I am left with his own words that he ran away in winter, I presume in that year, .....and he
He proceeded via Sydney to Newcastle where he was shanghaied onto a ship that took him to South America. ....HisHis stories are manifold and I have no way knowing their chronological order but at some stage he told me he was on German ships (which he said were preferable to the British because they fed you better) rounding the horn and carrying saltpetre to Germany "for Kaiser Bill". He spoke of having a relationship with a girl in Hamburg.
He was in The British Merchant marineNavy but somewhere between 1911 and 1913 he returned to Australia....stowing, stowing away between New zealandZealand and Sydney on the last leg.I I might add that he was on the "Titanic " for its trial;strials in the Irish sea but he refused to sail on it because of the fires in the coal bunkers. I am very grateful to exist because of his decision . He would have perished along with other stokers.
I thought that finding lists ofGermanof German mariners on ships doing the South American run in those years might help me to pinpoint some of his adventures in those years.
