Cadet Captain Joseph Bazalgette

#1 · 3rd March 2008, 10:16 pm

Quote from guest on 3rd March 2008, 10:16 pm
We have been contacted by Alan Platt with the fascinating story of Cadet Captain Joseph Bazalgette. (This is the copyright of Alan Platt and Robert T. Sexton, and must not be used in any other website or publication):

The 1901 census shows a Joseph W Bazalgette, aged 7, born Monk Soham, Suffolk, son of Maud S Bazalgette, widow, living at Wimbledon. What was clearly his birth was registered at Hoxne, Suffolk, in the April-June quarter of 1893 (cert. no. Hoxne 4a 849). Of the siblings he and his brother Evelyn were the only ones born at Monk Soham, Suffolk, where Rev. Evelyn Bazalgette, son of Sir Joseph William Bazalgette, had been Rector from 1892-9 until his death on 31 March 1899.

In 1911-12 a J.W. Bazalgette was one of four Cadet Captains amongst 30 cadets on the four-masted barque Port Jackson, one of two training ships owned by the Devitt & Moore Ocean Training Ships Ltd, run by Thomas Lane Devitt and Lord Brassey. In the ship's Crew List for the voyage he gave his age as 18, place of birth Suffolk, address 11 Lyncroft Gardens, Hampstead. The telephone directory for 1913, and later editions, had a Mrs Bazalgette at that address, clearly a widow, and evidently the family's only widow in London at that time, as she did not find it necessary to give her initials. The young man's age and the other connections make it plain that he was the son of Rev Evelyn and Maud Bazalgette referred to above, and so a grandson of Sir Joseph William. At 18 and with the seniority and experience of being on the ship's articles he was obviously completing the full Brassey course of training for 'the sons of gentlemen' as a preliminary to a career at sea in the Royal Navy or mercantile marine. This voyage was at least his fourth to Australia.

The Port Jackson left the Thames on 16 September 1911, arrived at Sydney on New Year's Eve and sailed for the UK on 4 March 1912. The Official Log for the voyage, which the master, Capt. Charles Maitland, had to keep, to record matters of significance under maritime law, states that at about 7pm on March 11 the ship was at 49S 164 E, which is about 220 nautical miles SSW of the eastern tip of the South Island of New Zealand. His entry goes on to state that:-

JW Bazalgette fell overboard during a heavy gale of wind with big sea and torrents of rain. J Barron AB and J Mack Cadet at the wheel at the time, also Mr Neville passenger [one of perhaps three] said they heard a cry apparently from the water, J Mack threw over a life buoy, the hands had been furling the U Main topsail [upper of the two topsails on the mainmast] at the time & Bazalgette was coming down the lee rigging after furling the sail, he must have slipped off the sail, no one saw him fall [and?] when the man at the wheel said he heard the cry I asked the third officer who just came on the poop if anyone was overboard he said not that he knew of he ran forward to ask the mate but nobody seemed to know if anyone was missing. When I went below I thought the man at the wheel had been mistaken & that it was the cry of a penguin he had heard, but when I came on deck at midnight the third officer said Bazalgette was missing, as he did not report the sidelights at 10p as usual, the third officer sent for him but he could not be found, at the time he must have fallen overboard it was blowing a heavy gale of wind with a big sea and thick heavy rain, no boat could have been lowered or if it had been got away it would have been lost in the heavy rain and big sea that was running which combined with the heavy gale that was blowing would most likely have capsized it and more lives have been lost

C Maitland Master
E Burnard Mate
Chas N St Clair 2nd Mate
James Barron Man at the wheel

When port was reached the Marine Superintendent, a Board of Trade official, had to make enquiries and satisfied himself that no more could have been done. Devitt and Brassey must, however, have been horrified, both that a cadet had been lost, and Lord Brassey in a personal way, as his father, Thomas Brassey, had been the main contractor on many of Sir Joseph's works, particularly London's sewage system. The report was appalling, as the worst should have been assumed and the order given by the captain to heave-to, unless he had thought that the ship would have been endangered by doing so, in which case he should have said as much.

We have been contacted by Alan Platt with the fascinating story of Cadet Captain Joseph Bazalgette. (This is the copyright of Alan Platt and Robert T. Sexton, and must not be used in any other website or publication):

The 1901 census shows a Joseph W Bazalgette, aged 7, born Monk Soham, Suffolk, son of Maud S Bazalgette, widow, living at Wimbledon. What was clearly his birth was registered at Hoxne, Suffolk, in the April-June quarter of 1893 (cert. no. Hoxne 4a 849). Of the siblings he and his brother Evelyn were the only ones born at Monk Soham, Suffolk, where Rev. Evelyn Bazalgette, son of Sir Joseph William Bazalgette, had been Rector from 1892-9 until his death on 31 March 1899.

In 1911-12 a J.W. Bazalgette was one of four Cadet Captains amongst 30 cadets on the four-masted barque Port Jackson, one of two training ships owned by the Devitt & Moore Ocean Training Ships Ltd, run by Thomas Lane Devitt and Lord Brassey. In the ship's Crew List for the voyage he gave his age as 18, place of birth Suffolk, address 11 Lyncroft Gardens, Hampstead. The telephone directory for 1913, and later editions, had a Mrs Bazalgette at that address, clearly a widow, and evidently the family's only widow in London at that time, as she did not find it necessary to give her initials. The young man's age and the other connections make it plain that he was the son of Rev Evelyn and Maud Bazalgette referred to above, and so a grandson of Sir Joseph William. At 18 and with the seniority and experience of being on the ship's articles he was obviously completing the full Brassey course of training for 'the sons of gentlemen' as a preliminary to a career at sea in the Royal Navy or mercantile marine. This voyage was at least his fourth to Australia.

The Port Jackson left the Thames on 16 September 1911, arrived at Sydney on New Year's Eve and sailed for the UK on 4 March 1912. The Official Log for the voyage, which the master, Capt. Charles Maitland, had to keep, to record matters of significance under maritime law, states that at about 7pm on March 11 the ship was at 49S 164 E, which is about 220 nautical miles SSW of the eastern tip of the South Island of New Zealand. His entry goes on to state that:-

JW Bazalgette fell overboard during a heavy gale of wind with big sea and torrents of rain. J Barron AB and J Mack Cadet at the wheel at the time, also Mr Neville passenger [one of perhaps three] said they heard a cry apparently from the water, J Mack threw over a life buoy, the hands had been furling the U Main topsail [upper of the two topsails on the mainmast] at the time & Bazalgette was coming down the lee rigging after furling the sail, he must have slipped off the sail, no one saw him fall [and?] when the man at the wheel said he heard the cry I asked the third officer who just came on the poop if anyone was overboard he said not that he knew of he ran forward to ask the mate but nobody seemed to know if anyone was missing. When I went below I thought the man at the wheel had been mistaken & that it was the cry of a penguin he had heard, but when I came on deck at midnight the third officer said Bazalgette was missing, as he did not report the sidelights at 10p as usual, the third officer sent for him but he could not be found, at the time he must have fallen overboard it was blowing a heavy gale of wind with a big sea and thick heavy rain, no boat could have been lowered or if it had been got away it would have been lost in the heavy rain and big sea that was running which combined with the heavy gale that was blowing would most likely have capsized it and more lives have been lost

C Maitland Master
E Burnard Mate
Chas N St Clair 2nd Mate
James Barron Man at the wheel

When port was reached the Marine Superintendent, a Board of Trade official, had to make enquiries and satisfied himself that no more could have been done. Devitt and Brassey must, however, have been horrified, both that a cadet had been lost, and Lord Brassey in a personal way, as his father, Thomas Brassey, had been the main contractor on many of Sir Joseph's works, particularly London's sewage system. The report was appalling, as the worst should have been assumed and the order given by the captain to heave-to, unless he had thought that the ship would have been endangered by doing so, in which case he should have said as much.