The Maiden Voyage of the Charlotte Jane 1848–1850

MIRIAM LAWRENCE wrote this intriguing memoir for her grandchildren 40 years after the voyage she made in 1848-50 with her husband Captain ALEXANDER LAWRENCE. Dramatic extracts are included from his log which was written four times each day of voyage; so both their viewpoints are revealed from different times. They set sail in the newly constructed ship, the CHARLOTTE JANE, a three-masted wooden sailing ship built in Bristol. Later in life Alexander Lawrence became captain of the Orient which was the first ship of the Orient Line and used as a hospital ship during the Crimean War. He subsequently set up his own trading company and owned several ships. They lived in Hampstead where Miriam brought up a family of seven daughters, one of whom died aged 11, and two sons; she had two other daughters who died in infancy. CASS MOGGRIDGE compiled this book. She is a retired drama therapist and counsellor who had the good fortune to discover a suitcase in the attic which contained the memoir. Her husband, Hal Moggridge, already had the voyage's logbook written by his maternal great-grandfather. Retirement has allowed for many thrilling hours to be spent by Cass deciphering the handwriting of both memoir and logbook as well as letters from the family. HAL MOGGRIDGE has drawn the maps for each stage of the voyage and collected contemporary pictures of some of the places visited on the voyage. The Canterbury Museum, Christchurch, New Zealand, have provided the illustrations of the Charlotte Jane. He is a landscape architect, consultant to Colvin & Moggridge and author of 'Slow Growth, on the art of landscape architecture'. Cass and Hal have three children and four grandchildren and live near the Thames in Gloucestershire.