William Ginn here was born in Farnham in Essex in 1832, the son of William and Ann. He was a direct descendant of the William Ginn of Great Hormead (d.1568) mentioned in my post of 26th June 2012.
William here was no angel. His father was not averse to getting into trouble with the authorities and William jnr got in with a "bad crowd" of thieves and undesirables and appears a number of times in the local newspapers for his transgressions.
He appears to have acquired a common law wife called Susan by 1857, they were living in Bishops Stortford and had a daughter Emily that year. But I think the relationship broke down and I can find no evidence that either Emily or Susan continued with the name Ginn.
William had had a good number of his close relations find their way to Australia, two Ginn uncles were convicted convicts and transported there, another Ginn uncle took voluntary emigration. Various other relations had also gone out there. William was to follow.
The "Northfleet" was a wooden hulled ship under Captain Knowles that in early 1873 was destined to sail for Australia with a good number of emigrants and a number of navvies who were going out to work on the Tasmanian Railway. William was among the passengers, whether as emigrant or navvy I do not know. On 22nd Jan.1873
she was lying at anchor off Dungeness. There were 379 persons on board. Her cargo was mainly railway iron. Her lights were
burning brightly and the night was clear. At about 10.30pm, the Spanish
steamer "Murillo", 300 tons, collided at
speed with the anchored ship, most of the passengers being asleep below.
The "Northfleet" was
struck amidships and cut down to the waterline, the "Murillo" without
waiting to ascertain the extent of the damage made off in the darkness. It was reported afterwards that the crew of the "Murillo" covered the ship's name with a sheet lest they be identified because they had kept an inadequate lookout.
There
was considerable panic and Captain Knowles fought, revolver in hand to keep
back the crowd and save the women and children. The ship did not last long and of those on board, 320 were drowned including the Captain. William Ginn apparently stood no chance - he was 41.
The Northfleet
The disaster was obviously a great tragedy and books and songs were written and the Victorians started up a fund to relieve affected families.
One song regarding the tragedy entitled "The Wreck of the Northfleet" has been handed down among the fishermen of Kent, many of whom had the grisly task of recovering the bodies washed up on the coast and the song, sung by Gavin Atkin can be found here http://intheboatshed.net/2010/09/23/wreck-northfleet-revisited/
It is William Ginn's only memorial
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