Ian A Millar shares a story he found while researching the ancestry

of his great-grandparents and their near demise.

IT has always been of interest to me that as we grow, mature, and search for knowledge we are told to look to famous people.

We learn of artists, pioneers, military leaders, and those of other callings who played a part in the passage of history. Having said that, I wonder how many of you would look to your own family to find examples of courage and sacrifice and their efforts to pave the way to where you are today?

I would like to share with you a story I found while researching my Welsh ancestry.

Captain Samuel Jones, my great grandfather, was born on 31 October, 1852 at Newtown, Wales.

He was the first child of John and Elizabeth Jones, the first of nine children, among whom were several Master Mariners and seafarers.

Samuel answered the call of the sea when, at the age of 15, he signed on the Aberystwyth schooner Speculation. What followed was a long list of ships in his climb up the ladder to Master Mariner.

His calling as a seafarer was a hard life often filled with danger.

Samuel learned his trade well, persevered and eventually obtained his Master’s Certificate. On Christmas Day, 1885 an article entitled Wrecks of Aberystwyth Ships was published in the Cambrian News and Merionethshire Standard.

It is from this account that the story of my great grandparents and their near demise unfolds.

The 28 August, 1885 found Samuel Jones as Master aboard the Aberystwyth Brig Solway.

He had with him his wife Mary Ann, daughter of William Edwards, builder of Aberystwyth, his five month-old son William Samuel, and a younger brother, Arthur, a member of the crew. It is not likely that any of them gave much thought to impending doom.

Read the full feature in this week’s Cambrian News, available in shops and online now