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Archifdy Ceredigion Archives
ADX/1358: Capt. D. Davies, Neuaddwen, Aberporth


Acc 3122

Ref: ADX/1358

Reference: [GB 0212] ADX/1358
Title: Capt. D. Davies, Neuaddwen, Aberporth
Date(s): 1862-1913
Level: Fonds
Extent: 9 items

Scope and Content:
Collection of correspondence and similar, mostly relating to Captain D. Davies of Aberporth. Davies was master of the Welsh Girl off South America in 1889 and commanded the collier Suidan at Malta with the Mediterranean Fleet in 1904. He also appears as a maritime surveyor and a general builder and rentier.

1.Welsh language letter dated from Waterford, November 3rd(?) 1862 and addressed to Newquay (sic) in Cardiganshire. Includes the term ‘Bill of Lading’.
November 1862

2. Duplicate of a contract or statement of account, between G.B. Thomas Esq. and Owners of the barque “Hedwidge” of Caernarvon, in account current with Thomas Owen, Commander, drawn up at Liverpool, November 1881. The document is in three parts: an account, giving disbursements and advance freightage; the Portage Bill, a crew list giving names, position or rating, when and where signed on, when and where discharged, together with details of pay; table of disbursements. The Hedwidge sailed from Cardiff in December 1879, calling at Montevideo, Pensacola, Batavia (now Jakarta), Cebu and New York, before arriving at Liverpool in November 1881.
November 1881

3. Four letters written by William Francis from Castle Pill, Milford Haven, on J. & W. Francis, Ship & Boat Builders, headed paper, to Captain Davies of the brigantine Welsh Girl.
1. Letter concerning unspecified troubles experienced by Davies in the Welsh Girl, who had been at Montevideo and was expected to call at Paysandú, Uruguay, before sailing for home. Francis gives news of the Lizzie, which had sailed for the UK from Riogrande (in southern Brazil?) with a cargo of wet salted hides.
March 23 1889
2-3. Letter concerning prospects in the Americas; whether it is better to charter home from Aruba (off Venezuela) or to pick up a cargo of sugar at Aracaju, Brazil, to which end the writer refers to cargos picked up by the Retina and the George in 1880 (possibly when the writer was in command of the Retina). Two copies, sent to different ports.
September 27 1889
4. Letter superseding previous and directing Captain Davies to load with phosphates at Aruba.
28 September 1889

4. Commonplace book of D. Davies. Written whilst master of the [iyalic:Suidan], apparently a collier with a Lebanese name, when at Malta in 1904, this contains incomplete drafts of letters, contracts and memoranda, as well as records of signals. One letter, addressed to the Admiral Superintendant, requests the facility to draw cash (February 20). Elsewhere, the Leander is asked if fires can be drawn (3 August) and two destroyers coming alongside in order to coal (15 August), the Orwell to, ‘coal at daylight if she returns’. An undated exchange with the battleship Albermarle (then Flag Extra, Rear Admiral, Mediterranean Fleet) concerns a damaged ladder. At the same time (20 February 1904) Davies is composing a draft authorisation for a certain Evans Esq. to appeal on his behalf against the assessment of the above property, presumably his residence, Neuadd Wen, Aberporth.
Later entries include draft letters written in early 1909 concerning a ‘rocker-house’ at a property rented out by Davies (9 January) and building plots facing the sea, fronting onto an unadopted path to Tresaith, adjoining a chapel (20 January). Also accounts of the Manchester Unity of Oddfellows for the period between 10 July 1912 and 23 August1914 and an undated ‘Report of Damage Re Collision of SS Truro/Juno(?) with Smack Margaret-Ellen’, signed by D. Davies, Surveyor of Aberporth. The ship concerned could have been the Juno, a paddle steamer built in 1868 and active in the Irish Sea before being scrapped in 1922. Final page has accounts for bricks, coal, cement etc., with dates 11 and 26 April 1923.

5. Three typed letter from John Lewis, Son & Co., Timber and Slate Importers at Swansea, to Mr M. Davies, Aberporth.
1. Letter reporting that the Captain of the Margaret Ellen has arranged to load boards on deck and enclosing bill of lading and account.
21 October 1910
2. Letter insisting that the 6”x3” had been loaded into the ship as this entailed cutting away the bulkhead into the fore forecastle.
15 December 1910
3. Letter insisting that the boards had been loaded and suggesting that a third part had cut them up and used them for, ‘some other purpose’.
7 February 1911

6. Letter addressed to Captain Davies of Neuadd-Wen, Aberporth from John Green of Rhylewis asking for advise and information concerning a proposed public hall, Davies having recently built such a hall at Aberporth.
16 January 1913cfcvv

7. Late nineteenth century photograph of an elderly woman standing at a garden gate.

8. Newspaper cutting, ‘Killed in Action’, reporting the death of Flight Sergeant Simon J. Williams, who had been reported missing. Sergeant Williams was the son of Captain John Evan and Mary Williams of Emlyn, Aberporth. His aeroplane was shot down over Germany on 21 October 1941 and he is buried at Sage War Cemetery, near Bremen.
1941?

9. Handwritten note, initially in rough, then copied more legibly, concerning the death of John Jones, master of the sloop Penrhyn Castle. En route at night from Aberporth to Milford Haven, the sloop was struck by the Irish Mail steamer Great Western and sank off St Anne’s Head, at the mouth of the Haven, 30 Sept. 1873.
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