Packet Surgeon’s Journals

19 October 2021

Packet ships and slavery

We are often asked what role the Falmouth Packet Service played in slavery. At one level, the Packet Service was simply a government-run postal service collecting […]

8 January 2019

The Miseries of a life at Sea

The Groans and Grumblings of Jeremy Gribble[*], or The Miseries of a life at Sea. A splenetic composition ~~~~ Rundis, indigestaque moles[*] ~~~~~ Misery 1st. – […]

21 August 2018

Williamson and Darwin

Any reader of Patrick O’Brien’s Jack Aubrey novels will understand the elegant coincidence that Charles Darwin (a naturalist born in 1809) and James Williamson (a surgeon […]

19 August 2018

Tales from his travels

Negro song. Jack Ass, wid a long tail, Bag o’ Caco coming down. Dey teas-y me, dey worry me Dey take my dandy from me. Jack […]

19 August 2018

Tales of Packets and the sea

There are many customs now prevalent among particular classes of men, the origin of which is so obscure from antiquity or other causes, that it would […]

19 August 2018

Falmouth tales

By the Falmothians and others thereabouts hail drops are called Camborne boys. Camborne is a small place, a few miles from Redruth – but why it […]

19 August 2018

West Country tales

Cornwall is so famous for pies among other things, that it has been ironically said, that the Devil is afraid to shew his nose in that […]

18 August 2018

Smuggling aboard a Packet ship

James Williamson gives this account of ‘smuggling’ from his time on HM Packet Duke of York. From the earliest establishment of the [Packets], [1] the spirit […]

17 August 2018

The Pleasures of a life at Sea

Pleasure I. – I have always considered the mere exemption from misery to be a positive pleasure – a truth verified in being relieved from all […]