Page 13 - Captain William Strike of Porthleven

Just a year into trading with the ‘Ready Rhino’ the American Civil War broke out, a
conflict that would last four years, by which time ‘Ready Rhino’ was beginning to
establish trading with South American ports. Back in Cornwall in the following year,
1866, de-industrialisation hit the Duchy as copper prices started their collapse. On a
happier note, three years later the clipper ‘Cutty Sark’ was launched at Dumbarton in
Scotland and the Wolf Rock lighthouse was completed while seven years later the
Plimsoll Line established standards for the safe loading of ships.

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Merchant shipping: a 19 century growth industry

William Strike was in many respects typical of those growing up in a port like
Porthleven. Many young men will have started as fisherman: William Strike’s father,
Hannibal Strike, was a fisherman as were many members of the Strike family.
However, there were undoubtedly attractions in a sea-going career that did not
involve fishing. Although it is difficult to say conclusively whether wage levels were
significantly different as between fishermen and merchant seamen, many young men
were probably happy to ignore the dangers of sailing coastwise in a local brig or
schooner in order to escape the confines of what otherwise was a very closed,
parochial existence.

From the point of view of the local ship owners who dominated and sustained the so-
called ‘Welsh trade’ ports like Porthleven represented a ready and reliable source of
manpower. There is little doubt, for example, that the coastwise trade between
Cornish ports and ports such as Swansea and Neath was sustaining over 100
vessels and providing regular employment for at least 500 people by 1830. Twenty
years later it seems likely that these rates of employment will have increased
significantly. One interesting factor in that increase was the appearance of larger
vessels in the trade to and from South Wales, suggesting better economies of scale.
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Nevertheless, in the critical periods of the 19 century the reality was that ports on
both sides of the Bristol Channel were limited in the size of vessels that could be
accommodated. This limitation was obviously more pronounced where Cornish ports
were concerned though access to up-river smelters at Swansea dictated a need for
shallow draught vessels. Many of these facts and statistics are drawn from a paper
written by Jelinger Symons, entitled ‘The industrial capacities of South Wales’ and
published in Vol.1 of the Cambrian Journal (1854) at p.317 and available on the
internet.

Interestingly, two Cornish families had a very considerable influence on the growth of
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the copper trade between Cornwall and South Wales in the 19 century: the Vivians
and the Grenfells. John Vivian – later Sir John Vivian – arrived in Swansea in 1798,
representing the Associated Miners of Cornwall. John Vivian’s arrival in Swansea
was for the purpose of reporting on the state of the copper trade. In 1810 John Vivian
established what was to become one of Swansea’s principal copper smelters.

Employment of seamen will have occurred in ports like Porthleven and often
opportunities will have occurred through local and family contacts. However,
recruitment was not limited in this way: crew lists that survive show a considerable
cross-section of different nationalities being employed, particularly at the larger ports,
like Swansea, where the employment market was certainly larger and perhaps better
organised.

Mine agents and cargoes

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