Henry and Charles huddled close together on the quay-side at Bremerhaven, clutching their knapsacks and watched nervously the hustle and bustle as the crew of the rusty vessel which towered above them finished loading the cargo of pit props and timber destined for the coal mines of South Wales. This was the start of the greatest adventure of their young lives. Neither had been to sea before. They had signed on as deck hands. Henry was aged sixteen years and Charles two years older, but in those harsh days they knew they would be expected to undertake the back-breaking work of grown men that was demanded of the crews of cargo vessels. Little did they know that their destinies would be so different. Henry to spend his life travelling the high seas, Charles to disappear without trace in America.

The brothers stood together in the stern as the ship slipped quietly out of the harbour. They took a last look at the land they were leaving and wondered if they would ever see their home and family again. Their destination was a small town called Abertawe (Swansea), or (as it was known originally) Swanzey. Accounts had reached the family of the Industrial Revolution which was transforming employment prospects in that area, and importantly for the deeply Protestant family, religious freedom.

The voyage itself was uneventful, but for the brothers their first sea voyage was an exhilarating experience. Learning to walk the decks in rhythm with the rise and fall of the vessel, and getting accustomed to getting in and out of their hammocks without cracking their heads against the low bulkheads. They relished the sound of the wind through the rigging, and were almost hypnotised by the movement of the waves as the ship crashed through heavy seas. The salt spray stung their cheeks.

The town of Swansea was situated near the Gower peninsula and the hilly hinterland to the north. With the Norman conquest of South Wales in the twelfth century, Swansea was emerging into recorded history. The Tawe estuary was in Gwyr, the largest commot in Wales, an area bounded by the rivers Loughor, Amman, Twrch and Tawe. Henry and Charles (and the Normans!) were certainly not the first to 'invade' Swansea, they had been preceded in the tenth century by Scandinavian sea-rovers who had thrust up the Bristol Channel, raiding as well as trading. But Henry and Charles had a much more peaceful purpose in mind.

Through the dark ages the estuary of the Tawe on which the medieval Swansea was sited remained the 'haunt of gull and plover'. The Romans felt no need to have a military presence between the forts at Neath and Loughor. No saint was associated with the town. That 'lovely ugly town' had to wait for the arrival of the Normans before it could boast a castle.

© March 2001