Finished with his sea going life, he sat in his favourite armchair, his back plumb-line straight as always. Perched on his head a dark red fez-like cap with a tassel which swung gently in time with his breathing. Even the longest voyages come to an end. Henry many years later, now retired from his reaming…….. Faintly through the open kitchen window came the sound of a Salvation Army band. 'Onward Christian Solders' floated along, carried by the salty breeze from the Loughor estuary, along Corporation Road through upper Loughor, and trickled into Henry's dream world. Once again he was the small boy standing with his father on the cobbles of a street in Kiel watching a sailors band parading proudly.

Years later Kiel would become infamous as the place where a naval mutiny took place. Memories of his life and adventures flitted kaleidoscopically through his dreams. He saw again the mountainous seas which drove his ship against the rocks off the Irish coast, and where that winter the locals enjoyed plentiful warmth and comfort as the ship which foundered was carrying coal intended for the mills in America. Henry's ability as a raconteur was well-known. In between voyages he would often sit in the small shop which his wife Mary ran in Pontybrenin (Kingsbridge) and, surrounded by open mouthed locals, he would fascinate them with tales of far-off lands where oranges grew, palm trees flourished and the sun shone unremittingly all day, where exotic birds and strange animals were as normal as dogs and cats were to the locals in Loughor.

He recalled again the day he first glimpsed Sarah Walker, his first wife, her pale face framed with thick braids of dark wavy hair. Statuesque, with a full mature figure. He remembered how their eyes met and immediately he had felt drawn to this striking woman. Henry recalled their wedding at St. Paul's Church, attended mostly by her family. His, of course, were a thousand miles away and unaware of the changes in his life. He felt again the anguish when Sarah died.

His dream took flight to the occasion when he met Mary, his second wife, a marriage which gave a new richness to his life. In his dream as he walked across the wooden bridge which spanned the Loughor he recalled coming towards him a slim figure in a bible black bombazine dress, with a crisp white pinafore. Her walk was slow and dignified. On her head she balanced a bag of flour and under her arms carried two more bags. Knowing that she had probably made her purchases in the nearby town of Llanelly, he knew that she must be getting weary. He remembered how his offer to help her carry the flour was accepted with quiet dignity. They felt an immediate attraction for each other and arranged to meet again. Within six months, Mary and Henry were married and started life in Kingsbridge, before moving to Loughor.

© March 2001