WATER UNDER THE BRIDGE

True Life Tales of a Master Mariner --- Gwilym delves into his family history. In particular he researches those enterprising Welsh folk, including Gwilym’s grandfather, who set off for Patagonia on the converted tea clipper “Mimosa” on 25th May 1865. Gwilym plots the harrowing experiences of those early settlers and brings the story up to the present day; he also relates how his own father returned to Wales, speaking only Spanish and Welsh, to meet and marry Margaret Ada. Gwilym’s own wanderlust must stem from those paternal genes, for the story relates how Gwilym’s father was persuaded to seek his fortune in the Ashanti Gold Fields of what is now Ghana and where he perished, having contracted black-water fever. Years later Gwilym, by now himself a world wanderer, would get to visit his father’s grave in Obuasi. Gwilym takes a break from genealogy to amuse us with some more anecdotes from happy times at sea before we wind up travelling again, this time to Australia and back to the family.