Answer to 150-year gold watch mystery in Romford ?
- On 02/03/2011
- In Miscellaneous
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By Jane Ball - Romford Recorder
But could the answer lie in Romford ? One man thinks so.
Amateur historian Philip Boulton, from Lincolnshire, is a man on a mission to find a gold watch.
His great-great-great uncle Joseph Jewell and wife Mary were two of only 10 survivors of a sea disaster which saw The General Grant dashed off the coast of the Australian coast in May 1866 - with the loss of 73 lives.
The castaways spent 18 months awaiting rescue on the Auckland Islands and afterwards leader James Teer was presented with a gold watch in recognition of his services to the group.
Teer decided to send the memento to his sister Margaret Bishop in Islington, north London, with officer Richard Gould onboard a British vessel, the Tartar.
However, this ship too ran into trouble off the Hong Kong coast, where it was delivering cargo, and the valuables on board - including the gold watch - were snatched by Chinese pirates.
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