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Attached, a previously unpublished image of a painting in my possession. The painting, approx 2 ft by 4 ft, shows bottom left ‘“Grace of Salcombe” and “ Capt AE Kingwell.”

Grace, was built by Date’s yard, Kingsbridge, near Plymouth, UK.  A topsail schooner, 82’x21’, 93 tons, she was launched on 16 Jan 1869, and registered at Salcombe. She was lost on Teignmouth Bar, Devon, on 16 Oct 1907, afer a working life crossing the Atlantic.

The 1891 UK census shows Alfred Kingwell, 33, Master Seaman, as resident aboard Grace, in Cardiff.  The vessel was engaged in taking steam coal to America, and returning with pit props. Capt Kingwell was my Great-grandfather.

He later took his son, my Grandfather, to sea, listed as cabin boy.  My Grandfather, by then a shipwright at Devonport dockyard, and with whom I was then living, showed me how to sail and fish in his 29’ dipping lug whaler, moored within Plymouth sound at Oreston quay.

So, a direct connection over 150 years to today. It is difficult not to imagine that Grace was navigated in part using time sights crossed with noon latitudes.

Brian Kingwell Walton

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