Cornish sailor's 1890s sea diaries inspire great-grandaughter's exhibition

A Somerset artist's exhibition is inspired by the handwritten sea diaries of her great-grandfather from the 1890s.

The journals are by John Henry Lowry, from St Mawes, Cornwall, who was a master mariner working on ships sailing to and from South America.

He worked on the fast sail ships taking cargo such as coal and steel to the continent, returning with minerals, guano and beef. 

Speaking to ITV News, Julia McKenzie said the diaries document the "day-to-day-living" of being on the ship, including some "brutal" moments of survival and tragedy.

Julia McKenzie discovered three small books in 2014 in her father's home, when she was caring for him during the final stages of his Alzheimer's disease.

Speaking about the tales in the diaries, Julia said: "A lot of it is brutal. The existence is brutal. Running out of food and water. They faced storms and hurricanes too", she said.

Julia said what struck her most about the diaries was her great-grandfather's desire to return to the small fishing village of St Mawes.

"All he wanted to do was come home", she said.

"There were thousands of these ships out in the world, away for over 100 days at a time.

"The diaries are full of longing for home and quite gritty accounts of people dying, falling off and drowning.

"There's one account of the captain's wife dying in childbirth and the sailors keeping the baby alive until he got back to Falmouth.

"The diary stopped after that, so I found out what happened to the baby and it survived and was christened in Plymouth six months later.

"I don't know what happened after that though. That's why (the exhibition) is called Unchartered. We just don't know.

"It shows life is really fragile, and all about Cornish history. It's fascinating."

There was a private viewing for the exhibition last week, something Julia said her great-grandfather would have loved to see.

"He would be absolutely amazed to see all of his ancestors gathered 120 years later after he wrote the letters", she said.

Uncharted: Sea Journals of a Cornish Mariner is on at the Royal Cornwall Museum until 2 November.