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Albert's Journey
For many years now the staff past and present at the City
Museum have wondered how this magnificent specimen of a Wandering
Albatross or 'Albert', as he is more affectionately known,
came to be at Worcester. After all, this is a bird of the
Southern Oceans and totally alien to Britain, let alone Worcester
in the centre of the Midlands. |
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with many smaller Museums, Worcester's early documentation of its
specimens was at a minimum. Sometimes only the label which was put
in the case with the object, is the only record that has survived.
This usually consisted of the name of the specimen, sometimes where
it was from, and who presented it, but rarely was a date mentioned.
Our only lead on Albert was an old label stating that he was a 'young
male Wandering Albatross, presented by Mr Percy Brown of RMS Waimate'.
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We then made our first attempt
at trying to actually establish who Mr Brown was and what
kind of ship the RMS Waimate may have been. A letter was sent
to the National Maritime Museum at Greenwich, asking for any
information they may have on Brown and the ship. Their reply
stated that the Waimate belonged to the New Zealand Shipping
Company, which had been formed in the early 1870's to carry
immigrants and cargo from London to New Zealand. She was one
of four ships built in Sunderland and registered in 1874.
For 22 years she sailed between the two countries before being
sold off to the Russians in 1896, but alas, no crew lists
of her mentioned the name of Mr Brown. We now had a band of
dates for when we thought Albert had arrived here, but on
following other leads and going down different channels, nothing
else surfaced.
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Then
one day, by chance, whilst looking through old copies of the
Libraries and Museums Annual Committee Reports, we saw in the
entry for 1901-02 that 'An Albatross in the Flesh', had been
presented by a Mr P. Brown. This completely confused us - how
could Mr Brown have given the Museum a fresh Albatross from
a ship that had ceased to do the journey from New Zealand to
London some five or six years previously?
With this new information we once again contacted the Maritime
Museum and asked them the same question. Their research unearthed
the fact that a second vessel, also called the Waimate and owned
by the New Zealand Shipping Company existed and was launched
in 1896. She also made the journeys between England
and New Zealand. A very interesting point came out that she
was not only a cargo ship that carried passengers, but had refrigerator
spaces for 90,000 carcasses. This answered the question that
we had pondered on for years - how could the bird have journeyed
so far without showing any signs of deterioration prior to arriving
in Worcester?
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Now that we had the date
when the Albatross came here, we looked through the local newspapers
for that year, finding articles written for March and April 1902.
It mentions Mr Brown presenting the bird and that the showcase (which
he is still in), was made by a local carpenter, W.W. Hunt of South
Quay, for a cost of £10. We also know that the Curator at the
time, Mr W. Edwards, who was a first class Taxidermist, was responsible
for preserving it.
However, there were still no facts arising on Mr Brown. The Maritime
Museum had crew lists for the Waimate, but not for the years we wanted,
although they did inform us that the ones for the late nineteenth
and early twentieth centuries were held by the Maritime History Archive
in the Memorial University of Newfoundland, Canada. When we contacted
them they informed us that for three voyages in the 1900-02 period,
a Mr P. Brown was registered as a Refrigerator Engineer. Copies of
the crew lists were sent to us and we were then able to work out exactly
which journey Albert had made. Waimate left London Docks on the 30th
July 1901, calling in South Africa in the October before reaching
New Zealand in November; she returned to England and landed on the
24th February 1902.
Brown's entry on the Waimate's crew lists is P. Pryce Brown aged 32,
born in Hereford with a home address of Notting Hill, London. Other
crew lists give him a Derby address. We then wrote to the Record Office
at Hereford to enquire if they knew of P.P. Brown. They had found
an entry for a Percy Brown aged 12 from Holmer, Hereford in the 1881
Census of England and Wales. This would make him the right age of
32 when he went on his voyage in 1901.
Is this the same man? Or coincidentally, was there a passenger on
board with the same name? So far our enquiries have taken us to London,
Hereford, Carlisle, Otago in New Zealand and Newfoundland in Canada,
but we still have no idea what Brown's connection with Worcester was
and why he brought Albert here!!
The story goes on…………..
If you have any ideas or would like further information please contact
a member of the museum staff on (+0044) 01905 25371 or send us an
e-mail by clicking
here. |
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