Hard Down! Hard Down!

Captain Jack Isbester

Whittles Publishing  

£18.99

Captain John Isbester (1852-1913) was the illegitimate son of a Shetland shawl-knitter and a sailor who left for Australia and never returned. He began working as a fisherman when he was 14 then, aged 19, went to Liverpool and signed on the square-rigged Sealkote bound for Calcutta. Captain Isbester’s grandson, himself a merchant navy officer, appreciates the single-minded determination which enabled Captain John to achieve command of the barque Centaur by age 33. His wife Susie, a Shetland farmer’s daughter, bore eight children, managed their affairs and circumnavigated the globe with him. Captain John was lost with the clipper ship Dalgonar. This family research project offers detailed insight into Shetland society and the vanished world of trading under sail. It’s also a love story.