A 19TH CENTURY TRIBAL FISH HOOK, PROBABLY SOUTH SEA ISLANDS

Crafted from stone (obsidian?) and rope.

The hook 5.5cm L

With string 28cm L

James Muddle was born at Gillingham in Kent on 31 January 1785. James probably went to sea at a fairly young age and worked his way up to become a master mariner. The first record of him at sea, at the age of 25, is as the master of the small single mast sloop Boston sailing in coastal waters. In 1814, James then became master of the 356-ton ship ‘Leng’, armed with six 6-pounder guns, bound for the West Indies. The Lloyd's Register for 1820 also recorded that during that year James took over from as master of the 410 ton convict ship Lord Sidmouth. By the age of 35, James had progressed from being master of ships sailing in coastal waters to sailing to the Mediterranean and across the Atlantic, and now to the other side of the World. In 1820 it was reported that the Lord Sidmouth captain Muddle had sailed from Portsmouth on for New South Wales. After a voyage of 107 days, they arrived at Sydney in Australia on 19 February 1821, where 160 male prisoners were disembarked. James and the Lord Sidmouth also sailed to Jakarta, Calcutta, Mauritius. Upon arriving back to England in 1821, James became captain of the prison ship the ‘Andromeda’, which sailed from Leith to to Van Diemans Land and New South Wales. During the following two decades of travels in and around Australia, James will have collected many of the items in the collection. James is also known to have been captain of the ship ‘Lang’, as well as the “Mandarin’, ‘Glenbervie’ and the ‘Roseanne’. He sailed on prison ships to New Zealand and even China. James died in 1865 at the age of 80, and his collection has been passed by descent down the generations to the present owners.

For more information please see the link below:

http://www.muddlefamilies.info/harrietsham/22eaa.htm

Collected by Captain James Muddle.