History Commons^™

Sewing A Safety Net: Scarborough's Maritime Community, 1747-1765, Charles Foy

Charles Foy

On 31 March 1748, during a voyage from Scarborough to London, the fifty- six-year-old seaman Thomas Williamson died. The same year, on a three-month coasting voyage from Scarborough, Diamond's fourteen-man crew in- cluded forty-year-old Enoch Harrison, forty-five-year-old Samuel Clark, forty- year-old George Addison and fifty-four-year-old George Welborn. The presence of older sailors on Scarborough ships was common; over thirteen percent of the seamen on vessels sailing from Scarborough between 1747 and 1765 were men forty years of age or older. Alongside these weathered tars, young servants comprised twenty-two percent of Scarborough crews. On numerous Scarborough craft, including Elizabeth and Margaret, …