I came across several photos of a Captain Foote in the online catalogue of the Nelson Provincial Museum of New Zealand.  After some initial research it was clear Captain Foote was Alexander Bedward Foote, whose family I had recently been researching in various Jamaican records.  I set about finding out more about the person in these photos.

Captain Foote. Nelson Provincial Museum, Tyree Studio Collection: 47808.

There are several photos of a ‘Captain Foote’, in the Nelson Provincial Museum of New Zealand, with sittings taken over a few decades, this being the earliest.  This is Captain Alexander Bedward Foote.  Photos of some of the square rigged ships he captained and sailed can be found in other collections as well (see below). 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Alexander Bedward Foote was born 24 June 1859 at the settlement of Manchioneal in British ruled Jamaica.  He was one of several children of the Wesleyan minister Reverend Alexander Bedward and Rachel Foote.   

His family were of African and European ancestry,  descendants of the enslaved African people brought to the Caribbean colonies during the Atlantic Slave Trade.  Jamaica had been one of the richest and most abusive, slave societies in Britain’s empire.  By 1834 slavery had finally been abolished in Jamaica.  Prior the abolition,  records indicate his parents and grandparents were ‘free person[s] of colour’; a recognised class in the then complex society of Jamaica.

Alexander was educated and ambitious.  He began his career on the high seas as an Ordinary Seaman, setting sail on 14 December 1876 at the age of 18.  He worked his way through the ranks, by 1879 he was an Able Seaman, then passing his Certificate of Competency as Second Mate in 1881 and First Mate Certificate in 1885.  At the age of 28 he qualified as a Master.  During this time he based himself in London’s Limehouse district between voyages, lodging with friends also from his home country.    

By the early 1880s he was employed with the newly merged  British shipping line Shaw, Savill & Albion Company which operated between Great Britain, Australia and New Zealand.  Remaining with them for the next 20 years; his posts and ships over this period were – 

  • Second Officer on the barque Glenora (1887);
  • Chief Officer of the barque Brussels (1890);
  • Master of the barque Asterion (1891 to 1900);
  • and Master of the barque Gladys (1901 to 1903).

 

After his time with Shaw, Savill & Albion, he was Master of the barque Ilma, from 1903 to 1906; it was bought by a George T Niccol for intercolonial trade.  Possibly due an illness in 1904, he no longer worked as the Ship’s Master but as First Mate on the barque Woollahra of Sydney (1906 to 1907).  His time on the Woollahra was cut short when it was wrecked at Cape Terawhiti (the south-westernmost point of New Zealand’s North Island) in July 1907.  Two lives were lost including the Captain, a part owner, who chose to stay with his ship.  Foote, though injured, survived and along with some of the surviving crew later joined the barquentine Rio (1907) as First Mate.

After over 30 years of a life at sea he died in Sydney’s St Vincent’s hospital on the 26 February 1908.  Having traversed the calm and mountainous seas, weathering  gales, monsoons, squalls, hail, snow, sleet and hurricanes on his countless voyages and surviving more than a few narrow escapes, he died from an ulcerative stomatitis and cardiac failure. 

Foote never married but he had a wide circle of friends in New Zealand, England and Australia.  One of his old friends, also born in Jamaica and the son of a Reverend, George Richard Louis Cork was the informant at this death.

Alexander Bedward Foote is buried at the NSW heritage listed Waverley Cemetery at Bronte.  It sits atop cliffs overlooking the South Pacific Ocean.

 

 

Ilma

Barquentine Ilma. Ref: 1/2-014688-G. Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand. /records/22799986

Asterion

Barque Asterion entering Nelson harbour. Ref: 10×8-0481-G. Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand. /records/22728893

Woollahra

Ship Woollahra. Ref: 1/2-017193-F. Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand. /records/23218862

Bibliography

Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand, photographic archive

Death Certificate of Alexander Bedward Foote

England & Wales Merchant Navy Crew Lists, 1861-1913 

Jamaica, Church of England Parish Baptisms 1664-1880

Nelson Provincial Museum of New Zealand, online collection 

Papers Past, National Library of New Zealand

Privileging Kinship: Family and Race in Eighteenth-Century Jamaica, Daniel Livesay

Trove, National Library of Australia

UK and Ireland, Masters and Mates Certificates, 1850-1927