The Sea School was originally a Sailors’ Home built in 1886 and had been requisitioned for use as a Sea School in 1918. It looked so foreboding that many have since asked if the original building had ever been a prison so on appearance alone we can imagine it was never a home-from-home.

It never was thereafter either but in Jack’s day it took even more fortitude to stay the distance.

Thanks to Jack we have a very rare copy of the certificate of discharge from the HMPS Triton that served as an additional training establishment at the time. It was on this grand old ex-Victorian naval paddle steamer he got his basic lessons in seamanship.

In March of 1925 Jack finished his training and joined the tanker the m.v Juniata where he started his career as Mess Room Boy.

Many seamen started that way and can remember their early days as P.O’s Peggy, the general term for Messman to the Petty Officers

In 1931 Jack joined the s.s Osceola as AB and stayed there until 1932 when he moved on to the s.s Eastwick where he stayed until 1940. It is on this ship that his remarkable trek into luthier history began.

We are talking here of the days when seamen really did have to make their own entertainment and many are the crafts they took up.

One of the crew jokingly said, “Why don’t you make a fiddle and strike up a tune?”

This was a challenge Jack could not resist, and next time ashore he went into a second-hand shop where a Violin was on display. With no carpentry skills and no knowledge of instrument making, he studied the weight and feel of the fiddle and wrote down a few simple sketches and measurements. Then, went back to the Eastwick to begin his self-imposed task.