Frederick Fiddaman (c1855 - 1876)

Schooldays
James and his wife Jemima lost their first two children in infancy. Their son Frederick was born in 1855 but was drowned when the ss Ionia was shipwrecked in the Bay of Biscay in 1876. We still don’t know why this son of a successful tradesman went to sea but thanks to the capability to search censuses on-line we now know a little more about his life.

In 1871 Frederick was one of 38 boarders aged between 9 and 17 at Trinity School, Old Stratford, Northants, a middle-class school for boys, open for annual examinations. The head master was the Rev. James Thomas who lived at the school with his wife Mary and six children and ran it with two assistant masters, a cook, a nurse and two domestic servants. Frederick was the only pupil born in Norfolk and we can find no obvious link with any of James Fiddaman’s friends. We have wondered whether James might have heard of the school while racing his horses at Towcester, only 8 miles away, although public steeplechasing was not inaugurated there until 1876. More likely he heard of it from a friend at the Carlton Club or the Albemarle Hotel on one of his visits to London.

Old Stratford was well-connected to King’s Lynn via the Buckingham Branch of the Grand Junction Canal and the Rivers Nene and Great Ouse so it is possible that Frederick may have travelled this way to and from school. We can only speculate on whether or not the watermen inspired him to lead a life on the ocean wave but the canals and river were hardly good preparation for the Bay of Biscay!

Officers & crew of the ss Ionia
[Reported in The Times Monday 30 October 1876.]
The following is a list of her crew as furnished by our correspondent at Sunderland. They signed articles in London for the Tyne, thence to Alexandria and Black Sea, and Sea of Asof etc, and back to the UK, for nine month:
  • Charles Hyde, master of London;
  • J.C. Sibbald, chief mate, of South Shields;
  • John Roach, second mate, of Sunderland;
  • Edward Powell, third mate, of Sunderland;
  • William Welch, carpenter, of Sunderland;
  • Robert Stewart, steward, of London;
  • William Cramp, cook, of London;
  • Robert Nelson, boatswain, of Boston;
  • Thomas Rowntree, A.B., of London;
  • Edward Young, A.B., of London;
  • Richard Harvey, A.B., of London;
  • John Clark, A.B., of London;
  • William Judd, A.B., of Essex;
  • Herbert Palton, A.B., of Redcoat;
  • Thomas Billington, A.B., of London;
  • William Forward, A.B., of Saltfleet;
  • Joseph Cottle, first engineer, of London;
  • John Pattison, second engineer, of Carlisle;
  • Henry Williams, third engineer, of Sunderland;
  • James Hill, donkeyman, of Monaghan;
  • A. Wallace, fireman, of Dublin;
  • William Wheeler, fireman, of London;
  • James Cory, fireman, of Cornwall;
  • W. Barnard, fireman, of London;
  • H. Theile, fireman, of Hanover;
  • F. Fiddaman, engineer's steward, of Lynn;
  • Andrew Anderson, carpenter, of Sweden;
  • William Gardner, assistant carpenter, of South wick.