From the Star of Monday, 24th October, 1836. A report of the death of Peter Gallienne, a 'sober, steady, enterprising and well-informed young man,' which is thought to be the first ever death while diving of a helmeted diver.
Dug from Lima's golden mine, We hail it as our Valentine. HMS Menelaus recaptured a very valuable French prize, the Spanish treasure-ship the St Juan Baptista. The master was a Guernseyman, and Guernsey people are often very careful with money. This one certainly was. The account is from The Life of a Sailor by Frederick Chamier (1796-1870), some of whose tales are probably rather tall.
Chaussey, or Choye, is a group of islets lying off the coast of Normandy, about twenty miles from Jersey, and nine from Granville. They stretch north, east, and west, and cover a space of nearly twelve miles. The principal of them is called the MaÎtre Isle, and is the resort of a few French fishermen during the summer, but being only a rock, and totally devoid of vegetation, its inhabitants are entirely dependent on the neighbouring shores for all the necessaries of life, excepting what their nets may produce. At the time of which we are writing, the winter of 1803, this group of islets was in the hands of the English, and was the scene of the wreck of the Grappler in that year.
From The Star, Guernsey Weekly Advertiser, 26 December 1826.
From the Star of December 25th, 1890: The Holiday.
The horrible death of 21-year old Guernseyman Lieutenant Edward Murray Tupper, RN, in the New Hebrides (now Vanuatu).
How the sea-front looked seventy years ago, by 'Observer' (1923). The accompanying photograph, from the Library collection, is a detail from a panorama taken by Arsène Garnier of the harbour early in its rebuilding in 1857. The detail below shows the temporary cement mill erected for the works.
James Saumarez' account of the loss of the 28-gun frigate Boreas, wrecked on the Hanois rocks on November 28th, 1807. This disaster was one of the major factors in the eventual decision to erect a lighthouse there. The number of men who died is uncertain; 77 were saved. Captain Robert Scott's wife is also said to have been drowned. From Cobbett's Political Register, Vol. 12, 1807, p. 928.
An extract from an article published in the Star of October 18, 1825. 'The observations that follow have been copied from The Morning Herald. They will tend to show what views some strangers are apt to form of our local peculiarities; if, indeed, they can be taken as the real views of the writer, which, from the incorrectness of his statements, and the exaggerated description he has given of advantages and disadvantages, beauties and defects, we more than doubt.' The young lady in the portrait is Anne Priaulx.1
The impecunious Thomas Le Marchant of La Plaiderie died in 1762, leaving a family of young children. His estate at L'Hyvreuse, which included what is now Beau Séjour, was bought by William Dobrée , his children's guardian. Part was then sold to the States of Guernsey; L'Hyvreuse house was demolished and the land used for recreation and as a parade ground for the militia. The imposing double gateway, 'similar to that called Ivy Gates, but much handsomer,' to L'Hyvreuse house was all that remained; it then served as an entrance to the New Ground, or what we now know as Cambridge Park, but…
