Maritime

Guernsey in the shipbuilding days

28th January 2025

From The Star of 6 February 1913. 'A writer connected with the shipping interests of the island has written the following brief history of Guernsey's shipbuilding days which will be read with interest by many readers.'

Will of Jean Vautier, 1699

21st November 2024

I, Jean Vautier being sound of body [but] being of a profession in which I often fnd myself in danger of death because of storms at sea ... Firstly, to the poor of St Peter Port, 20 sous tournois. Item . To my two sisters, Marie and Elizabeth, 10 sous each and as for the remainder: to my beloved wife Catherine Le Poitevin for her to live the rest of her life in the house and land that I own at Fermain, in right of my mother, Marie Le Chevalier [La Chevaliere]. Drawn up at St Peter Port 9 May 1699. Jean Patron, witness, William de Putron, witness. IGBD Reg: 4 May 1703

Captain Ross: The Antarctic Expedition

9th August 2024

A letter sent from a local member of Captain Ross' Expedition via the ship Alarm from the Falkland Islands, from the Guernsey Star, of September 15, 1842.

The Launch of the 'Concordia'

1st August 2024

A brigantine in St Peter Port Harbour (c) The Priaulx Library

Witchcraft in action - literally with a pinch of salt. From a Report by J Linwood Pitts, Hon. Sec. of the Folklore Section of the Société Guernesiaise. The illustration is a photograph of a brigantine in St Peter Port Harbour, from the Priaulx Library's Photographic Collection. Please contact us if you wish to reproduce it.

Will of Thomas Le Pelley, 1643

22nd May 2024

Translation from the French transcribed by Edith Carey in her Sark notebook in the Priaulx Library.

Irish smuggling

30th March 2022

From Report relating to frauds in the Customs, 1733, Appendix, pp. 634-5.

The Kingdom of Congers

11th February 2022

From An Account of the Island of Jersey, with An Appendix of Records &c. (1694), to which are added, Notes and Illustrations, by the Reverend Edward Durell, MA, Rector of St Saviour, Jersey. Jersey: Richard Giffard, 1837.

When island prospered with busy shipyards

24th September 2021

Memories of an old resident. From The Star, Guernsey, Thursday June 29, 1944

Sunk by U-boat

21st June 2019

'Crew landed on Lihou island after ship had been sunk by U-boat.' An article by Carel Toms from the Guernsey Star of 27 December, 1951, in the Priaulx Library Newspaper Collection.

The last voyage of the 'Pourquoi Pas?'/Le dernier voyage du 'Pourquoi Pas?'

6th March 2019

This account of the wreck of the Pourquoi Pas, an event greeted with immense dismay in Guernsey, where Commander Jean-Baptiste Charcot was a great favourite, was kindly written by Cédric Bail, assistant curator at Hauteville House, for the Priaulx Library 'Hauteville House and the Hugo family' exhibition of summer 2018. His original French text is included below.

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