Scrap log kept by Alfred Briglin on the first voyage of the London Missionary Society ship JOHN WILLIAMS IV, 1894-1895

Log kept by Alfred Briglin, able seaman and quartermaster on the London Missionary Society ship JOHN WILLIAMS IV (1894) [SS John Williams IV], between 7 March 1894 and 12 February 1895.

The log covers the handover of the ship from Robert Napier & Son shipbuilders at Glasgow, sea trials and openings for visitors at various ports in England and Wales, before a voyage from London to Sydney. The JOHN WILLIAMS IV then completes a first voyage of mission work, calling at islands in the Pacific Ocean, including Nuie, Samoa, Mangaia, Rarotongo, Rotumah, Aitutaki, Samarai and New Guinea.

The volume is described by the author as a scrap log and written throughout in pencil. The front has technical details of the JOHN WILLIAMS IV; the back has a schedule for Voyage 1 recording dates of arrival and departure at different locations and days spent on each passage. There are also details of weekly provisions for each member of the crew. Loose inside are printed verses of the farewell song for the London Missionary Society (LMS) ship sung in 1844 and 1894, and a handwritten note about meals provided on Christmas Day.

Previous number: MSS/76/186

Related materials:
See externally held material re London Missionary Society ship JOHN WILLIAMS IV within the Council for World Mission (formerly London Missionary Society) archives held at SOAS, University of London: https://archives.soas.ac.uk/

Administrative / biographical background
Alfred Morris Briglin was born at Scarborough, Yorkshire, in 1869. During the earlier part of his career at sea he was an able seaman on passenger ships of the Orient Line. He was also a quartermaster on the first voyage to the Pacific islands of the London Missionary Society (LMS) ship JOHN WILLIAMS IV (1894). For several years he worked as a colliery agent in Yorkshire. During the First World War Briglin was an able seaman on the Peninsular & Oriental (P&O) Line vessels KAISAR-I-HIND (1914), SYRIA (1901) and SICILIA (1901). Later he was a mate on the FRANZ FERDINAND (1899), a captured Austrian steamer used as a troop transport in Mesopotamia. Briglin died of heatstroke in hospital at Basra in 1916 and is remembered on the First World War memorial at Harrogate in Yorkshire.