Introduction: Henry Morris Ash, whose pencil sketches of cable-laying voyages on CS Faraday are shown here, was born in London on December 10th, 1850, the seventh of eight children of Sargeant Ash, a dentist, and his wife Mary Ann Ash. The family lived at 70 Harmood St, Camden Town, London NW1. While there is no detailed record of his career, snapshots of Henry Ash's life for the next 50 years may be obtained from census, marriage, ships' crew, and copyright records.
The census records show that in 1871, at the age of 20, Ash was occupied as a Draughtsman, still living at home with his mother and two siblings. By this time the family had moved to 55 Willes Rd, London NW5, and Mary Ann Ash was listed as Head of Household, Sargeant Ash evidently having died sometime after the 1861 census. In late 1877 Henry married Mary Ann Aust, and the couple moved into the house next door to Ash's mother at 53 Willes Rd, which is given as their residence in the 1881 census.
Henry Ash's signature
from a CS Faraday Crew Agreement for 1884.
Image reproduced by permission of, and copyright © 2006,
Maritime History Archive, Memorial University,
St. John's, Newfoundland. |
The first known group of Ash's sketches was made in 1879 on CS Faraday (1) , the purpose-built cable laying ship owned and operated by Siemens Brothers of London. The dates of other sketches show that he also sailed on the Faraday in 1881, 1882, 1884, 1889, 1893, 1894, and 1900.
In the 1881 census Henry's occupation was given as Draughtsman and Designer; on the Faraday crew agreement for the 1884 Mackay-Bennett cable voyage he was listed as Engr. General Assistant.
In the 1891 census he was listed as still residing at the same address in London, now a Draughtsman and Hydrographer, but his mother no longer lived next door, having moved to Islington.
In the 1901 census (the last one open for public research at the present time), Henry's occupation was given as Hydrographer to Submarine Cable Engineer, and he and his wife had moved to Brighton on the south coast of England.
No children of Henry and Mary Ann Ash are shown in any of the public records, and no details of his life after 1901 have yet been discovered. Henry Ash died in Brighton at the age of 94 in late 1944 or early 1945.
If any site visitor has further information on Henry Ash or his family, please contact me.
As Henry Ash's profession called for precise surveying and drawing skills, it's perhaps not surprising that he was also a talented artist. His first known pencil sketches date from 1879. when he was 28 years old, and were made on the CS Faraday (1) voyage to lay the French Atlantic cable from Brest, France, to St. Pierre, near Newfoundland. During his service on Faraday between 1879 and 1900 he produced many pencil sketches at sea and on land, illustrating the places and events of each voyage.
Two groups of Ash's sketches came to auction in 2005. One lot, sold in April at Christie's in London, included pencil sketches of scenes from CS Faraday's seven Atlantic Cable expeditions between 1879 and 1900. 86 of these sketches are now in the collection of the Library and Archives Canada; more information may be found in the Archives catalog entry.
The second sale, at an auction in Devon in June 2005, had five lots of drawings by Ash. One group of 11 sketches, reproduced here, included drawings made during the Atlantic Cable expeditions of 1879 and 1884, and the 1889 Canso, Nova Scotia - New York cable voyage. Four other lots had a total of 117 countryside sketches, all scenes of the south of England, dated in the years between the Faraday's cable voyages. These sketches include views of Kent, Devon, Cornwall, Dorset, Hampshire, and Sussex.
The sketches shown here vary in size from 7½" x 4½" to 6¾" x 3¼". This group also includes an unusual miniature watercolour of the Faraday by Henry Ash.
In 1894 Ash registered at Stationers' Hall in London the copyright on a little book titled "Souvenir of the 1894 Mackay Bennett Atlantic Cable, Laid by Messrs. Siemens Brothers Co. for the Commercial Cable Company". The registration certificate and a cover for this book are in the collection of the Library and Archives Canada. From the format of the cover, the book was most likely a collection of his sketches. The registration certificate notes that: "One copy of each publication should be forwarded forthwith to the British Museum; and four copies delivered here for the Oxford, Cambridge, Edinburgh, and Dublin Libraries". However, the book is not listed in the catalogues of any of those institutions.
A consolidated catalogue of all 97 of Henry Ash's cable-related sketches,with dates, titles, and notes, may be viewed here.
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References:
Birth Index: District: Pancras (1837-1901),
County: London, Middlesex, first quarter 1851,
volume 1,
page 345.
Census of England and Wales, 1851, 1861, 1871, 1881, 1891, 1901.
Crew Agreement, CS Faraday, 25 January 1884.
England & Wales, Death Index: 1837-1983, first quarter 1945, volume 2 b, page 439.
Christie's, South Kensington, auction records, April 2005.
Michael J. Bowman, Devon, auction records, June 2005.
Links:
Detailed index of Henry Ash sketches
Library and Archives Canada catalogue entry
Henry Ash family background
1884 Faraday crew agreement
1894 Mackay-Bennett Cable souvenir book
1900 musical production on board Faraday
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