john gordon

john gordon was grampas' maternal grandfather; i was named after him. the gordons and the orrs both came to ireland from the argyle regeon of scotland. the orrs were farmers and the gordons were seafaring people.(there is much rumor of smuggling!) thier land in ireland was granted to them after they put thier ships into service with the english to fight the spanish. the story goes that during a great sea battle, as one of the gordon ships was sinking, a gordon clung to the mast top as she went down and shouted " horraw for ireland ". the family always thought they would have gotten more or better land if he had called horraw for england! when john gordon was 17 yrs old his father gave him a 70 ton smack for his start in life. (i used to know the name of this ship; grampa drew it for me once; i think it was the caterina?) jg made 7 trips accross the atlantic with this little ship; he ran whiskey to montreal and brought timber home to ireland. this made him enough money to build a big three masted sailing ship which he named "the phylis"(not sure on spelling). grampa drew me a picture of her; she was square rigged on two masts and schooner rigged on one. once a huge atlantic storm pushed the phylis so far off coarse the ended up off the coast of south america; jg brought a parrot home for his wife eliza; eliza lived to be 98, they took her bicycle away the year before she died. the parrot lived to be over 100yrs and could talk very well. john gordon sailed the phylis till he retired in his 70s,(not always the same ship, for as jack berry told me the wooden ships were likely replaced every 8 or 10 yrs, but, all named the phylis.)jg gave the phylis to his 1st mate on his retirment; the mate lost her in a wreck on his 1st voyage. john gordon taught grampa about boats, ships and the sea; he had a big influence on grampas' life...