Josiah Vavasseur

Vavasseur was born in Braintree, Essex, in 1834, and following school he spent six years as an apprentice to the engineering firm of James Horn and Company in Whitechapel.

In 1857 he partnered with David Guthrie in establishing the Patent Dyewood and Drug Mills, at 17 New Park Street, Southwark.

He obtained a patent for improvements in cannon rifling and the firm bought a small iron works at 28 Gravel Lane, Southwark.

Vavasseur initially produced a series of 2.9 inch guns for the Confederate States, but the ship carrying them foundered, and they never reached their destination.

In 1863 Vavasseur and Blakely collaborated on the production of spherical steel shot, intended to penetrate the armour of ironclads coming into service at the time.

In the ensuing court case (and appeal) in 1878, it was decided that the Japanese Mikado (emperor) could not be sued and that his property (the shells) could not be held.

The story of the inheritance was retold by The New York Times on 21 November 1910, when Cecil Fisher came to the United States to marry miss Jane Morgan.

[9] The paper wrote that Cecil Fisher as a young lieutenant had helped Vavasseur with his work on quick-firing guns at Whale Island, Hampshire.