Richard Phelps Gough

He was also a very sociable man, freemason and accustomed to talking in public, as he hand-wrote in a note book, some of his speeches and stories ready to be delivered such as "the Bachelors' farewell" or "the wreck of the Cyprian".

The story of this adventurous "Swansea Boy" says that one evening when 14 (in 1883), he was sent to fetch bread for the home, got in stealthily into the house, donned a bowler hat to look as old as he could (although he also wore an Eton collar!)

He got away all right and the ship sailed round Cape Horn, and from that point, the association with the copper ore trade lasted several years.

He was later apprentice(4 years indenture from 1884 to 1888) notably in the Richardsons' cape horner Ravenscrag, got his mate's and masters' certificates (1890, 1892 and 1896) and served in numerous ships including the Kildonan, Lord Eslington, Taunton, Illimani, Serena, Candahar, Brunetti, Sumbawa, Matteawan, Savernake, Menemisha, Glenbreck, S.Y Eothen Rys.

The new cutter ordered by the Pilots was an improvement of the Beaufort and was built in accordance to many years experience, being oil driven and capable of developing a speed of 10 knots.

[6] Amongst its members, he was very active to defend the Pilot's interests and on 15 August 1908, they met at the Albert Hall, Winston Churchill (President of the Board of Trade) who was in town, at the time, to meet the miners.

The Barques were also leaving Swansea loaded with Coal, fire bricks, slate, steam engine parts, copper ingots, tinplate, other materials and even passengers.

Gough like all the other Cape horners, had to cover immense distances and a voyage from Swansea to Chile and back again could take a year or more (7000 to 8000 miles).

These voyages were at high risks and crews had to contend with terrifying conditions[13] and illnesses: violent winds and currents, frost, breakers and raging seas, snow, icebergs round Cap Horn, diseases such as yellow fever, poor food, being washed away and drown, fires due to coal damp storage conditions, shipwreck, and many men would not survive.