![Picture](/uploads/1/2/6/2/12622942/published/john-jansson.jpg?1720921999)
Western Port Maritime History.
By Christine Grayden
JOHN Jansson – from the Phillip Island Millowl seaside town of Rhyll – has quite a bit in common with me – from the seaside town of Ventnor at the opposite end of the island. We are both the fifth generation of our respective families to participate in sea-related activities. John has Nordic and Western Port ferry and trader vessel captains and crew, as well as fishermen in his family. He helped his father on his fishing boat, and John has built and restored craft himself.
In my own ancestors, I have Western Port boatmen and fishermen, and a maritime explorer – a cousin of my Pickersgill forebears, Lt Richard Pickersgill, who was an officer on board Cook’s Endeavour and then Resolution. I actually spent over 20 years working part time as a “deckie” with my uncle on his small fishing boat on Phillip Island’s west coast.
It’s hardly surprising then, that as two local history buffs we would decide to have a go at completing John’s huge amount of local post-contact maritime history research, and compile it all into a few books.
JOHN Jansson – from the Phillip Island Millowl seaside town of Rhyll – has quite a bit in common with me – from the seaside town of Ventnor at the opposite end of the island. We are both the fifth generation of our respective families to participate in sea-related activities. John has Nordic and Western Port ferry and trader vessel captains and crew, as well as fishermen in his family. He helped his father on his fishing boat, and John has built and restored craft himself.
In my own ancestors, I have Western Port boatmen and fishermen, and a maritime explorer – a cousin of my Pickersgill forebears, Lt Richard Pickersgill, who was an officer on board Cook’s Endeavour and then Resolution. I actually spent over 20 years working part time as a “deckie” with my uncle on his small fishing boat on Phillip Island’s west coast.
It’s hardly surprising then, that as two local history buffs we would decide to have a go at completing John’s huge amount of local post-contact maritime history research, and compile it all into a few books.