At Sea 40.38 N 52.45 W

Certified Extract From a Return of Death, General Register and Record Office of Shipping and Seamen, Tower Hill, London, E1

Name of Ship: Astrakhan

Date of death: 21 / 4 /24

Place of death: At Sea 40.38 N 52.45 W

Name and surname of deceased: James Phillip Jarwick

Sex: Male

Age: 29

Rating or Rank, Profession or Occupation: AB

Nationality, Stating Birthplace: British. North Shields

Last Place of Abode: 13 Mount Pleasant, North Shields

Cause of Death: Brain Fever


My grandmother, Ellen Jarwick, was an infant when her father died and never knew him.

Years ago, way before digital photography, my grandfather took an old portrait of James Sr and toddler James Jr, and another portrait of Nan as a baby with her mother, and got them copied and melded together to look like one portrait. This melded portrait was prominently displayed. I studied it for clues.

Who was James Jarwick?

A sailor who died at sea of brain fever.

A father who never sat next to his daughter.

The man in the portrait.

Far away.