These are a collection of photographs that were found in a leather suitcase that had been under four feet of water for several days when my parent’s house was flooded in 1993. They were dried out but, needless to say, they are in not in their original state. I have put them together in small galleries for those who are interested in the history of the Westcountry trading ketches and also the history of Bude.

They were collected by my grandfather and, I believe, some he inherited from his father, during his years as master of the Ceres, a Westcountry trading ketch. I have no record of whether he took any of these photographs himself but I note that most of them are of ships in ports that Ceres would have visited.

Merchant sailing vessels 1

Merchant sailing vessels 2

Merchant sailing vessels 3