Ernest Haylett's Log Books

In my father's big Arab chest are two of his father's log books, dating from March 1929 through to September 1930. The main purpose of these was to record the passage of Ernest Haylett's ship, Harrison's SS Defender, which, in those far off days before Garmins and iPhones existed, was achieved by....

....using a sextant to 'shoot' the sun, ideally at midday, from which the ship's position could be calculated.

This picture shows Ernest, in the foreground, with his chief officer, doing just that in Beira harbour. I assume, without knowing for certain, that the photo was taken by my father when, as the representative of Harrison's agency in Beira, he went on board to meet the captain.

This is a page from the second of the two log books. It's dated August 31st 1930 and, in the upper part of the page....

....it shows the calculations Ernest did to fix his position at latitude 3º 50' N, longitude 12º 41' W - in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of West Africa. The lower part....

....isn't as neat as earlier entries, the key number being the 249, the number of nautical miles steamed in the previous 24 hours. 

I've looked through my grandfather's log books several times before but I hadn't noticed that the entry for the following day, 1st September 1930....

....isn't in my grandfather's handwriting. It's very much neater.

The reason is simple. On that day his chief officer - probably the man in the photo with him in Beira - took over command of the ship because my grandfather was, by that time, very ill. It was he who later obtained permission to divert to the then nearest port - Madeira - where he put Captain Haylett ashore. There, after a period in hospital, he was transferred to the Highland Princess, a Royal Mail ship, for passage to England, but he died in the English Channel on 30th September 1930.