The Background

The Packet Surgeon’s diaries probably run to several hundred thousand words, no mean feat for a young man even if he did have time on his hands. It is also something of a feat that they have survived, preserved by the family as Tony Pawlyn explains in his scene setter.

Tony, the author of the definitive book on the Falmouth Packets, has done some additional research on James Williamson and Robert Snell, the commander of the Duke of York Packet.