Published online by Cambridge University Press: 31 July 2008
I'd like to begin with a voyage round my grandfather. Captain Robert Owen was a native of Liverpool. He lived for most of his life not five miles from where we're gathered now. He was a sea captain and he worked for the Harrison Line, a cargo firm trading out of Liverpool to West Africa and America. One of his early commands, from 1899 to 1906, was the cargo vessel Logician. He rose eventually to be commodore captain of the line - and this wasn't because of what he could do, but because of what he knew.