Joseph Philip Peters

Joseph Philip Peters was born in 1838 in Newry, Armagh, Ireland.  He was Florence Maud Gallson’s grandfather.

Joseph signed up with the Royal Navy and served on the HMS Hastings in 1859 as a Seaman 2nd Class.

However, in the 1861 census, Joseph was onboard the HMS Topaze “a 51-gun Liffey-class wooden screw frigate of the Royal Navy” in the Esquimalt Harbour – yes, in British Columbia, Canada.

The crew of the HMS Topaze built the Race Rocks Lighthouse:

Race Rocks Light is one of the first two lighthouses that were built on the west coast of Canada, financed by the British Government and illuminated in 1860. It is the only lighthouse on that coast built of rock, (granite) purportedly quarried in Scotland, and topped with sandstone quarried on Gabriola Island. The Islands of Race Rocks are located just off the southern tip of Vancouver Island, about 16 km (10 mi) southwest of Victoria, British Columbia

And another interesting little jaunt that the HMS Topaze made  was going to Easter Island and digging up one of the moai statues, dragging it onboard the Topaze and offering it as a gift to Queen Victoria.  The lieutenant on the ship made a sketch of the moai (see above) after it was dragged onto the Topaze.

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