Of all his children, Lazarus’s fourth son, Charles Dunrich Roberts, is the hardest to track. He was born at West Lulworth on 29 August 1829, while his father was stationed at Dorset in the Coastguard. He was baptised there on 27 September. 

In 1841 he was living with his parents at Brightlingsea, Essex. Five years later, in 1846, Charles joined the merchant navy at the age of sixteen. He served in several mercantile vessels – theVernon, the Sutlej, the Prince of Wales.

These were all sailing ships built, owned and run by the shipowners Wigram and Green (later R. & H. Green), at their yard at Blackwall, London, the largest private shipyard in the world. Greens took over the eastern portion of the yard in 1843 and built the last ships for the East India Company. Their vessels were so sturdy they were known as the ‘Blackwall frigates’ (there is a good history here and images of the ships here.)

The Blackwall frigates regularly sailed to India and the Far East. The ships Charles served in ran between London and Madras (Chennai) and Calcutta (Kolkata), in Bengal, a voyage of some four months. Departures and arrivals were announced in the ship news columns of many newspapers of the day, notably Allen’s Indian Mail and Register. 

The Sailors’ Home

Being away from home between September and the following summer each year, Charles avoided some harsh winters in England during the late 1840s and into the 1850s. 

When he was on shore in London, he stayed at the Sailors’ Home on East India Dock Road, just a short walk up from Blackwall yard. This was a well-known hostel for merchant seamen, described in The Nautical Magazine (1845) as a comfortable and respectable retreat from the temptations of the gin-shop and the brothel. 

It had been opened in 1841 by Charles’s benevolent employers, solely for the accommodation of the their own men. Greens devoted much care to the improvement of the mercantile marine. The Sailors’ Home, one of their earliest efforts, could accommodate up to 200 ‘East India sailors, white and black’; such racial integration must have been unusual in the 1840s. 

When Henry Mayhew visited the home in April 1850 (while Charles himself was returning from India), he was astounded at the quality of the accommodation:

The cleanliness and pleasantness of the place were so diametrically different from what I had lately been accustomed to – the men spoke so lovingly of their master – and the master betrayed everywhere such kindness and consideration for his men – that after half a year spent among sweaters, slopsellers, chamber-masters, lumpers, ballast-contractors, and a host of others who live and fatten on the physical and moral degradation of those whom they employ, the comfort, happiness, and air of sympathy that pervaded the whole building had indeed a most cheering effect. 

In connection with the home, Greens also provided a course of instruction in navigation for officers and men. On 12 July 1852 Charles applied for a Certificate of Competency to be a second mate and after passing an ‘ordinary examination’ received this on 15 July 1852 (certificate number 6610). At the time of his application his residence was given as the Sailors’ Home but presumably the certificate could not be sent there so when his certificate was actually issued in July 1852, his address was the family home: 3 Harrison’s Buildings, North Yarmouth, Norfolk.

Disappearance

Where Charles went after this is not clear. The last vessel listed in his statement of service (which is undated but seems to end in about 1852) was the Prince of Wales. In February 1853, quite possibly when Charles was still serving as a second mate, Thomas Octavius Morse Prichard, the ship’s seventeen-year-old midshipman, was killed after falling from the top of the mizzen mast while they were at anchor at Calcutta (Kolkota). Was Charles on board when this happened? 

Thomas Prichard was interred at the burial ground at Kedgeree (Khejuri). This walled cemetery (now totally abandoned), located in the grounds of a large residence south of Calcutta at the mouth of the river Hooghly, was where Europeans who died on board ship were buried. Could Charles have died in similar circumstances? Did he also end up at Kedgeree? If so, it seems nothing was communicated back to his family in England. 

Or did Charles remain in Britain? He is apparently absent from the 1861 census of England and Wales, when he would have been almost thirty-two, although he is listed in the Mercantile Navy List from 1852 up to 1864. However, where included, the columns giving ‘present capacity’, ‘present vessel’, ‘port belonging to’ and ‘destined voyage’ are all blank, so presumably he was absent or on shore unemployed during these years. His listing had ended by 1867 and no further mention of him can be found.

When Lazarus wrote his will in 1869, Charles had not been heard of for some time:

My dear son Charles Dunridge [sic] Roberts not having been heard of for many years I fear he has left this world before me, but should he ever return again to his family I beg that he may understand that I fear I behaved harshly towards him and I beg his forgiveness. My sorrow on this account has been great and my heart has yearned towards him.

The details remain obscure but clearly whatever it was, was of great regret to Lazarus at the end of his life. 

According to Lazarus’s will, should he have reappeared, Charles would have inherited his father’s atlas, placed in his brother Arthur’s care. That seems most appropriate.

>Lazarus's fifth son, Felix