Aled Eames, 1921-96: a tribute by Professor Emeritus J. Gwynn Williams

In his lectures, delivered with verve, words tumbling forth in profusion, Aled Eames encouraged the descendants of mariners to seek out letters and photographs from trunks and drawers, thus enriching maritime studies with a goodly haul of first hand testimony. He had the knack of drawing out from even taciturn sea captains in the twilight of their days valuable nuggets of information which might otherwise have been forever lost. He never descended into mere anecdotage, but wove his narrative into a scholarly whole. In Wales, he was a pioneer of the systematic study of maritime history, and his many works are valued beyond these shores.

Aled Eames was educated at John Bright's School, Llandudno and at the University College of North Wales, Bangor, where he graduated with a first in history. After brief periods in the British Council and as a teacher, he returned to his old college as a lecturer in education. He was for twenty years a notable warden of Neuadd Reichel, the men's hall of residence. He had an easy rapport with the students, whose interests he tirelessly championed. But by the late 1960s, it was clear that his consuming passion was the study of seafaring, for which he was admirably equipped.

Brought up in Llandudno, he had often heard tales of the sea, and during the war, it was inevitable that he should join the Royal Navy. As a young officer, he took part in the Normandy landings and was twice mentioned in despatches. He was distressed and frustrated that a cruel illness prevented him from participating in the 1994 50th anniversary celebration of D-Day, which was for him a kind of St. Crispin's Day.

His intimate knowledge of the sea in all her moods was indispensable, as was at once evident in his first substantial volume, Ships and Seamen of Anglesey (1973) and in its successor, Porthmadog Ships (1975), a study of those lovely outstanding ships that sailed to all parts of the world. He was also one of the founding editors of Cymru a'r Môr/Maritime Wales in 1976.

His researches in the Gwynedd Archives were further broadened when he was elected in 1981 to the Caird Fellowship at the National Maritime Museum, thus strengthening his links with Basil Greenhill, Robin Craig and other experts. He soon detected similarities between north-west Wales and other maritime communities in Scandinavia, the north-eastern seaboard of America and elsewhere. In Ventures in Sail (1987), another major work, he drew attention to the fleets of Welsh ship managers based in Liverpool. He took easily to radio and television. In 1986, he presented the BBC2 series of films Tradewinds, in co-operation with Canadian and Finnish television, which were much acclaimed, as was a series in Welsh, Halen yn y Gwaed.

Fortune did not always smile upon him, but even in dark days, he had an unquenchable sense of fun which delighted his family and a wide circle of friends. For two years, he looked death from cancer in the eye. He was married twice, first to Hazel (née Phillips) by whom he had two daughters, and secondly to Freda (née Cale, who died in 1996) by whom he had a son and two daughters.

 

Aled Eames (Gerallt Llewellyn, Carmel, Caernarfon)