On 20th January this year (2024), at Brightlingsea, Essex, U.K. sailing lost one of our characters of the coast, Jim Lawrence, aged 90. His career afloat included being master at age 18 of the 155 ton Thames sailing barge George Smeed. When trade under sail drew to a close, Jim stepped ashore to found James Lawrence Sailmakers, which from small beginnings grew to become renowned globally for classic and tradtional sails which played their part in the preservation of trading and leisure craft, sail training ships and many more. Jim wrote his memoirs and finished them a month before he died. In his manuscript he gives positive mention to Peter Ripley who travelled from Australia to learn the art of traditional sailmaking, before returning to Australia as sailmarker to H.M.Bark Endeavour, before establishing a sail loft in Sydney. This post is in the hope of tracking Peter down and sourcing an image of him at his loft for inclusion, with any anecdotes he cares to add, in the upcoming book.
Richard Walsh
Chaffcutter Books
Australian history seems a little confused here. Maybe someone on the First Fleet? Nope. So possibly someone in the 19th century.
Assume these links are the Peter Ripley you are after. These links are in the public domain as just found by me - so I assume ok to post here. The bloke seems like a top shelf Trojan.
There are mentions of "Endeavour Sailmaking and Rigging" but googling that didn't succeed.
Expect the first or last links to the Captain Cook Society and James Craig clan might be the best place to start to get a contact to him.
www.captaincooksociety.com/cooks-life/cooks-ships/the-australian-endeavour-replica/endeavour-replica-sails-from-fremantle-to-sydney
www.facebook.com/circuswa/posts/local-sail-maker-pete-ripley-has-started-work-on-creating-a-new-skin-for-the-fre/1604647292918139/
abba.org.au/pdf/93_201408-ABBA-Newsletter-Aug-Sept-2014.pdf
streetwisemedia.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/FSW1-Dec-2015-2.pdf
abr.business.gov.au/ABN/View/40054865257
issuu.com/sydneyheritagefleet/docs/20th_anniversary_publication#google_vignette
