Box: List of Royal Mail Steam Packet Company officers, 1896.

Certificates of Continuous Discharge, 1901-1911.

Argentinian Immigration Regulations handbook (including photograph and finger prints) and entrance pass for the British Exhibition, Buenos Aires, 1931.

2 photographs of Commodore Wakeman, circa 1920s.

Notebook including calculations and statistics such as the 'law of storms in the northern hemisphere', calculating how distant a ship is and calculating latitude by stars together with cargo capacities of various RMS ships.

Large journal containing longitude and latitude computations with ports and respective distances.

Scrapbook containing press cuttings, obituaries, menus, telegrams and photographs of Commodore Wakeman's career.

Volume of Commissions, certificates, testimonials and references for Charles and Edwin Wakeman.

Folder: Certificates, including apprentice ship indentures, Service certificates and Commissions, Royal Naval Reserve certificate, Engineer's certificates and certificates of Freemasonry. Also many testimonials and letters including one from William Morris of the Morris Motor Co. Some of the certificates relate to Charles Wakeman, Edwin's father.

Please contact Archive Staff for information about ordering from this collection.

Administrative / biographical background
Edwin Cleak Wakeman was born in Birmingham in 1872. He went to sea in 1887 with the Shaw Savill Albion Company. His initial voyages were to Australia in sailing clippers but the dwindling nature of this trade compelled him to seek other employment. He joined the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company as fifth officer of the SS DON in 1895. He was confirmed Commander in 1911 and Commodore in 1929. He commanded the ASTURIAS and then later the MV ALCANTARA, which plied the Southampton- Buenos Aires River Plate route. At his retirement in 1931 he replied to a newspaper reporter's questions with 'I've never been in a wreck or a collision or a serious accident'. This modest observation belied his wartime experience which he spent on convoy duty in the Atlantic on transports and hospital ships, where he was frequently obliged to dodge submarines and torpedoes. In command of the CARMARTHENSHIRE on Easter Sunday 1917, his vessel was able to avoid a torpedo and then endured a chase of 2 and a half hours under fire before the submarine was itself damaged and captured by a patrol boat.