ID: WW01_311 / Winifred Hone

TitleZebedee Milgate and Tom Mole - Winifred Hone memoirs
AbstractZebedee Milgate and Tom Mole were two other amusing characters. On one occasion Milgate was discussing his wealth with Mole having sold his small smack for £70. Not to be outdone by Milgate's statement of wealth, Mole replied he had plenty, his daughters heads always in the cupboards looking for something to eat. He thought of himself as generous and anybody was welcome to come and have a meal with him as long as they brought their own food.

Captain Dickson RN has bought the DAISY and left Mersea with his bride on their honeymoon voyage to Greenland. In later years the smack was completely converted into quite a glamorous yacht and renamed DUSMARIE. He returned to Mersea after the Second World War, he used my club a lot but his bargaining was a bit odd. He would tell you what he wanted but he never asked how much. At a later date he would bring in fish, which he said was the Greenland way of payment. He seemed a happy and contented man and I was very shocked to hear that he had decided to end his life. He always had some adventure on and perhaps he regarded this as a new one.

Note
Zebedee is typed as Zedbarah in the article

AuthorWinifred Hone
Publishedc1969
SourceMersea Museum / Wendy Brady
IDWW01_311
Related Images:
 When Winter Comes to Lapland --- article on taking DUSMARIE to the Arctic Circle.  LC1_THM_DAI_P12
ImageID:   LC1_THM_DAI_P12
Title: When Winter Comes to Lapland --- article on taking DUSMARIE to the Arctic Circle.
Source:John Leather Collection / Lt-Commander Douglas Dixon
 Zebedee Milgate
</p><p>
He lived to 80 in about 1945 still working to the last. A very interesting old sea dog, he had what is believed to be the last trial of piracy on the high seas in England due to a bloody sea fight over the ownership of oysters [culch] being dredged by a Burnham crew, that Zeb and others believed belonged to Mersea and Tollesbury. After telling the Burnham chaps to back off, which they didn't, they took direct action by boarding their much larger boat and fought the crew. They were convicted but believe it was later quashed due to the help of local dignitaries who knew the Mersea crew. [Caroline Robinson - great granddaughter]
</p><p>For more, see <a href=mmresdetails.php?col=MM&ba=cke&typ=ID&rhit=1&pid=BOXP_011 ID=1>The Blackwater Culch War of 1894 </a> 
</p>  MIL_OPA_141
ImageID:   MIL_OPA_141
Title: Zebedee Milgate

"He lived to 80 in about 1945 still working to the last. A very interesting old sea dog, he had what is believed to be the last trial of piracy on the high seas in England due to a bloody sea fight over the ownership of oysters [culch] being dredged by a Burnham crew, that Zeb and others believed belonged to Mersea and Tollesbury. After telling the Burnham chaps to back off, which they didn't, they took direct action by boarding their much larger boat and fought the crew. They were convicted but believe it was later quashed due to the help of local dignitaries who knew the Mersea crew. [Caroline Robinson - great granddaughter]

For more, see The Blackwater Culch War of 1894

Source:Mersea Museum / John Milgate Collection