Local Letchworth based author Bill Lindsay joins us to talk about the life of his ancestor, whose journals are housed in the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich.

These highlight his life at sea from cabin boy to captain, a sometimes shocking insight into what life was like sailing across oceans in the 1830s. William would would eventually own one of the largest shipping companies in the world, with 22 ships, some of which were even employed as troop transporters in the Crimean War.

He entered Parliament in 1854 and met with an astonishing array of luminaries: Livingstone, Buchanan, Garibaldi, Gladstone, Disraeli, Brunel, Nightingale, Dickens, Paxton, Emperor Napoleon III and Queen Victoria.

You can find further info and tickets here: https://bsmevents.yapsody.com/event/index/771311/william-schaw-lindsay-victorian-entrepreneur