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Dowman, Wilfred H. (1880 - 1936 )

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1922:

Capt. W. H. Dowman's Onaway participated in the Corinthian Races at the RCYC throughout 1922.

In 1922, the Brig 'Maria do Amparo' ex Ferreira ex clipper Cutty Sark (1869), sheltered in Falmouth Harbour during her return to Lisbon following a "refit" at London's Surrey Dock, . Captain Wilfred Dowman, saw her, and was reminded of when, as an apprentice seaman on the Hawksdale, in 1894, he had seen her outpace a steamship. She was in poor condition when Captain Dowman approached her Portuguese owners, and bought her for £3,750. He had her towed to Falmouth, where she was moored from 1923 -1938. Dowman restored her for use as a stationary training ship.

The Artist and keen racing helmsman, H. S. Tuke (1858-1929) had a particular fondness for the Cutty Sark . There are at least two watercolours of her by Tuke. He may have remembered seeing her as a youth, although she did not, in fact, visit Falmouth for orders. He was said to be a great friend of Captain Wilfred Dowman, then a retired sea captain. Tuke also painted another of Dowman's vessels, the Brig Lady of Avenal.

1923

Kelly's Directory of 1923 lists: Wilfred Harry Dowman, Trevissome

In the RCYC Regatta, on 6 September 1923, Mrs C.P. Foster, in Cynthia, won the handicap for yachts of 6 to 15-tons, beating Kathleen (Col. Faulkner Brown) and Onaway, W. H. Dowman (owner of the Cutty Sark), which came 3rd. [see 1924, Onaway's new owner: Major Gill]

FP May 16, 1924: Yachting at Falmouth - Getting Ready for the Approaching Season

Local yards where yachts are fitting out are rather busy at present.

At Messrs. R. S. Burt & Son's yard;Yachts re-conditioned and fitting out include the 6-metre cutter AYESHA (Com. Ratsey); aux centreboard cutter Onaway (Major Gill)

At Ponsharden : Captain Dowman's yachts are being fitted out.

Captain Dowman has presented a very handsome Silver Cup to the Flushing Sailing Club for competition in the Sunbeam Class.

1924

FP Friday July 18, 1924: The Cutty Sark - Work of transferring her to a full rigged ship.

Re-rigging the old clipper ship is almost completed by the Exe Transport Co., [owners of Ponsharden Shipyard] by the instructions of Messrs. J. Gilbert and W. Lobb and crew.[Master Shipwright and Master Rigger?]

The vessel has been turned from a Barquentine into a full-rigged ship carrying skysail yard. Black Hull. Masts white.

Mr. Dowman is now in Scotland in his recently acquired magnificent schooner yacht Lamorna.

It is understood he has agreed to the Cutty Sark being towed to Fowey in August and acting as the Committee Vessel at Fowey Royal and Town Regattas.

It is said that Capt. Woodget, who used to command Cutty Sark, is coming to Falmouth to take the vessel to Fowey.

With her new masts fitted, but without sails, in 1924, Dowman arranged for Cutty Sark to be towed to Fowey for use as the Regatta Race Committee Ship... [photo wanted! please e-mail me]. Captain Woodget was aboard for what must have been a nostalgic, though coastal, voyage under tow. He had left the ship as Master, in 1885, served one year on Coldinghame, when 'Old White Hat' (John Willis) sold the Cutty Sark, and bought a farm at Burnham Overy, in his native Norfolk. Woodget died there on 6th March, 1928, aged 82 years.

FP Friday 12 Sept. 1924: The Cutty Sark - Interesting Article by Miss C. Fox Smith.

It was my great pleasure and priviledge to accompany, the famous old clipper ship Cutty Sark on her first trip to sea after her reconditioning and return to her old name and flag. A short cruise, to Fowey, without canvas and with the hawser of a Falmouth tug on board; the old Foudroyant was on her moorings nearby when, at 9 a.m. Sunday August 3rd., Durgan and Perran came alongside. From the shore, a stout well-bearded Captain Woodget came back from the Norfolk farm of his long retirement from the ship he left 28 years ago. 5 - 6 knots under tow, Woodget handed the wheel over to Capt. Millet. Nearing Fowey, out came a motor-boat, flying the red and white (pilot) flag.. "pleased to meet you Cap'n"

In 1924 , The Log of the Cutty Sark. by Basil Lubbock, was published (J. Brown & Son, Glasgow, 420 pages, 39 plates)

"Basil Lubbock, through the use of the ship's log from the Cutty Sark, and personal interviews, (presumably with Capt. Woodget) was able to write a narrative..... fold out hull and sail plans. App. of scantlings, rigging, spar plans of several sister ships, abstract logs,....."

Lubbock's account of Cutty Sark's Australian wool passages was included in his earlier book "The China Trade" (published 1919)

No doubt, Lubbock knew Dowman long before 1924, but it was remarkable to publish such a substantial and detailed work within a year of Dowman owning the Cutty Sark, and would seem to tie the knot linking Dowman with Lubbock, who founded the Solent Sunbeam class in 1922. Although Dowman owned several boats, which gave maintainance work to the Falmouth builders, he was not a racing helmsman, and did not own a Sunbeam until 1928, when he bought Berthe,, and re-named her Blackbird. [What happened to the names all having to end in Y ?]

The Yachting Monthly No. 226, February 1925 (pp.241-242)

Reviews by Alker Tripp

The Return of the Cutty Sark, by Miss C. Fox Smith. Methuen 3s. 6d

The distinctive interest of this book lies in its last chapter, where we find the old ship, after her long vicissitudes, reconditioned, and once more boasting those soaring masts and tapering spars. Photographed in 1924 … "she has undergone a wonderful transformation since she was in London three years ago. Gone are the incongruous rows of sham ports which did their best to conceal the gracious curves of her hull…. Her hull reproduces very nearly the colours she showed on the day of her launch."

T.S. FOUDROYANT ex Trincomalee (1817) At Falmouth 1907-27, [G. Wheatley Cobb] & Cutty Sark (1869) At Falmouth 1923-1938 Photo off Trefusis, by Osborne (circa.1926)	Lady of Avenel, Captain Wilfred Dowman (owner) - crop from a painting by H.S. Tuke. Before the arrival of Cutty Sark in 1922? -see crop of Falmouth Guide view (below)	Cutty Sark - moored in Falmouth Harbour following her 1922-23 restoration. Photo by Opie. [The photographer, artist and manager of their Church Street shop was Frederick Massey (died 1925) who worked for former proprietor, W. M. Harrison, since 1883. ]
Cutty Sark & Foudroyant viewed from above Falmouth High Street. Note coal-yard crane & POW Pier (Courtesy Cornish Studies Library, Redruth)	Lady of Avenel Yacht (name ?) Cutty Sark [compare with Tuke crop(above)] "Falmouth Harbour" (Frith), Lakes Guide (10th edition) [Courtesy of Heather Hall ] The full picture below clearly shows the bucket dredger Briton (top right) which was constantly clanking in the harbour for years.	T.S. Foudroyant's cutter & Cutty Sark Frith's postcard # 76614 (Courtesy of Kevin Wilkes, local collector)
Early morning, Easter 1937 (crop from a postcard)	(tba) Picture of Cutty Sark before her refit in 1923-24, showing her sham ports.

Steamer New Resolute towing a punt towards Lady of Avenel, with Indefatigable moored off Kiln Quay, Trefusis. (postcard by Hawke, Helson)

[The Lady of Avenel was built in a yard at Bar Pond, beside Falmouth Docks]

1928:

It was decided to hold two club regattas on 1928, the first on 20 July, to include special races for the big yachts of the ex-21-metre class and the 12-metre class, and the second in August for the usual classes. There were no entries in the 12-metre class, due, in part, to a regatta in [Le] Havre. In the big boats, all last year's competitors took part, except Westward, plus two new cutters, Cambria (Lord Camrose) and Astra (Sir Mortimer Singer). Shamrock (Sir Thomas Lipton) was the winner, Lulworth (A. A. Paton) second, and Astra third, followed by White Heather II, Britannia and Cambria.

The [20 July 1928 RCYC Regatta) results in the Sunbeam class were:

1st Jasmine (Capt. R. T. Dixon), 2nd Caprice (Mrs H. C. Sicklemore), 3rd Blackbird (W. H. Dowman*), 4th Trent (F. H. Stedman), 5th Merrythought (H. G. Sicklemore) and 6th Little Lady (Capt. H. L. Wilcox, R.N.).

It should be added that Blackbird was a new name for Berthe, which was bought by Dowman from C.R. Stephens that season.

[* In the second regatta, on 20 August,1928, the handicap race for yachts of 6-15 tons was won by Sylvia (W. H. Dowman), the previous owner of Sylvia (E. R. Thatcher) died that year and his boat was bought by Dowman)

The [RCYC] Regatta was held on 7 September, 1929.

The handicap race for 6-15 tons was won by Anthea (H. G. Sicklemore), a new 8-metre boat built that year by Camper & Nicholson.

Sylvia (W. H. Dowman) came second, and Kathleen (Col. Faulkner Brown), third.

In the Sunbeam class, the results were: 1st Flame (W. H. Dowman), 2nd Halcyone, 3rd Maranui and 4th Trent. The other competitor, Caprice, gave up.

It may be noted that Flame was bought by W. H. Dowman from the executors of the late H. S. Tuke. In the dinghy class, Mrs. Norman Lanyon, of Flushing, won the "Tuke Memorial Challenge Cup" with her Alert.

The Cutty Sark appears on several pages, but here, what must surely be an early view of the Falmouth Class .

Left to Right V17; V15: V20: V19: V14 [with another Sunbeam behind] and V21.

Given the size and rig of the hulk behind V14, may be Wheatley Cobb's Training Ship Indefatigable.

In March 1936, Wilfred H. Dowman, the Vice-Commodore, died at the age of 56. A retired Master Mariner, he had been mate of the cadet training ship Port Jackson, and, like many deep-sea mariners, unaccustomed to yacht racing technique, shied away from steering the several well-known boats which he had owned. A rich man and a genial host, he delighted in giving a dinner party at the Green Bank Hotel, and to rope in anybody he chanced to meet at the club. Certainly no one who availed themselves of his hospitality could complain at the quality or quantity of the champagne and liquor brandy provided.

In May 1937. Mrs. W. H. Dowman was invited to join the club as an Honorary Life Member in recognition of the services of her late husband when a Flag Officer.