Projects

Finding Captain Morgan

James Patrick Morgan was born in London in 1943 and was raised in the South of England. He first joined the Merchant Navy in 1961 as a cadet and ascended through the ranks to Captain. He sailed extensively to Europe and Africa, which was served by Elder Dempster Lines, and throughout his career, he acquired an array of artifacts which provide a detailed collection of Elder Dempster shipping history.  The Captain James Morgan Collection contains photographs and postcards, paintings and prints, personal correspondence, and a selection of printed ephemera, such as magazines. The collection was donated to LJMU by his widow Mrs Joyce Morgan.

Elder Dempster
Pensioners'Association

Captain J.P.Morgan

The Captain James Morgan Collection contains photographs and postcards, paintings and prints, personal correspondence, and a selection of printed ephemera, such as magazines.

Links to Liverpool

Captain Morgan is known to have travelled from Liverpool to West Africa throughout his career.

Elder Dempster

Elder Dempster and Company began trading in 1868, although the company’s origin lies in 1852.

The company had interests in West Africa, North America, the Caribbean and South Africa, and traded until 2000.

Dinner Service

Some Elder Dempster related companies operated a dining lounge onboard their ships, using a specially designed dinner service.

Photographs

Many of the photographs in this collection are monochrome images of ships from Elder Dempster’s fleet, however there are also oversized photographs of docklands, one of which is Birkenhead. 

Postcards

Postcards of many of Elder Dempster ships were available. Many were photographic images, whilst others were illustrations, with some indicating the areas that Elder Dempster serviced.