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Frank Cowper

For the English painter and illustrator, see Frank Cadogan Cowper.

Francis Cowper (14 January 1849[1][note 1] – 28 May 1930)[3] was an English single-handed yachtsman, explorer, author, illustrator, artist, and journalist who was influential in popularizing single-handed cruising.[3] He has been credited as "the forefather of modern cruising",[4] following the publication of his five books, Sailing Tours, describing his circumnavigation of the British Isles, the East coast of Ireland, and the French coast of Brittany in a converted 29-ton, 48-foot Dover Fishing boat named Lady Harvey. In a review of the last of his sailing books published in the year of his passing, recognition of his achievements during and after his eventful life are summarized with the following accolades. His books "laid the foundation" of the pilot guides used by yachtsmen today.[5]

Frank Cowper, M.A. Oxon.
Born(1849-01-14)14 January 1849
London, England
Died28 May 1930(1930-05-28) (aged 81)
St Cross, Winchester,
Hampshire, England
Occupation
  • Yachtsman
  • writer
  • illustrator
  • journalist
  • novelist
  • historian
NationalityEnglish
EducationAldenham; Brentwood; Blackheath Proprietary School
Alma materThe Queen's College, Oxford
Period1870–1930
GenreTravelogue, novel, non-fiction
Notable worksSailing Tours series
The Captain of the Wight
Xmas Eve on a Haunted Hulk
SpouseE. E. Cowper
Children10, including Frank Cadogan Cowper
Ink on paper illustration of a sailboat
Lady Harvey on Loch Goil. An illustration of Cowper's yacht, by the author, from his book Jack-All-Alone.

Early life

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He was initially Francis Cooper but resumed the original spelling of Cowper by deed-poll in 1885, and was the second son of five children to Henry Cooper of London. He studied classical history at The Queen's College, Oxford, where he matriculated in 1867, graduating B.A. in 1871 and M.A. in 1875.[6][7]

Yachting

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Cowper learned to sail on the Upper Thames, hiring catboats with friends when he was an undergraduate at Oxford.[6] In 1870, in his final year at university, he spent his summer vacation in Auray, Brittany in northern France, sailing a small dinghy in the Gulf of Morbihan and out into Quiberon Bay.[6]

Between 1892 and 1895,[8] Cowper circumnavigated the British Isles, exploring practically every river and creek along the coast.[9] He also crossed the English Channel to France and Belgium.

Cowper's most well-known work, Sailing Tours, describes these voyages and was published in five volumes between 1892 and 1896. Original copies are now quite collectable, and a full set can fetch as much as £500.[5] In 1985, Ashford Press published a facsimile reprint of all five volumes.

Cowper originally undertook the voyages documented in Sailing Tours, mostly single-handed, in the yawl Lady Harvey, a 44 foot (13 m) Dover fishing lugger built in 1867. In his 1921 book Single-Handed Cruising, Francis B. Cooke claimed that no amateur yachtsman had ever single-handed a larger vessel.[9] Cowper sold Lady Harvey in 1895,[5] then building a ketch of his own design, Undine II, which became his favourite but which he sold in 1899. He next owned a yawl named Zayda, followed by a French fishing lugger, Idéal, and a 14-ton cutter Little Windflower. In 1921, Cowper purchased the 41 foot (12 m) cutter Ailsa, which was to be the last boat he owned.

Sailing Tours continued to be cited in sailing guides, with Neville Featherstone describing Cowper's writing as "a rich blend of navigational facts laced with his own semi-libellous observations on the world around him".[8] Alan Titchmarsh described it as a "rich source of inspiration" for his 1999 novel, The Last Lighthouse Keeper.[10]

Fiction

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Cowper also wrote several adventure and romance novels. One of these, The Island of the English (1898), was described as having "a strong, compelling note of verity" and "a vivid, flexible style".[11]

Family

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On December 28, 1876, Cowper married fellow author Edith Elise Cadogan, daughter of the Rector of Wicken.[12][13] They made their home on the Isle of Wight and Edith bore ten children; three did not survive infancy[12] but their eldest son, Frank Cadogan Cowper, grew up to become a recognised Pre-Raphaelite artist.[14] The marriage was troubled — Edith accused Cowper of violence and frequent infidelity — and they divorced in 1890.[15][16] His brother, Colonel Harry Cooper CMG CBE, became ADC to Queen Victoria from 1898 to 1901 and to King Edward Vll from 1901 to 1904.[17][18]

Books

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Sailing

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  • Sailing Tours Part 1 - The Coasts of Essex and Suffolk (1892)
  • Sailing Tours Part 2 - The Nore to the Scilly Isles (1893)
  • Sailing Tours Part 3 - Falmouth to the Loire (1894)
  • Sailing Tours Part 4 - Lands End to the Mull of Galloway including the East Coast of Ireland (1895)
  • Sailing Tours Part 5 - The Clyde to the Thames Round North (1896)
  • Jack-All-Alone, His Cruises (1897)
  • Yachting and Cruising for Amateurs (1911)
  • Cruising Sails and Yachting Tales (1921)
  • Vagaries of Lady Harvey - The Meanderings of a Freak among the Orkneys (1930)

Fiction

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  • Caedwalla - The Saxons in the Isle of Wight (1888)
  • The Captain of the Wight - A Romance of Carisbrooke Castle in 1488 (1889)
  • The Hunting of the Auk (1895)
  • The Island of the English - A Story of Napoleon's Days (1898)
  • The Forgotten Door (1900)

Short fiction

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  • "Christmas Eve on a Haunted Hulk" (1889)

Nonfiction

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  • Ye Lay of ye Lady Harvey and ye Little Blue Dragon - Private publication of 50 Copies (1908)

Boats

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  • Aristide Marie
  • Undine I
  • Lady Harvey
  • Undine II
  • Zayda
  • Anonyma
  • Guardian Angel
  • Ruby
  • Ideal
  • Little Windflower
  • Ailsa

Notes

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  1. ^ His baptismal record (Baptisms solemnized in the Parish of St Botolph. Bishopsgate City of London, in the year 1849) shows him as being born on 14 January 1849 and baptised on 21 February 1849.[2]

References

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  1. ^ Peter Howard Cadogan. "Family of Catherine Croom Lovegrove and Henry Cooper". Peter Cadogan's Family History. Archived from the original on 27 March 2016. Retrieved 14 August 2023.
  2. ^ London Metropolitan Archives (2010). "Reference Number: P69/BOT4/A/01/Ms 4519/5: Baptisms solemnized in the Parish of St Botolph. Bishopsgate City of London, in the year 1849". London, England, Church of England Births and Baptisms, 1813-1917. Provo, Utah: Ancestry.com. p. 237.
  3. ^ a b "Obituary: Frank Cowper". The Yachting Monthly. Vol. XLIX, no. 291. July 1930. Archived from the original on 5 April 2016. Retrieved 27 March 2016.
  4. ^ Stickland, Katy (1 June 2023). "Frank Cowper - the sailor who "invented" cruising". Practical Boat Owner. Retrieved 24 June 2023.
  5. ^ a b c Meakins, Ben (22 December 2014). "Frank Cowper - the forefather of modern cruising". Practical Boat Owner. Archived from the original on 9 April 2016. Retrieved 27 March 2016.
  6. ^ a b c John Leather (1985). Introduction (Sailing Tours: Part III, Falmouth to The Loire). Ashford Press Publishing. p. iv. ISBN 0-907069-19-3.
  7. ^ Foster, Joseph (1888–1892). "Cooper, Frank (2)" . Alumni Oxonienses: the Members of the University of Oxford, 1715–1886. Oxford: Parker and Co – via Wikisource.
  8. ^ a b Neville Featherstone (24 May 2010). West France Cruising Companion: A yachtsman's pilot and cruising guide from L'Aberwrac'h to the Spanish Border. Wiley. p. 8. ISBN 978-0-470-75374-3.
  9. ^ a b Cooke, Francis B. (1919). Single-Handed Cruising. p. 5. Archived from the original on 7 April 2016. Retrieved 27 March 2016.
  10. ^ Titchmarsh, Alan (4 October 1999). The Last Lighthouse Keeper. Simon & Schuster Ltd. p. Acknowledgements. ISBN 978-0684819907.
  11. ^ "New Books - The Island of the English". Boston Evening Transcript. 17 December 1898. Archived from the original on 4 June 2016. Retrieved 28 March 2016.
  12. ^ a b Peter Howard Cadogan. "Family of Francis Cowper and Edith Eliza Cadogan". Peter Cadogan's Family History. Archived from the original on 27 March 2016. Retrieved 14 August 2023.
  13. ^ Paul Ripley. "Artist Information for Frank Cadogan Cowper". Art Renewal Center. Archived from the original on 9 April 2016. Retrieved 14 August 2023.
  14. ^ "Cowper, Frank Cadogan, R.A. - The Golden Bowl". Sotheby's. 2012. Archived from the original on 28 March 2016. Retrieved 27 March 2016. Frank Cadogan Cowper was born in Wicken, Northamptonshire in 1877. His father was Frank Cowper, an author who specialised in writing yachting novels and was the grandson of the Rector of Wicken.
  15. ^ "COW Frank Cadogan Cowper, letters to his mother [Edith Cowper] 1899-1908". Royal Academy of Arts Archive. Royal Academy of Arts. Archived from the original on 27 March 2016. Retrieved 14 August 2023. Not much is known of Edith Cowper outside of evidence provided in COW/3. It appears that she divorced Frank's father, also Frank, in the 1890s citing violent behaviour and infidelity.
  16. ^ Marmor, Lail A. (May 2013). Re-Presenting Rossetti: The Art of Frank Cadogan Cowper (Thesis). Archived from the original on 31 March 2016. Retrieved 14 August 2023.
  17. ^ "Colonel Harry Cooper CMG, CBE". Military in Essex; Family History. Retrieved 25 July 2023.
  18. ^ Fox-Davies, Arthur Charles (1910). "Armorial Families: A Directory of Gentlemen of Coat-armour, Sixth Edition". London: T.C. & E.C. Jack. pp. 360–361. Retrieved 26 July 2023.
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