William Isaac Thorndale...
This site, especially the section concerning the terrible hurricane at Samoa and the dramatic escape of HMS Calliope from the harbour at Apia, is respectfully dedicated to my great-grandfather: William Isaac Thorndale.
It is worth recording before anything else that William Isaac Thorndale, or WIT, as he seems to have been known to his peers, left two hand-written books of memoirs, penned when he was in his seventies around 1931 or 2. It is from these books that I take the majority of the details which follow, but I have also gleaned much from visits to the Public Records Office at Kew, and from a descendant of WIT’s brother who kindly got in touch via this web-site.
