The boy who sailed the world and the mystery of his fateful voyage

A battered suitcase of letters uncovered the remarkable story of Michael "Kick" Murphy, a Victorian Hull teenager who sailed around the world in the 1890s.

Written home from distant ports and forgotten for more than a century, his letters reveal an ordinary lad's extraordinary life at sea and the mystery of his final voyage, as the Hidden East Yorkshire podcast has been discovering.

Kick was born in Blackfriargate on 23 August 1876.

He attended Hull's Trinity House Navigation School and joined his first ship, the Thistlebank, at Barry in South Wales in July 1892, when he was 15 years old.

Throughout his time at sea, Kick wrote letters to his family back home in Hull.

"You wanted to know what kind of ship it is," he writes.

"Well, it's only seven years old and has to be kept clean.

"We get up every morning at 06:30 when we coil all the ropes on the pins and sweep decks. Then it is breakfast time.

"The ship is 2,300 tons and carries 3,800 tons. She's fitted with cabins for the sailors."

More than a century later, a collection of more than 70 letters was discovered by chance when Kick's great-niece, the late Linda Randerson, and her husband, Vic Randerson, were clearing a recently deceased relative's house in Hull.

"I read the first one or two that were on the top and it obviously was of interest," Vic says.

"And seeing the dates on the letters as well, I think there was something that you weren't going to throw away and it sparked an interest."

In one, Kick tells of the night they crossed the equator on their way from Barrow to Cape Town.

"On the night, two men got dressed up. One was Father Neptune, the other was his wife," he writes.

"Us three apprentices, the sailmaker and two ordinary seamen were to be shaved as we had never crossed the line.

"We shook hands with Father Neptune and his wife, then sat on the edge of the tub and were layered with grease."

Vic and Linda realised the significance of the letters, and contacted Dr Robb Robinson, honorary research fellow at the University of Hull.

Robinson says: "Quite a number of people have written their recollections of their time at sea.

"What's different about these is the fact that they're immediate. They're contemporary. You're getting his story."

In the letters, Kick demonstrates an interest in news and sport back home. In one, he asks his brother, Tom, to "send me a list of Hull's team, Hull A's, Brittanias and Rovers".

He wishes his family a good time at Hull Fair and, on several occasions, requests they send him copies of newspapers: "Don't forget to send me a paper as soon as you get this. The Lincolnshire Times, one with football in it too."

Kick gives his family an insight into life at sea, and the food they ate on board.

"We get one pound and half a pound of beef every day. Beans one day, preserved potatoes another... also soup. We get steak for breakfast and hash for tea."

His writing was, at times, very descriptive, such as when the ship was anchored off Cape Town in South Africa.

"Table Mountain is nearly covered by clouds most of the time, but is a grand scene on a calm day to see it and the smaller mountains, the sun shining on the houses which are all white, the bay like a pond and, on the other side of the bay, the mountains which run along the coast of Africa."

The ship took Kick around the world, as evidenced by his letters arriving from Cape Town in South Africa, Iquique in Chile, San Diego in California and Newcastle in Australia.

It was on the way to Newcastle that the ship encountered a storm, as detailed in a letter sent in December 1892.

"On the 1st of December, about 01:00 in the morning, the ship was struck by a heavy squall. We had just got turned in at 00:00 till 04:00, when, at 01:00, orders were shouted out to clew the royals up, let go the topgallant and topsail halyards and clew the lower topgallant sails up.

"All hands had then to turn out to shorten sail. The royals were blown into ribbons before they could take them in, and all the ropes were carried away belonging to it. I went to the main royal to help make it fast when it hit me and skinned my nose."

In a letter sent four months later, Kick reveals he had been injured in the incident, and was "laid up for three weeks", during which he was "bandaged up and was white as a sheet".

In 1895, Kick was transferred from the Thistlebank to the Castlebank and the last letter his family received from him was while he was on board that ship, dated September 19th 1896, just days before it set sail from Newcastle, New South Wales, to Tocopilla in Chile.

"I will write again if I get the chance before we go. If not I will wish you all goodbye hoping you will enjoy your Hull Fair and that you will remember me to all I know."

Shortly afterwards, the Castlebank left on its fateful voyage, never to be seen again.

Kick was only 20 years old.

Inquiries were made as to the ship's fate but it remains a mystery.

Robinson says: "What probably happened is difficult to say exactly, but the ship was carrying coal.

"Quite often cargoes of coal caught fire and that would have been horrendous at sea. And, of course, the cargo might have shifted in a storm.

"We don't know what happened to him, and we wouldn't have known anything had not these letters survived."

Vic adds: "The thing that really struck me was that everyone who he came into contact with seemed to form a really good opinion of him and that he was a popular person.

"The letters towards the end of the series, the ones written by people from Australia etc, all give the impression that he was well thought of and that people really took to him as a person."

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