Trevithick
Walked a stretch of the Taff Trail, north of Abercynon, following the route of the Trevithick Tramway for several miles. It was most pleasant.
[William Trevithick built the first steam powered locomotive, which on 21 February 1804,
successfully carried 10 tons of iron, 5 wagons and 70 men along the Merthyr Tydfil Tramroad from Penydarren to Abercynon, a distance of 9.75 miles (16 km)].
Bizarrely, in later years, Trevithick went off to South America to seek his fortune sinking silver mines in Peru, and after a time serving in the army of Simon Bolivar eventually lost all his money after a Civil War. Trevithick’s fortunes turned again when he salvaged the wreck of
a Russian frigate for the Chilean government. However, he lost his fortune again on a pearl fishing scheme in Panama. Phew.
Trevithick then wisely decided to return home. After travelling across Peru, Equador and Colombia he and a colleague, James Gerard, were the first white men to cross the Isthmus of Nicaragua on foot. It took them three weeks, braving raging rivers and alligators. After this epic trek they ended up in Cartagena, a sea port on the Atlantic coast. There, Trevithick even more bizarrely apparently bumped into Robert Stephenson, the Rocket Man, as you do, who lent him £50 to pay his fare home.
The party for this journey, comprised Trevithick, Gerard, two schoolboys on their way to school in Highgate (?!) and seven natives, three of whom returned home after guiding them through the first part of their journey. The journey was tricky - one of the party was drowned in a raging torrent and Trevithick was nearly killed on at least two occasions. In the first he was saved from drowning by Gerard, and in the second he was nearly devoured by an alligator following a dispute with a local man whom he had in some way offended.
One wonders whether the alligator tried to eat him at the behest of the local he had offended, or whether he had offended the alligator, or whether the dispute was over who should be eaten by the alligator...
This would make a great film.
[William Trevithick built the first steam powered locomotive, which on 21 February 1804,
successfully carried 10 tons of iron, 5 wagons and 70 men along the Merthyr Tydfil Tramroad from Penydarren to Abercynon, a distance of 9.75 miles (16 km)].
Bizarrely, in later years, Trevithick went off to South America to seek his fortune sinking silver mines in Peru, and after a time serving in the army of Simon Bolivar eventually lost all his money after a Civil War. Trevithick’s fortunes turned again when he salvaged the wreck of
a Russian frigate for the Chilean government. However, he lost his fortune again on a pearl fishing scheme in Panama. Phew.
Trevithick then wisely decided to return home. After travelling across Peru, Equador and Colombia he and a colleague, James Gerard, were the first white men to cross the Isthmus of Nicaragua on foot. It took them three weeks, braving raging rivers and alligators. After this epic trek they ended up in Cartagena, a sea port on the Atlantic coast. There, Trevithick even more bizarrely apparently bumped into Robert Stephenson, the Rocket Man, as you do, who lent him £50 to pay his fare home.
The party for this journey, comprised Trevithick, Gerard, two schoolboys on their way to school in Highgate (?!) and seven natives, three of whom returned home after guiding them through the first part of their journey. The journey was tricky - one of the party was drowned in a raging torrent and Trevithick was nearly killed on at least two occasions. In the first he was saved from drowning by Gerard, and in the second he was nearly devoured by an alligator following a dispute with a local man whom he had in some way offended.
One wonders whether the alligator tried to eat him at the behest of the local he had offended, or whether he had offended the alligator, or whether the dispute was over who should be eaten by the alligator...
This would make a great film.
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