First Lieutenant (later Commander) John Larkan
Born in 1746, John Larkan was from Athlone (County Roscommon) in Ireland, where his father and grandfather were "cordwainers" (bootmakers). His father was also a Justice of the Peace. Nothing is known of John Larkan's early naval career; it has yet to be researched.
According to Bounty mutineer James Morrison (a prisoner in "Pandora's Box") Larkan was an uncaring man-a harsh officer with a brutal streak. Not much more is known about him. His younger brother (Capt. Robert Larkan, RN) was in charge of the Royal Navy Hospital in Greenwich at one stage of his career.
Any other journals or letters John Larkan may have written, or records and diaries kept by fellow officers mentioning him, have apparently not survived. After returning to England in 1792 after the loss of the Pandora, he served for several more years as a first lieutenant on HMS Defence under Lord Gambier. He saw action at the Battle of the Glorious First of June (1794), and soon afterwards was promoted to commander's rank. This was his last seagoing appointment.
His service during the remainder of the Revolutionary War has yet to be fully researched, but it is assumed that he returned to Ireland before it had ended, where subsequently, upon the outbreak of the Napoleonic War in 1803, he was appointed to command an Irish unit of "Sea Fencibles"-i.e. a volunteer naval defence unit-in Galway. (Marshall, 1825: 250) His command covered the coast between Greatman's Bay and Blackhead Cliff. (cf. Navy List 1805)
Larkan's name stamp-found in the Pandora wreck-indicates that the middle starboard cabin on the lower deck was most probably occupied by him. This cabin was barely large enough to move around in comfortably, being approximately 1.8 metres (6') square and 1.75 metres (5' 9") high.
Furniture is likely to have been simple, sparse and functional-probably consisting of a sleeping cot suspended from deck beams overhead, a writing desk and a stool. Most of his personal possessions would have been kept in his sea chest. The artefacts found in the cabin provide us with interesting new information, which possibly tells us more about the man. They are attributed to Larkan because they were found in association with the name stamp.
Who was John Larkan?
- A tea drinker?
The table at which he and his brother officers sat down to dine had all the trappings of any "middling class" table in Britain at the time, with brass candlesticks and fine Chinese porcelain tea bowls and saucers. According to Surgeon Hamilton, the Pandora was the first naval vessel to be supplied with tea from the ship's stores.
War Clubs - A collector of curiosities?
Excavation has also revealed that Larkan may have been a collector of Polynesian items, known as "artificial curiosities". The collection may have been intended to remind him of the different peoples he had encountered during his Pacific voyage, or he may have thought of them as conversation pieces. But most likely he had hopes of selling them to collectors or museums upon his return to Britain. - A man of taste and refinement?
As an officer in the Royal Navy, he can of course be considered a gentleman; possibly even a man of taste and refinement, who kept his port in a decanter and drank from delicate glasses? Perhaps he also poured his water from a glass carafe?Larkan's possessions mainly reflect private or personal aspects of his life onboard the Pandora. The glass bottles may have been used to hold scented water. Perhaps the small bone or ivory handled brush-its bristles long gone-was it a wig brush?
Continued research involving comparisons between future excavations and artefact assemblages from other wrecks of naval vessels of the period may provide answers to these and other questions. For instance: was Larkan "typical of" late 18th century naval officers?
Family
(Courtesy Barry Seymour Larkan)
John Larkan was married to Elizabeth Knott (marriage at St Mary's, Athlone). He fathered three daughters (Abigail, Elizabeth and Olivia) and two sons (William and Edward).
John Larkan died in 1831.
His daughter Elizabeth Diana Larkan (spinster) lived with her uncle, Captain Robert Larkan (near Greenwich), for some time. She wrote a memoir of a journey she made to Kent from Greenwich.
His son Edward lived at Larkfield (a manor near Athlone). Edward's son Seymour moved to Australia in the 1860s. There are many descendants in Australia. Another of John Larkan's grandsons (Edward's son John Robert) emigrated to South Africa in the 1870s-there is now also a large Larkan family based in South Africa.
Are his sol William's descendants still in Athlone, or elsewhere in Ireland?
Larkan genealogy
