Captain William Coppin (1805-1895) was an Irish sailor, inventor, and shipbuilder from Cork. He emigrated to Canada in his youth and invented a ship that could run over frozen rivers. Afterwards, he learned navigation in the West Indies, where he met Ulster businessmen who commissioned a ship for his return to Ireland. Upon his return, he captained many ships from Derry/Londonderry to Liverpool and was heavily involved in the Londonderry Shipping Company. This archive contains notes on his life, the history of Derry/Londonderry, and his scrapbook. Detailed contents: a folder entitled ‘Diary of events connected with Derry’s Shipping History’ containing a typescript booklet of events from 545 until 1941; handwritten ‘notes on the Life of Capt. William Coppin’ (the 1940s); a newspaper scrapbook belonging to Captain Coppin containing newspaper articles beginning 1870 concerning: ‘The War Ship of the Future’; selected poetry; a handwritten note (1866); ‘The Broad Arrow’ (1877); The Derry Journal, June 1st, 1891; a handwritten song on Captain Coppin ‘by a Derry man’; ‘Great Fire in Derry City’ (1903); a painting of Coppin; articles on his life; an old polaroid photograph of Christ Church in Derry/Londonderry; an address of Rev. William Craig; articles on Captain Coppins engineering achievements; ‘The North British Daily Mail’ (Oct. 1855); ‘A New Plan of War-Ship, Captain Coppin’s Proposed Steam-Ram (1853); ‘Early Shipbuilding Enterprise, the romance of Captain Coppin’s Life (1913); miscellaneous newspapers, sheet music and a handwritten list by Coppin (1860s).
