Captain William Coppin (1805-1895), was an Irish sailor, inventor, and shipbuilder from Cork. He emigrated to Canada in his youth, inventing a ship that could run over frozen rivers. Afterwards, he learned navigation in the West Indies, where he met Derry businessmen who commissioned a ship for him to return to Ireland. Upon his return, he captained many ships from Derry to Liverpool and was heavily involved in the Londonderry Shipping Company. This archive contains notes on his life, the history of Derry, and his scrapbook. 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 starting in 1870 concerning: ‘The War Ship of the Future’; selected poetry; a handwritten note (1866); ‘The Broad Arrow’ (1877); The Derry Journal, June 1st, 1891 issue; 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; 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 and sheet music in the back of the book; a handwritten list by Coppin (1860s).
HOYFM.ACL2024.52
