In 1862, the Jane Brown landed a cargo of hides from Dublin at Liverpool, and the fulfilment of boyhood dreams, of crossing the ocean and fighting for the South, lay within Jock"s grasp. Across the Mersey in Birkenhead, a ship, launched in May, was fitting out at John Laird Sons and Company. The wiseacres on the docks said that she was a Confederate Cruiser. It did not take Jock long make enquiries and approach David Herbert Llewellyn, the Assistant Surgeon.
On first sight, Jock respected Llewellyn and he, in turn, liked Jock, who told a small lie, a venial sin. Jock said that he was sixteen, to convince Llewellyn that he was old enough to join the crew.
The Surgeon, an Englishman of Welsh extraction, was a tall, elegantly dressed man in his mid-twenties. In the days he spent standing by
