James Henry Flux 1868 – 1950

James Henry Flux was born in Cowes on the 7th February 1868 to Jacob Flux and his wife Eliza nee Whitticom. The family were Wesleyan Methodists and he was baptised in the West Cowes chapel on 26th May. He was their third child, with older siblings Thomas and Eliza. Four more children came along, Emily, Ernest, Alfred and Lillian, although poor Lillian only lived to the age of three.

Jacob’s job as a yacht rigger meant he was often away at sea and Eliza brought the family up in the centre of Cowes at Market Place. In 1881 13 year old James was an errand boy, but Cowes was the centre of sailing, and also had a healthy ship-building industry. After serving his apprenticeship as a shipwright James worked at the Royal Naval Works in Woolston, Southampton, and later with the West India Company. James was one of the earliest members of the Associated Shipwrights Society joining the Southampton branch in 1889. On returning to Cowes he joined Messrs J Samuel White and Company, who were renowned shipbuilders.

James did not follow his parents into non-conformity. On 26th December 1887 James married Eliza Matthews, at 27, 8 years his senior, at St Mary’s Church in Cowes. He was living in Prospect Road. Their first child, Lillian Mabel was born the following June. The family moved around, in 1891 they were living in Fellows Road and their first son James Bernard was born. In 1893 when their final child, William Ernest was born, they were living in Tennyson Road. The couple settled in the Tennyson / Milton Road area of Cowes for the rest of their lives. The three children were all baptised at St Mary’s.

James decided to follow his father to sea and his first voyage was to Iceland in the steam- yacht Minerva owned by Robert Ashton. He then joined the new yacht Rona, owned by Arthur Wood. The Rona was chartered by Baron Von Krupp and they sailed to the opening of the Kiel Canal. The canal had taken over 9,000 workers eight years to build. On 20 June 1895 the canal was officially opened by Kaiser Wilhelm II for transiting from Brunsbüttel to Holtenau.

The next day, a ceremony was held in Holtenau, where Wilhelm II named it the Kaiser Wilhelm Kanal (after his grandfather, Kaiser Wilhelm I), and laid the final stone.

On its return Rona was purchased by Baron Rothschild. James stayed with the yacht and was with it when in 1901 the Baron attended Queen Wilhelmina’s wedding as the representative of Queen Victoria in The Hague.

On his return, James left the Rona and joined Sir Thomas Lipton’s Erin as ship’s carpenter. He also was on Sir Thomas Lipton’s four ‘Shamrocks’ which challenged for the ’s cup, which was then also known as the Queens Cup, against New York Yacht Club on their home waters. The rules stated that challengers had to sail there under their own hull. Scottish businessman Sir Thomas Lipton became the financial backer for the Royal Ulster Yacht Club's 1899 challenge with . A newspaper reported he turned down a large sum of money offered by a would-be sponsor to change the name of the boat. Also notable was that Marconi demonstrated his new wireless telegraph by sending match reports to shore from the race course. The racing was unspectacular and beat Shamrock 2 -0. Lipton's noted fair play provided unprecedented popular appeal to the sport and to his tea brand.

Lipton challenged Columbia again in 1901, turning this time to George Lennox Watson for a "cup- lifter": Shamrock II was the first cup contender to be thoroughly tank-tested. The races were closer than the previous attempt but the NYYC yacht successfully defend the cup again 3-0.

Lipton persisted in a third challenge in 1903. Shamrock III was the first British Challenger to be steered from a wheel. With the aim to fend off Lipton's challenges indefinitely, the NYYC garnered a huge budget for a single cup contender, the new remains the largest race sloop ever built and required the skills of an excellent skipper. Facing the equally bold challenger Shamrock III, the Reliance sailed to victory in just three races, and to add insult to injury the British became lost in the fog in the final race and failed to finish. Lipton later referred to the result as the ‘biggest disappointment in my life’.

Lipton turned to Charles Ernest Nicholson for his fourth challenge, and got a superb design under the inauspicious shape of Shamrock IV. She was the most powerful yacht that year, and the NYYC turned out three cup candidates to defend the cup.

Shamrock IV was crossing the Atlantic with the steam yacht Erin, destined for Bermuda, when Britain declared war on Germany on 5 August 1914. Harold Stirling Vanderbilt, the Commodore of the New York Yacht Club, sent his own yacht, the Vagrant, from Rhode Island to Bermuda to meet them and escort them to the US. The Vagrant arrived on the 8th. Having no radio, the crew were unaware of the declaration of war. Finding all navigational markers missing, they attempted to pick their own way in through the barrier reef. St. David's Battery fired a warning shot to bring them to a halt. Shamrock IV and Erin arrived the next day. The America's Cup was cancelled for that year. The Shamrock IV and Erin proceeded to New York, from where the Erin, with James on board returned to Britain while Shamrock IV was laid up in the Erie Basin dry dock.

Sir Thomas Lipton lent his yacht to the joint committee of the British Red Cross and Order of St John of Jerusalem and James sailed with ‘Erin’ to France and Salonika with equipment and nurses, and brought back nurses from Serbia. The Erin was later commandeered by the government for secret patrol work and took stores and gear to Archangel for the submarines in the Black Sea. James was on board when they brought back a deputation from Russia to meet Lord Kitchener. Her next voyage was to the Mediterranean under the name of Aeugusa.

HMS Russell became a flagship of the Grand Fleet in 1914 and hit a mine on April 26, 1916 about six kilometres off Malta. She had turned turtle and took 20 minutes to sink leaving 126 dead. Another 625 were saved. Within three days, in the same mine field, two other boats met their dreadful end: the Nostortium sloop and the Aeugusa, both of which had gone out to pick up survivors. Eleven crew members of the Aeugusa died, but James was picked up by the British destroyer ‘Acorn’ and landed at Malta.

After the war James returned to his family in Cowes. They lived at Leahurs’ in Milton Road. James went to work for Groves and Gutteridge as a shipwright. In 1937 James and Eliza celebrated their golden wedding anniversary. Over 40 relatives and friends gathered at the Royalty Café.

Eliza died in 1939 and was buried in Northwood Cemetery, just around the corner from their home. James spent his last years living with his son William, daughter-in-law Chris, and grandson Derek. He enjoyed watching Cowes’s football team. He died in October 1950 and was buried alongside Eliza.

James is my great grandfather.

Researched by: Carol Flux