CALL ME WILLIAM

By: Tom Gauthier

Narrated by: Virtual Voice

CALL ME WILLIAM is based on the Life Story of William Mathers, born in County Armagh, Ireland in 1822. In 1823 his mother dies giving birth to his brother. His father, Woolsey Mathers, a harness maker by trade, takes his sons and emigrates to Quebec, arriving September 18, 1824, on the brigantine Reward.
His infant son dies before the ship docks.
William learns the leather trade at his father’s knee from an early age.
At age eight, William is orphaned, on his own in Quebec, Canada.
This reconstructed life of WILLIAM MATHERS, based on clues in his obituary and validated along the way by historical records and events, takes us on a journey from the St. Lawrence River waterfront of Quebec City, the boy earning his way with the skills he learned, to William’s signing on to an American whaling ship at age fourteen, maturing among seamen on perilous voyages around the tip of South America to exotic Pacific islands and ports, and battling the great whales whose oil fuels the world of the 1840s.
In Rio de Janeiro William joins the nascent Navy of the new Brazilian Empire, sailing aboard the great warships as far as the Mediterranean on missions for Emperor Pedro II.
Touching the age of steam powered ships, he decides it’s not for him and goes ashore to become a policeman in Liverpool, England. There after returning to America and thriving in the leather trade in New Orleans before going up river to Chicago …. And finding a bride and beginning the Mathers clan in the United States.
Sounds like fantasy, but it’s a true life story retold in all its color, drama, and sensory richness for the readers enjoyment, and for the record of heritage for his many descendants.