AN ORGAN FOR THE GRAND TURK

Evening Star, Issue 21073, 9 April 1932, Page 3

AN ORGAN FOR THE GRAND TURK

QUEEN ELIZABETH'S GIFT In the days of great adventure the Levant Company had the Near East as their special concern. Queen Elizabeth was interested both in the adventure and the potential profits, and in 1590 sent her first Ambassador to the Grand Turk. It was probably from Sir Edward Barton that the brilliant suggestion was sent home of giving the Sultan an organ, a present so unique as to create an immediate prejudice in favour of the English company, If an organ, then an organ builder, and here a Lancashire man appears upon tho scene and takes a share in the adventure. Thomas Dallam was born at Dallam, a village near Warrington, and went to London to learn his craft. He was apprenticed to the Blacksmiths’ Company, afterwards becorqjng a liveryman, as the organ builders were regarded as a branch of that craft. Already he was considered a master craftsman and most fitted to take an organ to Constantinople. Towards the end of January, 1598, the whole town was talking of the great and curious uresent which was going to the Grand Turk, and there was much satisfaction at being able to “scandalise” other nations, and especially at being able to steal a march upon the Germans.

Thomas Dallam took kindly to his adventure and kept a diary of his voyage. He puts down the things which are really interesting, and his voyage to the Levant was an adventure from February f), when lie paid a waterman 6d to take him to Gravesend, until the day,ho returned to his organ-building in London, He stayed four days at Gravesend waiting for a favourable wind, and his four days cost him 12s. whilst later he stayed seven days at Plymouth at a cost, of but 15s. Delayed in the Downs, he went ashore at Deal, apd there spent a jolly evening. His diary records that merriment at Deal cost him a shilling, and when the signal came to go aboard one of the roisterers was ton drunk to get aboard and was lelt behind. Going down the Channel a storm drove them into Dartmouth, and it was six weeks after go : on board at Gravesend before they were sailing from Plymouth Sound. A BRUSH WIT HBUCCANEERS.

The Channel was besot by the buccaneers of Dunkirk, and seven sail attacked the Hector; with a well-armed ship and a valiant captain, the Dimkirkers were not only beaten ('f but pursued, and if the captain bad bad his way some prizes would have been made and taken into port. But the precious freight was not to be risked, and so the voyage was continued, much to the dissatisfaction of those, Dallam amongst thbm, who had a relish for a light, especially with prizes at the end. AtTast the Hector anchored at Scanderoon, waiting for permission to take the organ to the Grand Turk, and to astonish the Sultan with this famous invention. What the Grand Turk would do with his organ when Dallam, the only man likely to be able to play upon it, returned to England, is one of the historical mysteries yet unsolved. Waiting for the Grand Turk to issue permits to come to Constantinople, Dallam and his shipmates bad a run ashore. With one companion, the organ builder ventured into the country, and at last, amount the bills, came upon a village with flerce-Jook-ing men and wild dogs, The companion is afraid of being killed and bides among the trees, but Dallam is hungry and feels it to be a pity not to make closer acquaintance with the villagers. He is not for turning back until he lias seen a wild Turk in ids own homo. So Dallam goes forward alone, and in the language which all can understand makes tiio villagers know be is thirsty. They arc as interested in the coolness and courage of this queer infidel as lie is in them, and treat him hospitably. Ho eats and drinks and rather enjoys the food of

the country, and returns to pick up his trembling comrade and to make a story of his adventures, and especially of the interest he aroused in the women of the hill village. The organ is delivered, the Grand Turk amazed at the great and curious present the English Queen has sent him, and perhaps as astonished at the Lancashire man who plays upon Git organ. Dallam returned home to found a family of organ builders and to become the most famous builder of the seventeenth century. The case of his organ in King’s College, Cambridge, still remains; the organ, the great double organ, which he built in Worcester Cathedral, at a cost of £2ll. was destroyed in the Rebellion. The organ he and his son built for Durham was eventually sold to St, at York, and in 1885 was bought by Mr 801 l for £4. Yet the most famous organ he built is surely the one which ran the risks of storm and pirates and amazed tho Grand Turk.