It has been suggested that certain researchers may be interested in a section of memoirs my grandfather had written, so I am pasting it on the forum. Hopefully, it will help someone.

I had been home for a few days when my brother in law, a Mr. Corkhill,
dropped in to visit. He was of around sixty years of age and he was
married to my oldest sister, Flo, who was the eldest of the family and
about thirty five years of age. She had married Ted Corkhill who was a
widower, he was the captain of one of the Isle of Man steamers which
plied between Liverpool and the Isle of Man in the summer season and
then laid up in the docks at Barrow for any repairs needed at the large
shipyard of Vickers Moxin. There were at times as many as five or six
of these boats laid up in Barrow for the winter each of them had a
watchman and they nearly all used to buy their supplies at my dad's
store. The Captain of these steamers used to rotate in teams to act as
supervisors, as they all had their homes in the Isle of Man. Ted as we
called him, had got well acquainted with my Dad and had got to the stage
where he used to drop in and have a little refreshment and that was how
they had got acquainted. He was due to return to the Island at this
time and was to take over the duties of Harbour Master in Douglas on his
return, so it was decided that I would go across with him and see my
sister who had just had her first child a girl whom they christened
Mona. We took the train to Liverpool and went on board one of the
companies boats, The Snaefell to make the crossing. My brother in law
introduced me to the Captain, a Mr. Faragher and we went down into the
cabin, which was crowded with passengers. There were a lot of
commercial travellers going over and they were all well acquainted with
Ted who introduced me to a good many. The crossing was pretty rough and
I was terribly sea sick most of the way and was very glad when we
disembarked. It wasn't very far from the harbour to their home so we
walked the rest of the way and landed home about six o'clock in the
evening. My sister who had not seen me for about six years was very
pleased to see me and we spent a very enjoyable evening before retiring
about midnight.
During the night a gale blew up and the Island experienced one of the
worst storms it had had for many years. After having breakfasted Ted
and I left the house to go down to the company's offices when suddenly
we heard some of the news boys shouting out the headlines of their
papers. "Feared loss of the Ellan Vannan". This was another of the
companies boats and she had left the port of Ramsay on the other side of
the Island about midnight for Liverpool at daylight her masts were
sticking up out of the water just where the boats entered the Mercey to
go into Liverpool. Fortunately there were not many passengers as all on
board were lost and the Island eased into mourning for quite some time.
A young woman, who was staying with my sister, a Miss Storey, and was a
stewardess on one of the boats in the busy season, had been asked to
make the trip, but as she didn't need to make the money, turned the
chance over to another stewardess, a widow named Callister, who was
amongst the missing. I had been on the Island for several days, when
Ted suggested that we take a trip out to the country to visit an old
friend of theirs, who had a market garden in one of the many lovely
glens for which the Isle of Man is famous. Joe Faragher happened to
drop in and as he was another friend of the same party, it was decided
that four of us including Miss Storey would all go on the trip. One of
the first things they did was to hire a carriage and pair of horses, buy
a bottle of whiskey and head for the glen which was situated about four
miles from a place called Peel. I don't know how many miles it was from
Douglas but it was quite a long drive.
When we reached the place, which was a type of small American bungalow
we were greeted by an elderly man of about 75 years of age and a very
attractive young woman, whom I was soon to learn was in her twenty first
year. She had been keeping house for her uncle Robbie and his wife for
about seven years, from the day that she had left school. His wife had
been blind for some years and at the time of our visit had been dead
about four years. She had stayed on to keep house for the old man, used
to get up early in the morning to pick strawberries and raspberries and
put up bunches of flowers, which along with a variety of fresh
vegetables and rhubarb the old man used to take a flat load into Peel
nearly ever day in the summer season. We had a very enjoyable visit
and before we left for home, the young lady had a pressing invitation to
come to Douglas for a visit with the Corkhill family.

My grandfather married this young lady the following February and then absconded with her to Saskatchewan....She was definitely hit by culture shock seeing her shack with the thatched roof and wild prairie greeting her. The thing that upset her the most was the fact that the train men THREW their luggage off the train, some 1/2 mile up the track. Although Grandad never mentions her name, it was Katie Greggor. I believe "Uncle Robbie" could have been Robbie Hall, but haven't been able to prove this, as yet. Grandad was Harold George Ferraby.