Archivist note: This article is from an older recovered archive and might be obsolete or in need of updating.
Most recent revision is shown below, by Bookworm.
((Posted by James T Miller on May 18, 2010))
Mr swords was a young lad of twelve when his family moved from the countryside to the bustling docks of London.
His father, Arthur Swords came from a long line of Engineers and inventors. and naturally it was expected of Ansgar to follow his fathers line of work. Ansgar was sent to a good school and spent the next year studying reading writing and general workshop ethics.
While the boy excelled in workshop related studies his academic grades fell. Many a time young swords was found hanging around the docks watching the smiths at work, and many a time he was sent packing by his father.
After a long painfully boring year of school Arthur Swords finally gave in and let his boy go to work in the forges. At the age of thirteen Ansgar was set to work pumping the great bellows and controlling the fires while the smiths worked away. by fifteen he had been given a spot by a fire and was set to work making chains and hooks which would end up finding a home aboard one of the fine ships in the London docks.
At sixteen years of age with his back broad and his arm strong Ansgar was given a letter of recommendation by the master smith and sent on his way to the army engineers. For the next three years he studied mechanics, steam production, literature and general military engineering.
When the final day came of his academic apprenticeship the papers where offered to him to continue on as a fully trained royal engineer. But Ansgar felt that it was time for him to set off on his own path and find his fortune like his father had.
And so while walking down the docks of canary wharf here was where Ansgar saw a poster offering ‘A NEW LIFE’ in the colonies and before he had time to register it in his mind he was aboard a zeppelin and on his way to a new place called…. Babbage
