George Hamilton-Gordon, 6th Earl of Aberdeen

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George Hamilton-Gordon, 6th Earl of Aberdeen (10 December 1841–27 January 1870) was a Scottish peer and sailor.

Hamilton-Gordon was born at the Palace of Holyroodhouse, the eldest son of the 5th Earl of Aberdeen. In 1863, he went to Canada to visit his uncle, Arthur Hamilton-Gordon, who was then Lieutenant-Governor of New Brunswick, aboard the ship, Pomona, but returned home a year later, after hearing his father had become seriously ill. He then inherited his father's title and travelled back to North America in the winter of 1866/67, under the assumed name of George Osborne. He entered a naval college in Boston, Massachusetts and soon became a Captain in the United States Merchant Marine.^{[citation needed]}

Hamilton-Gordon settled for a time in Richmond, Maine, where he took jobs cutting ice and clerking at a store (where it is reported he lost his temper at being fired and told his employer that he "could buy and sell him many times over" before storming out).^[1] As a sailor, he often shipped out of Richmond, and at one time captained a small ship called the Walton (or Waltham). His profession was not entirely a mystery to his family at home, as he wrote letters to his mother and brother on occasion.^[2] Travelling from Boston to Melbourne on the Hera in 1870, Lord Aberdeen was washed overboard during a violent storm and drowned. It was reported he was swept away when attempting to take down the boom sail, which he could have ordered another man to do.^[3] His younger brother had been killed in a rifle accident two years earlier, so Aberdeen was succeeded by his next younger brother, John.

1. ^ "Nobleman in Disguies, or 'When the Earl of Aberdeen made Richmond his home'", Richmond Bee
2. ^ The Gordons of Methlic & Haddo, http://www.electricscotland.com/webclans/families/gordons_methlic.htm
3. ^ The Richmond Bee

Preceded by: George Hamilton-Gordon

Earl of Aberdeen 1864–1870

Succeeded by: John Hamilton-Gordon