Back in December, my editor announced I’d be bringing you “swashbuckling” stories from El Toro’s past.

Since that time, I hope you’ve been entertained, educated and maybe, on occasion, enthralled. But I admit stories about a south Orange County farming community don’t always match the definition of “swashbuckling.”

Today, however, it’s time to buckle your swashes! But not too tightly. For although it’s true that Capt. George Rooke Huddy once sailed the seven seas, his reputation seems to have been law-abiding and God-fearing. 

Yarggghhh!

YO-HO, YO-HO, A CAPTAIN’S LIFE FOR HIM

Also, although certain aspects of Capt. Huddy’s life are accessible, others remain a mystery. 

On the plus side, Samuel Armor’s 1921 History of Orange County includes a rather lengthy entry on the good captain. 

“The descendant of a long line of English ancestors,” Armor begins, “he was born in Probus, Cornwall, England, December 16, 1847, the son of William and Eliza (Rooke) Huddy.

At 16, Huddy "entered upon the life for which he had a craving from his earliest boyhood, and for over twenty years thereafter he was associated with one of the largest ship-building firms in London, Money Wiggram & Sons." Because most of the company's ships were involved in trade with Australia, Huddy mostly cruised back and forth between British and Australian ports at that stage of his career, Armor says.

Next, he joined the Anglo-Australasian Co. and, "as captain of vessels for these companies he had the privilege of visiting all parts of the world with the exception of the western coast of North and South America, an experience which he thoroughly enjoyed, and one concerning which he can tell many an interesting story.”

(Aye, but whar be the stories now? Memo to all who gaze upon these words: Record yer stories afore it be too late!)

“At Sidney, Australia, he passed an examination as pilot, and thereafter was enabled to pilot his own ship into that port. It is interesting to note that his first ten voyages were made in sailing ships, subsequently in auxiliary ships, and lastly in full power ships, marking the rapid progress of ship propulsion.  It is also worthy of note that during the long term of years that he followed the sea he never met with any serious accident.”

For those fascinated by maritime tales both titanic and tragic, my apologies. Huddy's seafaring career was neither.

FROM CAPTAIN TO LANDSMAN

In 1892, Capt. Huddy retired and, a year later, came to California, settling near El Toro, according to Armor.

Historian Clara Mason Fox said Huddy was the only Brit to arrive directly from England rather than spend time in Texas or other places first. And despite being a ranching novice, he enjoyed "remarkable" success.

“Here he has twenty acres of fine land, which he planted to apricots, walnuts, peaches and apples, and from which he is now enjoying returns which would do credit to one who had followed ranching for a lifetime. His record for one season was nine and a-half tons of dried apricots and two tons of green fruit; ten tons of ripe fruit from two hundred and twenty peach trees; one ton of walnuts and one ton of apples.”

Those 20 acres, by the way, were southwest of what is now Muirlands Boulevard and El Toro Road and not far from where John Prothero would establish his own home in 1908.

Armor goes on to state that “in Australia, in 1876, Captain Huddy was united in marriage with Elizabeth Hervey, and two daughters have been born to them.” Settling into El Toro with a family and significant acreage, Huddy also demonstrated that “probably nothing outside of his home and family has been closer to [his heart] than the church of which he is a member, St. George’s Episcopal Church of El Toro, and which he has served as senior warden ever since his residence here.”

Huddy even conducted services on occasion, Armor noted.

Armor's conclusion? “Viewed from either aspect, as sea captain or landsman, the life of Captain Huddy has been eminently successful, and it is not too much to say that no one stands higher in the estimation of his fellow-citizens than does Captain Huddy.”

In A History of El Toro, Clara Mason Fox says the Huddys ultimately sold their home to Walter Cornelius (today, Lake Forest has a Cornelius Drive, just off El Toro) and moved to Orange. This was a typical transition for El Toro “senior citizens”—including, eventually, Fox herself—because the agriculture-based hamlet did not have doctors. Many El Toro pioneers spent their final years in Orange, Santa Ana or Tustin.

However, given that Huddy had made the shift from ocean to land many years before, it is hoped that he and his wife adjusted to “town life" in their September years.