Alexander Steptow

Biographical synthesis
Alexander Steptow (b.ca.1633; d.?). Waterman. Formerly a common man on board the ship the Starr.

Resident in Lambeth in Surrey in 1657.

Evidence from High Court of Admiralty
Twenty-three year old Alexander Steptow deposed on August 30th 1656 in the High Court of Admiralty. He was examined on interrogatories "In the behalfe of Robert Browne ?Bryant touching a losse in the Starr in a businesse of Assurance."

Steptow had been one of the common men on the sip the Starr (Master: David Booth) on her last trading voyage in the Mediterranean. The ship had taken on a lading of salt at the isle of Mat near Alicante and had brought the salt to Algier. The salt had been consigned to an English merchant residing at Algier named Robert Browne, who was also a part-owner of the Starr. In July 1655 the ship left Algier, bound for Ligorno, with a cargo of sugar, tobaccoes and a chest of drugs, which were delivered at Ligorno. From Ligorno the ship made a return journey, and then departed Ligorno again on October 28th 1655, intending another return journey. Chased by Turkish pirates the ship had been forced under the command of a castle in Sicily, but feared to go ashore due to war between England and Spain. Escaping, but still chased by the Turkish pirates, the ship had been forced ashore on the Sicilian coast and cast away and lost.