George Hamilton-Gordon, 6th Earl of Aberdeen

George Hamilton-Gordon, 6th Earl of Aberdeen (10 December 1841 – 27 January 1870), styled Lord Haddo from 1860 to 1864, was a Scottish peer and sailor.

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, who went on to become Governor-General of Canada from 1893 to 1898 and Lord Lieutenant of Ireland in 1896 and again from 1905 to 1915.^[4]