HMS Captain 1870         

 

Information and Memories from Descendants (cont)

 
Up John Collier Peter Baldwin T G Beenham John Bremner Thomas Butcher C W Dyer J Ellis George Fisher Wilfred Glanville John Gribble Albert Grover George Habens Walter Hedger Robert Herd John Hermitage Tom W Ivey Thomas Kernan RJ Magawley William May Robert Mayne Francis Merryman GH Payne Edmund Powell Alfred Ripley Anthony Spiller Arthur Tregaskiss John Walker  John Gribble, gunner - a survivor

   

John (“Uncle Jack”) Gribble was born on the 23rd November 1852 in St Helier, Jersey, The Channel Islands (off the coast of France, but part of the UK).

He enlisted in the navy aged 16, without his parents’ consent. and with false papers (he was underage). He trained for eighteen months as a gunner on a training ship at Jersey, and was then transferred to Portsmouth where he received six months training on the gunnery training ship HMS Excellent.

Because of his progress, John Gribble was not posted to another ship as his turn came, but was held back and given special training to serve on a new ship,         HMS Captain.

Fortunate to be working on deck on the fateful night, John survived the capsizing, and eventually returned to England.

His survival, subsequent life at sea, as a settler in Canada, his two marriages, finally settling in back in the UK, at Romford, Essex, and his death in 1928 are more fully described under  “The Survivors” section of the website.  

Wilma Rookus – grandniece