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

 

William Piper May, Captain of the Maintop (mast)

The story of my ancestor came to me from my father and grandmother. My father remembers seeing as a boy or youth, a death notification card from the Admiralty. The death was that of his great-grandfather and the ship was HMS Captain.

Sadly I have not been able to locate this death card, but the knowledge of its one-time existence was what prompted me to start my search.

Little did I realise what an ongoing interest this would be for me, and here I am two years down the line still receiving fresh correspondence and information.

My contact at the Imperial War Museum told me that the St Paul’s memorial is the largest such memorial to a peacetime naval loss in existence, and says that this gives an indication of the significance of the event in naval history as the money was raised through public subscription.

My appetite whetted by the possibility of proof that my ancestor had been on board, I had to visit St Paul’s and take a look. I was given special dispensation to photograph the memorial, and, with the aid of a magnifying glass, the names of all seamen, marines and boys who died can be read on my photos.

I have been told by my father (who is a grandson of a `Captain’ orphan) that his grandfather had been placed in a special school, perhaps the `school being set up to educate all the children of the drowned crew’ (as mentioned by the descendant of Peter Baldwin).



Jeanette Wadsworth (UK) (grandmother née May)