Henry George Kendall (30 January 1874 – 28 November 1965) was a British sea captain who survived several shipwrecks, including the collision and sinking of the

ocean liner An ocean liner is a passenger ship primarily used as a form of transportation across seas or oceans. Ocean liners may also carry cargo or mail, and may sometimes be used for other purposes (such as for pleasure cruises or as hospital ships). Ca ...

Empress of Ireland RMS ''Empress of Ireland'' was a British-built ocean liner that sank near the mouth of the Saint Lawrence River in Canada following a collision in thick fog with the Norwegian Collier (ship), collier in the early hours of 29 May 1914. Althoug ...

'' in 1914 and an attack by a

Kaiserliche Marine {{italic title The adjective ''kaiserlich'' means "imperial" and was used in the German-speaking countries to refer to those institutions and establishments over which the ''Kaiser'' ("emperor") had immediate personal power of control. The term wa ...

submarine during the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. He was also noted for his role in the capture of murderer Dr.

Hawley Harvey Crippen Hawley Harvey Crippen (September 11, 1862 – November 23, 1910), usually known as Dr. Crippen, was an American homeopath, ear and eye specialist and medicine dispenser. He was hanged in Pentonville Prison in London for the murder of his wife Co ...

Life

Early career

Captain Henry Kendall began his career in sailing ships in 1888 at the age of 14. Eight years later he married Jane "Minnie" Jones. In 1900 he survived a shipwreck on the

Newfoundland Newfoundland and Labrador (; french: Terre-Neuve-et-Labrador; frequently abbreviated as NL) is the easternmost province of Canada, in the country's Atlantic region. The province comprises the island of Newfoundland and the continental region ...

coast when he was an officer on the SS ''Lusitania'' (not the later Cunarder torpedoed in the

). Two years later he worked with

Guglielmo Marconi Guglielmo Giovanni Maria Marconi, 1st Marquis of Marconi (; 25 April 187420 July 1937) was an Italians, Italian inventor and electrical engineering, electrical engineer, known for his creation of a practical radio wave-based Wireless telegrap ...

to develop ship-to-shore radio before getting his first command in 1908. Two years after that he was appointed captain of the

Canadian Pacific Line CP Ships was a large Canadian shipping company established in the 19th century. From the late 1880s until after World War II, the company was Canada's largest operator of Atlantic and Pacific steamships. Many immigrants travelled on CP ships fr ...

's , and within months had become famous following his role in the capture of Dr.

, the London cellar murderer, in what was the first use of radio to capture a criminal. Kendall's radio messages alerted

Scotland Yard Scotland Yard (officially New Scotland Yard) is the headquarters of the Metropolitan Police, the territorial police force responsible for policing Greater London's 32 boroughs, but not the City of London, the square mile that forms London's ...

, and Inspector

Walter Dew Detective Chief Inspector Walter Dew (17 April 1863 – 16 December 1947) was a British Metropolitan Police officer who was involved in the hunt for both Jack the Ripper and Dr Crippen. Early life Dew was born at Far Cotton, in Hardingstone, ...

was dispatched to Canada on a faster ship, the

White Star Line The White Star Line was a British shipping company. Founded out of the remains of a defunct packet company, it gradually rose up to become one of the most prominent shipping lines in the world, providing passenger and cargo services between t ...

's , and arrived in Canada before ''Montrose''. Disguised as a

pilot An aircraft pilot or aviator is a person who controls the flight of an aircraft by operating its directional flight controls. Some other aircrew members, such as navigators or flight engineers, are also considered aviators, because they a ...

, Dew boarded ''Montrose'' and arrested Crippen.

Shipwreck of RMS ''Empress of Ireland''

In May 1914 Kendall was appointed captain of the . Almost a month later the ship sank in Canada's

Saint Lawrence River The St. Lawrence River (french: Fleuve Saint-Laurent, ) is a large river in the middle latitudes of North America. Its headwaters begin flowing from Lake Ontario in a (roughly) northeasterly direction, into the Gulf of St. Lawrence, connectin ...

after colliding with the , a Norwegian coal freighter with an ice-breaking bow. The accident occurred at night. The two ships were head to head when a fog bank rolled onto the river and ''Storstad'' changed position, believing ''Empress of Ireland'' to be on ''Storstad''s port side. This turned the freighter into the side of the larger ship, which was passing on the starboard side. The damage was catastrophic and ''Empress of Ireland'' sank in just 14 minutes with the loss of 1,012 people. Kendall was thrown from the bridge when the ship keeled over suddenly but survived. Subsequently he was cleared of any responsibility for the disaster.

Action in the First World War

Soon afterwards he was posted to

Antwerp Antwerp (; nl, Antwerpen ; french: Anvers ; es, Amberes) is the largest city in Belgium by area at and the capital of Antwerp Province in the Flemish Region. With a population of 520,504,

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...

, where he was soon in the news again. As the Germans invaded Belgium, the British Consulate in Antwerp was besieged by around 600 refugees. Kendall worked with the consul Sir Cecil Hertslet(A Family of Librarians -see gov.uk) to formulate a plan to rescue them by using the to tow the , which was out of commission, out of the port and on to England. Kendall then joined the crew of and served with the ship until 1918, during which time he was mentioned in despatches on several occasions. In March 1918 ''Calgarian'' was torpedoed off the Ulster coast by German submarine but Kendall survived again. He went on to serve as a

King's Messenger The Corps of King's Messengers (or Corps of Queen's Messengers during the reign of a female monarch) are couriers employed by the British Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO). They hand-carry secret and important documents to Br ...

before being appointed Commodore of Convoys. When the war ended he was appointed Marine Superintendent at Southampton by Canadian Pacific and remained there until he moved to a similar position in London in 1924.

Death

He died in an English nursing home in 1965 at the age of 91. His obituary in ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...

'' made no mention of the sinking of the ''Empress of Ireland''. Nurses who attended Kendall on his deathbed said that in a delirium he relived the sinking of the ship.

Descendants

His grandson was the

Anglican Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of th ...

priest and hymn writer Canon Michael Saward, and his great grandchildren include F1 journalist

Joe Saward Jonathan Mark Christopher "Joe" Saward (born 14 July 1961 in London) is a British Formula One journalist. Life and career Saward was educated at Haileybury College and attained a degree in history at Bedford College, University of London. In 1 ...

and the late anti-rape campaigner

Jill Saward Jill Saward, also known by her married name Jill Drake (14 January 1965 – 5 January 2017) was an English campaigner on issues relating to sexual violence. She was the victim of a violent robbery and rape in 1986 at a vicarage in Ealing, Lond ...

References

Sources

* David Zeni ''Forgotten Empress: The Empress of Ireland Story'', (Bookcraft, Midsomer Norton, Great Britain: Goose Lane Editions, c1998) . * James Croall ''Fourteen Minutes: The Last Voyage of the Empress of Ireland'', (Briarcliff Manor, NY: Stein & Day, c1979), 237p., illus. . * Tom Cullen ''The Mild Murderer: The True Story of the Dr. Crippen Case'', (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1977), 224p., illus. . * Jonathan Goodman (Compiler) ''The Crippen File'', (London: Allison & Busby, 1985), 96p. illus. Pbk. * Erik Larson ''Thunderstruck'', (New York: Random House, Inc. - Three River Press, 2006), 463p. illus. . *

"The Man who Caught Crippen" (Morienval Press, 2010), 242p. illus. . {{DEFAULTSORT:Kendall, Henry George 1874 births 1965 deaths People from Chelsea, London British Merchant Navy officers Steamship captains