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John Gray (8 December 1819 – 25 November 1872) was a Scottish merchant seaman and
Gray progressed to commanding ships for Gibbs, Bright & Co. He took both a demotion and a pay cut in order to serve as Second Officer on their SS ''Great Britain'' in 1852, in time for the vessel's first voyage to Australia. He was promoted to First Officer for the second Australian voyage, then made Captain in April 1854, prior to the third, following the resignation of his predecessor Captain Matthews. He held the longest tenure of any SS ''Great Britain'' captain, and in that role completed 27 journeys from the United Kingdom to Australia and back. He was also her captain when she was used as a
Biography published by the SS Great Britain Trust
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gray, John 1819 births 1872 deaths 19th-century sailors Scottish sailors Steamship captains People who died at sea People from Unst
master mariner
A master mariner is a licensed mariner who holds the highest grade of seafarer qualification; namely, an unlimited master's license. Such a license is labelled ''unlimited'' because it has no limits on the tonnage, power, or geographic location of ...
who served as Captain of the SS ''Great Britain'' for eighteen years. He died in mysterious circumstances, after apparently jumping or falling overboard.
Early life
Gray, was born on 8 December 1819 at Valand, Westing,Unst
Unst (; sco, Unst; nrn, Ønst) is one of the North Isles of the Shetland Islands, Scotland. It is the northernmost of the inhabited British Isles and is the third-largest island in Shetland after Mainland and Yell. It has an area of .
Unst ...
, in the Shetland Isles
Shetland, also called the Shetland Islands and formerly Zetland, is a subarctic archipelago in Scotland lying between Orkney, the Faroe Islands and Norway. It is the northernmost region of the United Kingdom.
The islands lie about to the ...
, the son of Sarah (née Johnson) and Robert Gray.
He went to sea at a young age, initially joining the Eagle Line.
Career
Gray progressed to commanding ships for Gibbs, Bright & Co. He took both a demotion and a pay cut in order to serve as Second Officer on their SS ''Great Britain'' in 1852, in time for the vessel's first voyage to Australia. He was promoted to First Officer for the second Australian voyage, then made Captain in April 1854, prior to the third, following the resignation of his predecessor Captain Matthews. He held the longest tenure of any SS ''Great Britain'' captain, and in that role completed 27 journeys from the United Kingdom to Australia and back. He was also her captain when she was used as a troop ship
A troopship (also troop ship or troop transport or trooper) is a ship used to carry soldiers, either in peacetime or wartime. Troopships were often drafted from commercial shipping fleets, and were unable land troops directly on shore, typicall ...
, during the Crimean War
The Crimean War, , was fought from October 1853 to February 1856 between Russia and an ultimately victorious alliance of the Ottoman Empire, France, the United Kingdom and Piedmont-Sardinia.
Geopolitical causes of the war included the de ...
and the Indian Rebellion
The Indian Rebellion of 1857 was a major uprising in India in 1857–58 against Company rule in India, the rule of the East India Company, British East India Company, which functioned as a sovereign power on behalf of the The Crown, British ...
.
In 1869 a passenger wrote that he was:
Death
On his two penultimate voyages to Australia and back, Gray, according to subsequent newspaper reports: On 25 November 1872, thirty days into another return voyage fromMelbourne
Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...
to Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...
, Gray complained of pain in his bowels and returned to his cabin. Near midnight he was seen walking towards the ship's deck. The next morning, he could not be found, and one of the transom windows at the ship's stern was open, having been locked the night before. The letter he had been seen writing that night could not be found.
Since there was no way to send a message ashore, his wife Mary Ann (née Jamieson) only found out that she was a widow when she and one of their daughters met the ship upon its arrival in Liverpool in January 1873. His death was reported on the front pages of newspapers in the United Kingdom and in Australia.
In fiction
The novel ''Revenge My Death'' by Bill Jackman tells an invented story of Gray's disappearance being due to him being kidnapped by a passenger.References
External links
Biography published by the SS Great Britain Trust
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gray, John 1819 births 1872 deaths 19th-century sailors Scottish sailors Steamship captains People who died at sea People from Unst