The passage below was created using ABBYY FineReader to render the Hathi Digital Library images into text. — George P. Landow
The Late J. B. Martin, Captain of the Australian packet ship London, lost in the Bay of Biscay
The late Captain John Bohumn Martin, whose death took place, as our readers know, on the 11th ult., when the ship London foundered in the Bay of Biscay, was in the forty seventh of his age. Having, from the age of boyhood, always expressed a strong desire to select the sea as a profession, with the view of carrying out this wish, he was entered ss midshipman in the East India ship True Briton. He remained in this ship four years, making several voyages to Madras, Bombay, and Calcutta, and passed through the various grades of service with assiduity and credit, diligently attending to the study of navigation in its most scientific parts, in which he became thoroughly proficient. In the year 1840 he was removed as third officer to the ship Southampton, then a celebrated fast passenger-ship trading to the East Indies. Having the prescribed period in this capacity, he passed successively through the further steps of service, principally in the Maidstone, till he was appointed, in the year 1852, to the command of the Essex, and remained in her till 1856. He then took the command of the Suffolk, a vessel expressly built for the Australian trade, and designed with all the skill, appliances, and cost requisite to make her the safest and fastest-sailing clipper afloat. At that period there was active competition among shipowners, both British and foreign, for the Australian trade, in consequence of the great number of persons passing to and from Australia on the first discovery of the gold-diggings, as well as the quantity of the precious metal and other valuable cargoes earned; it was therefore the practice to place the finest ships of the different owners on the same station, to start at the same time and for the same ports. It is evident that scrupulous care was necessary to select the most trustworthy, skilful, and experienced officers for the service, and no had a better opportunity than Messrs Wigram of obtaining the most efficient commenders from the number of their vessels, which were all of the best kind, able men were ambitious to take command in their service. The first passage of the Suffolk to Australia was made in an unusually short time, and bore favourable comparison with the other celebrated clippers, such as the Marco Polo or the Kent, &c.; and a continued career of success enabled her to take rank before all other ships in the same trade. Captain Martin ten voyages in the Suffolk to Australia and back, all very successful, sometimes sailing twice round the world in the short space of twelve months. No fatal mishap or irregularity ever befell this vessel but on the first trip, when she was caught in a violent hurricane, which carried away her topmasts, and short time crippled her; but the damage was speedily repaired while at sea, and the passage afterwards made in the usual rapid manner. As a mark of esteem for the energy and skill he displayed on this occasion, a handsome testimonial was presented to Captain Martin by the mercantile portion of the city of London on hbis return to England. Captain Martin was therefore an officer of high reputation, and well conversant with the service whenhe became commander of the Loodon towards the end of 1864. He made two very rapid and successful voyages, with that ship, to Melbourne and back. The third voyage was scarcely commenced when it was interrupted by the terrible disaster we now lament.
Our portrait is from a photograph by Mr. Hugh Pattenon, of Plymouth, taken about ten years ago.
Bibliography
“Foundering of the Steam-ship ‘London’” Illustrated London News 48 (16 January 1866): 55. Hathi Trust Digital Library version of a copy in the University of Michigan Library. Web. 18 December 2015.
“The Late Captain Martin” Illustrated London News 48 (3 February 1866): 104. Hathi Trust Digital Library version of a copy in the University of Michigan Library. Web. 18 December 2015.
Last modified 19 December 2015