John Shepherd Naile

Deirdre writes about Captain Naile:

Bobby has long had a special interest in our relative Captain Naile and would like some of his exploits at sea published on this blog.  I am happy to oblige.
 
We are as sure as we can be that this is a picture of John Naile, it appears in Judith's family album opposite one of Bessie and seems to have been taken in Lima Peru at about the time of their engagement:

John Shepherd Naile and his brother James were both seafarers and I think their father was as well.


John Naile was born in 1842 and married Bobby's great aunt Bessie in Cockermouth in 1870 .  You will find information about their wedding and children on Judith's page about Bessie.  Interestingly, just after her marriage Bessie lived with her aunt Elizabeth in a house called Belle Vue.  We think Elizabeth was the housekeeper.  Belle Vue was the home of Mr Iredale, the owner of a fleet of ships; he  was Captain Naile's employer.

John  was the master of a barque, the Toronto which is mentioned in the records of the Ardrossen lifeboat service:
Ardrossan,
Sunday, the lifeboat of the Institution on this station rendered last night a most important service in saving a shipwrecked crew. During some stormy weather and a heavy sea, the barque TORONTO, of Glasgow, from Liverpool, came ashore near Ardrossan harbour on the Bathouse rocks, through the master mistaking, it is supposed, the lights. The lifeboat was promptly launched and brought the crew of nine men ashore and the steward's wife and child. The lifeboat is now trying to get the ship off. Source: Lifeboat Services, Shipping Intelligence, LL, No. 18,964, London, Tuesday February 2 1875.

This inauspicious event was more than compensated  for by John's heroics in 1881 when he was awarded a medal for Gallantry at Sea.  The medal was the highest honour a Captain could be given and was rare. John was captaining his barque, the Penrith on a voyage from Glasgow to Valparaiso,  passing the Falkland Islands in 1881. This is his version from the Lloyds list:

"31st August began with heavy squally weather and frequent snow squalls.  At 7a.m. sighted a vessel which had a heavy list to port and to windward; hauled up for her and made out signal of distress flying: noon rounded under her lees and boarded her; she proved to be the Glasgow ship Kilmodan, which ship was on fire, fore and aft.  Transferred the crew on board my vessel, 32 all told, which was completed about 6p.m.  At 7p.m. bore away on our course for Falkland Islands......"

Having landed a number of the crew at the Falklands Captain Naile  then proceeded on his intended

journey to Valparaiso,unloaded his cargo  there and also a couple of the Kilmodan surviviors and  a few deserters, which was common at that time.  

Bobby has obtained photocopy records  from London which show that  11 of the crew of the burnt vessel Kilmoden then travelled as supernumeries with Captain Naile  to Hamburg where

it seems the 'Penrith' was sold.

 
Here is a picture  of the gallantry medal:

 

The box says: 'Board of Trade Medal for Gallantry in Saving Life at Sea' and around the edge of the

medal is printed: 'John S Naile wreck of the Kilmodan on the 31 August 1881'

  Here is  a picture taken in Valparaiso in Chile, maybe immediately afterwards:

Bobby has records of numerous other voyages by Captain J S Naile. He was still in charge of ships in 1905 aged 62 when the American immigration records show him arriving at Port Townsend in Washington State as the master of the Nairn.

Eventually he retired and moved with his family to London.  John Naile died in 1908, in his home in Hornsey;  his death was registered by his sister-in-law Catherine Flavelle, who presumably had come over from Dublin to support her sister through her husband's last illness.  None of John's three daughters had children of their own, so when the last surving daughter, Dora Naile died, the medal and other nautical memorabilia were willed by Dora Naile to the Bardens.

Recently through our ancestry research we have put Bobby in contact with Audrey, who is descended from John's brother James.  She is as proud of her great great uncle as is Bobby.