Henry George Kendall

Henry George Kendall
Portrait of Captain Henry Kendall
Born	(1874-01-30)30 January 1874 Chelsea, U.K.
Died	28 November 1965(1965-11-28) (aged 91) London, England, U.K.
Spouse(s)	Jane Kendall (née Jones)

Henry George Kendall (30 January 1874 – 28 November 1965) was a British sea captain who survived several shipwrecks, including an attack by a German submarine during the First World War, and was also noted for his role in the capture of murderer Dr. Hawley Harvey Crippen.

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 coast when he was an officer on the SS Lusitania (not the later Cunarder RMS Lusitania torpedoed in the First World War). Two years later he worked with Guglielmo Marconi 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's SS Montrose, and within months had become famous following his role in the capture of Dr. Hawley Harvey Crippen, the London cellar murderer, in what was the first use of radio to capture a criminal. Kendall's radio messages alerted Scotland Yard, and Inspector Dew was dispatched to Canada on the faster ship, the White Star Line's SS Laurentic, and arrived in Canada before Montrose. Disguised as a pilot, Dew boarded Montrose and arrested Crippen.

In May 1914 Kendall was appointed captain of the RMS Empress of Ireland. Almost a month later the ship sank in Canada's Saint Lawrence River after colliding with the SS Storstad, 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; he was cleared of all charges in the disaster.