William Jewell

William Jewell was born December 25, 1845, in Devonshire, England. After reaching the proper age he was apprenticed at Garrow to the Palmer Ship Building Company, where, it is said, the ore came in at one gate and went out at the other a man-of-war. At times this company employed 10,000 workmen. Mr. Jewell served in their employ seven years, and then shipped on the steamer Woodburn, out of Whitby, serving the first year as assistant engineer and being advanced the next to chief. The Woodburn plied between London and Montreal, Canada, and on the Black and Mediterranean Seas, touching at Odessa and as far down as Sangierock, the Sea of Azov and up the river Danube. He was transferred from her to the passenger steamer York, of the same company, on which he remained three years and six months. The York was engaged in carrying pilgrims between the East Indies and Egyptian ports, touching at Jeddo, Penang and Singapore. Only five of the original crew returned from this voyage, the rest dying from fever, and it was necessary to man the steamer with a crew of coolies. Mr. Jewell next shipped as engineer on the trans-Atlantic steamer Somerset, out of Bristol for New York, with which he remained two years, at the end of that time going on the Helen, of Grimsby, engaged in the Mediterranean trade. In 1870 he shipped in the steamer City of Paris, a blockade runner between Wales and Rouen during the war, but after making six trips on this vessel he concluded to quit her as it was a dangerous post without sufficient recompense for risk of life. He was then appointed engineer of the harbor tug Caledonia, of 500-horse power, towing in the British Channel, and held this berth for eighteen months, after which he took the steamer Sea King to Constantinople, remaining at that port with her six months. Returning to Cardiff, he shipped as engineer in a vessel bound for Alexandria, Egypt, thence to Borneo, Africa, and on the Mediterranean, where she loaded with iron ore for New York, the voyage lasting three months.

On arriving in New York, Mr. Jewell proceeded west and stopped at Akron, Ohio, where he took a position as engineer in the Akron Iron Works, continuing in that employ two years. Going to Cleveland he was placed in charge of the machinery in the rod mill of the Cleveland Rolling Mill Company, with which he remained five years, afterward working for the W. J. Morgan Lithographing Company for a period of six months, and the National Flouring Mill for a short time. His next position was as engineer of one of the Monson tugs, and he then entered the employ of Palmer & DeMuys. For two years he held the position of examiner of stationary engineers, to which he was appointed by the city government of Cleveland, and for another year he was in the employ of Bell, Cartright & Co. In 1891 he was placed in charge of the machinery of the Perry-Payne building, where he has since remained. In 1880, Mr. Jewell was united in marriage to Miss Annie Carley, of London, England, and four children have been born to them: Burt, Rosie, Daisy and Lily. Socially he belongs to the Knights of the Maccabees, Sons of St. George, and the National Association of Steamboat Engineers.

Return to Home Port

Volume I

This version of Volume II is based, with permission, on the work of the great volunteers at the Marine Captains Biographies site. To them goes the credit for reorganizing the content into some coherent order. The biographies in the original volume are in essentially random order.

Some of the transcription work was also done by Brendon Baillod, who maintains an excellent guide to Great Lakes Shipwreck Research.