Capt. J. J. Quinn

Perhaps one of the youngest commanders sailing out of Toronto is Capt. J. J. Quinn, of the steamer Greyhound, on the Oakville run. Capt. Quinn was born on August 3rd, 1861, in Toronto, where he was educated in the Public Schools. When he was sixteen years of age he began sailing in the small coasting schooners Brothers and Betsy, and the following season, 1879, he went into the schooner Parthenon under Capt. Harry Jackman, uncle of Capt. Frank Jackman of the tug Jubilee. During the seasons of 1881 and 1882 Capt. Quinn had charge of the schooner Mary Grover, trading on the lower lakes, afterwards he was eight years captain of the Island ferry steamer Arlington, then he went into the steamer C. H. Merritt, belonging to the Polson Company and running out of Toronto port to Victoria Park and Lorne Park. That was in 1892 and 1893. In 1895 he had charge of the steamer Gipsy, which ran to Victoria Park. In 1896 he was first officer on the steamer Greyhound under Capt. Boyd, the Government Marine Marshal, and in 1897 he was promoted to the post of commander of the steamer Greyhound, Capt. Boyd having resigned. No accidents have happened under his hand.

Capt. Quinn has always been a careful and studious navigator. Being yet a young man, he has a promising career ahead of him. Noteworthy in Capt. Quinn's career is his record for the saving of life. Besides numbers of people whom he has pulled out of the water without having to jump in himself, he has risked his life to save several from a watery grave. In 1883 he plunged off the boat into the water at 3 o'clock one morning and pulled out Miss Sara McLean at Island Park Wharf. In 1887 he rescued Mr. Robert Elliot at the Church street slip at 1 o'clock in the morning and destroyed a $65 gold watch thereby Perhaps his most daring exploit was the rescuing of Mr. Peter Sullivan in the early spring of 1891. Young Sullivan was in a rowboat bound for Ward's, and the thin ice on the water of the bay cut a hole in the craft's bow. Capt. Quinn fell into the water three times before he finally managed to land the drowning man at Ward's Point. Here they did all they could for Sullivan, but the cold and the shock were too much for him and he succumbed from heart failure after he had been revived so far as to be able to talk. Capt. Quinn received the Royal Humane Society's medal for that feat. In 1894 when the Tymon was running out of Buffalo the Captain rescued a boy, after much difficulty, from the water at the foot of Washington street in that city.

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