The saga of John Henry Royal

One of the more suspenseful and dramatic Southampton shipping stories took place in 1880. Two shipwrecks were involved and a three-month search over thousands of square miles of the Atlantic resulted in only two deaths. The Union Line Steam Ship American’s journey began routinely enough as it left Southampton harbour in a cold drizzle on April the 9th. with 78 passengers and 77 crew on board. The course was set for Cape Town, 5,980 miles away. On board was Chief Steward John Henry Royal my great-grandfather.
It was the custom to entertain all on board by putting on performances of plays in which both passengers and crew took part. In January of 1880 a performance of "Naval Engagements" was preceded by a prologue written by a passenger and found in Captain Wait's effects by his great-grandson.
The play is set in the "Fountain Inn" Portsmouth and John Henry Royal plays the part of Short the innkeeper ("genial and kind"). Captain Wait is the Admiral and Dunn, the Fourth Officer at the time of the later sinking is Lt.Kingston. It is all written in lighthearted rhyme but it is first-hand
evidence that JHR took an active role in the life of the ship.
This picture of passengers on a contemporay ship illustrates the atmosphere on board the American while Captain Wait was relaxed as he steamed south convinced that the American would maintain its record for the fastest time from Southampton to South Africa and the passengers anticipated the traditional fun associated with the crossing of the equator the next day. But at 5 o’clock in the morning on April 23rd at 1.52º N by 9.50º W, off the Coast of Liberia, West Africa there was a sudden and indescribable shock under the stern of the ship. First Engineer Trottman quickly ascertained that the main propeller shaft had broken and its wild gyrations had fractured the ship’s bottom.
The crew were assembled on deck and ordered to prepare the lifeboats for abandoning ship. The meal of beef, sausages, biscuits and lobsters prepared for breakfast by Chief Steward Royal’s department was quickly transferred to the lifeboats. At 8 am. Captain Wait gave the order to disembark. In this picture John Henry Royal in steward's uniform is seated in the middle. The thirty women and children were first handed down to the eight boats that had been assembled. The rest of the passengers and crew followed them. Captain Wait was the last to descend the now sloping ship’s side as they all pulled away on the calm sea to watch the American go down stern first six hour later.
 
Sails were raised and orders were given to stay together and steer for the nearest land at Cape Palmas on the Ivory Coast 250 miles away.
  
The three fastest boats out-sailed the others in a rainstorm
and three days later at 6am, the British and African liner
SS Congo picked up 50 passengers and crew who had been
missed by the passing SS Balmoral Castle.
The Congo set course for Madeira after a fruitless search for
other survivors. All the remaining boats had now become
separated but on the moonlit night of April 29th the lifeboat
with Captain Wait and Chief Steward Royal aboard was
picked up by the barque Emma F. Herriman, a five-masted
sailboat of US registry and trading in palm oil and hides.
Later, two more lifeboats were sighted and 65 weary
survivorswere crammed into the small,
evil smelling space on deck.
 
Captain Upton of the Herriman sailed close to shore and sighted the SS Coanza which on May 7th took the exhausted souls to Grand Bassa in Liberia where after a dinner and dance with the Governor the ill-fated British and African Liner SS Senegal took them to Sierra Leone.
  
 
On May 12th. en route to Las Palmas, Grand Canary, the Senegal hit a rock 12 miles out. Captain Keene ordered full speed ahead to beach the ship before she sank but when the boats were lowered there was a general panic and rescued American passenger, the Honourable S. Paterson, Member of the South African Assembly was caught in the churning propeller and never seen again. The bedraggled passengers and sailors spent the night on the beach then took mules overland to Las Palmas where the SS Teuton transported them to Madeira for the SS Nyanza to take them on the final leg back home to Southampton.
 
 
Of the two remaining American lifeboats the German Schooner Moltke picked up one after seven days. The last, the dinghy captained by the quartermaster, was not found until mid July when its occupants were taken on board the Portuguese brig Tarujo. Later transferred to HMS Dwarf they finally arrived at Cape Town on July 21st. In all, 39 vessels from canoes to liners were involved in the search for survivors of the stricken American.
  
 
A later enquiry stated, “The Captain, officers and men deserve great credit for the way in which in their several stations they did everything they could to save the ship and the lives of the passengers”. The Union Line honoured Captain A. McLean Wait and in 1893 he became Marine Superintendent in Southampton after serving on six other Union ships. Following the amalgamation of the Union and Currie lines into Union-Castle he was assigned to run their New York office where he died in 1907 at the age of sixty.
  
 
One of the ships Wait captained in 1889 was the RMS Spartan a much bigger ship than the American with a larger crew. He is seen here on board in the middle of his officers.
  
The pasted clipping from the Port Elizabeth Telegraph
June 25th 1880 reads:
  The "American"-- Intelligence received here by the Grantilly Castle of the death of Mr. Royal, late chief steward of the American. The hardships and exposure incidental to open voyaging, in an open boat, in addition to an attack of West Coast Fever, proved too much for him, and he died at Southampton on the 25th. ult (May)  
 
In Fond and Loving Remembrance of
JOHN HENRY ROYAL
AGED 29 YEARS AND ELEVEN MONTHS
Born June 25th.1850 died May 25th,1880,
from exhaustion, following exposure, after being twice ship-wrecked on the
SS American April 23rd and SS Senegal May 12th.
 
In the year 1998 Charles Cook
visits his great-grandfather's grave.
 
On May the 12th. 2000 Charles Henry George Cook stood on Melenara Beach, Grand Canary at the spot where the Senegal went aground.
  
 
 
John Macdonald, great-grandson of Captain Wait has the Captain's scrapbook and Charles Cook great-grandson of Chief Steward Royal has researched this story in depth but they would both welcome copies of original documents, photographs or mementoes relating to the famous shipwrecks.