A CAPTAIN COURAGEOUS
Granddaughter pays tribute as the fearless skipper’s story is told in song
Jackie Hood grew up near the shores of Gare Loch listening to tales of her grandfather, Captain Dennis Royal, a hero of the high seas who saved many lives on one storm-lashed voyage of his cargo ship Springbank.
Hood and her father, Dennis Royal junior, had no idea that, 400 miles north of their family home in Clynder, Argyll and Bute, storytellers in the Shetland Islands had been sharing the same tales for generations.
They spoke of a fearless captain who, over a century ago, safely navigated his ship through lethal storms around Cape Horn for 200 days, ensuring the crew including four Shetlanders – Nicky Tulloch, Tammie Irvine, James Hardy and Lawrence Tait – made it home alive.
“I had no idea this story was being told across Shetland. It’s incredible,” said Hood, 53, who now lives in Helensburgh. “It is just one of the many wonderful stories my dad told me about my grandfather, who was always this mythical figure. He really was a hero and a skilled sailor and captain.”
Dennis Royal married Hood’s grandmother, Margaret, in 1920. They had three children, Dennis, Jean and Margaret, and four grandchildren. Hood never met her grandfather, who died aged 73 when her dad was just 18 but she was always fascinated by his life story which had been painstakingly researched by her father.
“Dad idolised his father and wanted to be a deck officer like him but was never able to because he was colour blind,” she said. “He was devastated by that but inherited the same love of sailing, which he did recreationally. He even won the America’s Cup in the ’60s.”
Treasured possessions from her grandfather’s life at sea, including his sexton, a decommissioned pistol, chronometer, and framed sea charts tracking his many voyages across the world, are displayed proudly in Hood’s home.
They help tell the story of a man born into poverty in Newfoundland, Canada in 1874 and who, aged just 13, fled his alcoholic father and abusive stepmother to pursue a life at sea.
A natural seaman, he steadily rose up the ranks from cabin boy to deck officer. He wed his first wife, Hannah, in Liverpool in 1903 and four years later took command of the four-mast barque, Springbank, owned by the Andrew Weir Shipping and Trading Company in Glasgow. Hannah joined him aboard the ship the following year when it was to deliver a cargo of timber from Hamburg to the port city of Santa Rosalía in Mexico. But the vessel became trapped in a storm that raged across hazardous waters off the coast of Cape Horn, Chile, one of the most dangerous sea routes in the world to this day, and the Springbank was continually blown off course by strong easterly winds.
Then, tragically, 27-year-old Hannah
died of consumption, along with two other crew members who hailed from the Orkney Islands.
“He had to bury his wife at sea then muster his crew to get them out of this storm and safely to port. That must have required real fortitude,” said Hood. “My grandfather was incredibly well respected as a captain because he served before the mast, working his way up from cabin boy to a deck officer.
“His skill as a seaman and a captain and his ability to keep morale up through so much hardship and death got them to port alive. It was an incredible feat, especially as they only had a sexton and a compass to navigate.
“My father told me the story of their arrival in Santa Rosalía over and over. They thought they would perish at sea, and arrived starving and short of water. There had been no word from the boat since day 28 so they had been given up for dead.
“Then, one day, the Springbank comes roaring into Santa Rosalía harbour under full sail and drops anchor after 228 days at sea, which was
apparently the longest passage ever taken for that sea route.”
The Springbank’s voyage to Santa Rosalía was just one of Royal’s many courageous endeavours. Throughout his five decades at sea, he crossed the world’s oceans many times over, making port in Hong Kong, Calcutta, Trinidad, Nova Scotia, Cape Town and, closer to home, Dundee and Glasgow. He retired in 1938 and died in 1947 aged 73 “from old age and a hard life”.
“We found a silver pearl pin that had been given to him for saving a drowning boy. He really was a hero and I’m told he was kind, gentle and strong. One of his tricks on the ships was to hold himself horizontally on a pole.
“He said he wanted to live in Clynder because he’d lived his life in the teeth of a gale and Clynder is calm and sheltered. The house had a veranda that he could walk up and down like the deck of a ship with a view of the loch. He always stood with two feet astride as if still at sea.”
Singer and seafarer Barry Nisbet was so intrigued by the story of the Springbank while growing up in Shetland that it inspired his latest album, The Springbank Voyage. It blends traditional folk music of Shetland and the spoken word, including archive audio from storyteller Lawrence Tulloch, who died in 2017, to paint an evocative picture of the turmoil, tragedy and triumph of the fateful 1908 voyage.
Eager to learn more, Nisbet began researching Captain Royal in spring 2020. Starting with only a marriage certificate, his search and pleas for contacts in Newfoundland via social media eventually led to Jackie Hood, whom he finally met last year following the easing of lockdown restrictions.
Nisbet was unable to meet the Springbank skipper’s son in person but compared seeing his research and his father’s belongings to “finding the key to a treasure chest”, adding: “It was incredible to see all these photographs, documents and personal items. Jackie’s father’s research helped to tie the whole story together.”
Dennis Royal junior listened to early versions of songs from The Springbank Voyage last year. He had advanced dementia and the music stirred memories of his father’s stories. He passed away a few weeks later, aged 92.
“I’m pleased I was able to play it to him before he died,” said Hood. “We listened to a few songs at a time and looked at paintings of my grandfather’s boats.
“It was fantastic as the music sparked his memory and helped me engage with him and get him talking. At that point, all he really had was memories of living in Clynder and listening to his father’s stories.
“Hearing the album played live was incredibly moving as it brought my grandfather’s story to life. We had never known certain details, like how Hannah Royal died, so Barry really helped piece the story together.”
Nisbet holds a personal connection to the Springbank story. He also sailed tall ships across the Pacific and is a fiddler from Cullivoe on Yell, just like one of the Springbank’s Shetland crew, Nicky Tulloch.
“I was always intrigued by the story that I’d heard from Lawrence Tulloch, especially Hannah Royal and what happened to her,” he said.
“Having captained ships myself I related to Dennis Royal and his crew. I understood not just the hardships of a life at sea but also the beauty and wonder of being out on the open ocean, which I tried to convey as well as the travails and tragedy of that journey.
“There was certainly sadness but also hope and joy. The album is my attempt to that bring this fascinating story to life.”