SAILOR, SOLDIER, RUM-RUNNER: CAPTAIN JOHN THOMAS RANDELL OF PORT   REXTON, TRINITY BAY, NEWFOUNDLAND

by

Francis (Frank) I. W. Jones, C.D., B.A.(Hons.),
Captain, Canadian Forces (Retired)

 

153 Basinview Drive
Bedford, Nova Scotia
B4A 3J9

Telephone: (902) 835-2151

Email: ax003@chebucto.ns.ca

 

 

First published in 'Argonauta', a quarterly publication of the Canadian Nautical Research Society (http://www.cnrs-scrn.org) and reproduced here with the permission of the editors.
    

      John Thomas Randell, who has been called "The Most Famous Rum-Runner of Them All", was captain of the rum-runner I'm Alone, sunk by the United States Coast Guard in 1929.  He has been accused of glorifying and exaggerating his exploits in his autobiography.  However, a decorated veteran of three wars who went to sea at the age of twelve can be forgiven if he embellished his extraordinary life.  His wife, all too well aware of the veracity of her husband's less savoury exploits, not wishing them to be made public, destroyed as many copies of his autobiography as she could obtain.¹  Unfortunately, his brief rum-running career appears to be the sole activity for which he is remembered and has eclipsed his more legitimate, sometimes heroic endeavours.

     John Thomas Randell, my second cousin three generations removed, son of John and Mary (Fowlow) Randell, was born at Ship Cove (Port Rexton), Trinity Bay January 2, 1877.  Jack decided to run away to sea at the age of twelve after he and his chums, playing pirates, raided his mother's jam and cookie cupboard, washing their loot down with rum obtained illegally.  Sick, ashamed and fearful of his parents' recriminations, Jack set off to find a ship.  However, several miles and hours down the road, weariness and sobriety brought on homesickness.   He returned, not to punishment, but to his worried parents' decision to let him go to sea each summer in his father's schooner Kitty Clyde fishing cod off the Labrador coast.²

     Jack fished each summer, until at the age of sixteen, he joined the barquentine Belle of the Exe engaged in the South American trade commanded by his brother Captain Issac Robert Randell.  He sailed as an able seaman for nearly three years before signing on the steamship Regulus running between Newfoundland and the United Kingdom.  In October 1899 he joined the bark Arcot as second mate and sailed from St. John's to Sydney, Nova Scotia.  Here, he joined "E" Battery of the Royal Canadian Field Artillery, which was recruiting for service in the South African War. They sailed for Cape Town aboard the Allan Line's Laurentian also known as "Rollin' Polly" arriving January 31, 1900.  After marching 2,000 miles and fighting seven engagements, the most notable being at Faber's Put where it lost one killed and eight wounded, "E" Battery was ordered home, but Jack joined Howard's Canadian Scouts as a sergeant 30 November 1900.³

     The ethos of Howard's Canadian Scouts, a mounted, guerilla unit which gained a reputation as an aggressive, fearless but often foolhardy band of men, can best be depicted by the subsequent enterprise of Captain Charlie Ross, the officer who assumed command following Howard's death.  After the Scouts had been disbanded, he was discovered by the commanding officer of another unit:

 

On a Dutch farm...engaged in the unique business of trading cattle.  Whatever Dutch cattle he acquired he sold to the English and whatever English cattle he acquired in dubious ways he sold to the Boers.  He was persuaded to rest from such precarious work and join the Unit where he was a very useful officer.⁴

 

Jack was discharged in August 1901 and in the fall returned to Newfoundland where he was presented with South African War medals by the Duke (later George V) and Duchess of York at St. John's.⁵

     Early in 1902 he went to sea once more and, until the outbreak of World War I, sailed on several ships in capacities from quartermaster to master in North and South America, the far east and Africa.  For several years he sailed out of Cardiff where he wrote and passed his examinations for his second mate's, first mate's and master's tickets before marrying Gertrude Lewis, daughter of the chief inspector of the Cardiff police.  After a honeymoon of four months in Newfoundland, he returned to Wales where he left his wife to return to his job in Lagos where, prior to his marriage, he had been master of the Southern Nigerian Marine dredger Sand Grouse.  Later he went into business for himself as a marine surveyor, shipbroker and dredger specialist.  Around the end of 1912, between cruises, while living with his wife and young son in Garelochhead [northwest of Glasgow in Dunbarton], Scotland, he accepted a job with the Russian government supervising the dredging at the new Russian naval base at Reval, Estonia.  Shortly after Archduke Ferdinand was assassinated June 28, 1914, anticipating the outbreak of war, he left Russia for Scotland.  Germany declared war while he was in transit.  He took a floating grain elevator from England to Quebec for Lloyds before joining the Royal Naval Reserve.⁶

     Lieutenant Randell commissioned the armed trawler Vidette at Chatham and commenced his first patrol Christmas week 1914.  In the spring of 1915 he assumed command of the trawler Tenby Castle at Scapa Flow and captured or sank "quite a number" of German merchantmen off the coast of Norway for which he was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross, September 13, 1915, which he received the following May from King George V at Buckingham Palace.  In 1917, while in command of the armed trawler Rushcoe, he sank a submarine which had sank a French sailing ship and rescued the crew.  After being promoted to Lieutenant-Commander the same year, he drove off and possibly sank a submarine attacking the French cruiser Artois off the coast of Iceland, for which he received a British mention in dispatches and the French Croix de Guerre and two palms.  In January 1918, Randell was trained in the use of the Fish Hydrophone, a new anti-sub device, and that June was appointed section commander of a Fish Hydrophone Flotilla with six ships under his command in his flag-ship John Johnson.  In July 1919 he was demobilised and went home to Newfoundland.⁷

     September 1919 found Randell in Montreal where he took command of the Canadian Miller belonging to the Canadian Government Merchant Marine.  Randell had been in Montreal previously (just prior to his marriage) as chief officer the Elder Dempster steamer Montauk.  He relinquished command of the Canadian Miller in January 1921 and took over the Canadian Fisher at Halifax but made only one voyage before going into business "as a ship-broker and marine commission man"  and being elected a Director of the Anglo- Newfoundland Mining Corporation which had a gypsum mine in Newfoundland.  Randell admitted to his lack of business acumen: "As a mining director I was a good sea-captain."  Perhaps this led to his venture into the rum running business with Halifax and New York associates in the spring of 1922.⁸

     His first forays into the trade were plagued by inclement weather and untrustworthy associates.  His schooner Madeline D. was ice-bound at North Sydney by the "earliest and hardest winter in Nova Scotia history” and in the summer of 1923 his attempt to salvage a sunken schooner with a valuable cargo of whiskey in Chesapeake Bay was foiled by weather.  He then lost his share in Madeline D. allegedly through financial double-dealing by his New York partner.  Subsequently he chartered the steamship Dieuze at New York on behalf of an American liquor-running syndicate and was hired as captain at $500 per month plus a $5,000 bonus to deliver 1,600 cases of liquor from St. John's to Rum Row.  Late in December 1926, after arranging its purchase for another run-running syndicate at New York, he assumed command of his old schooner Madeline D. until it was sold at Nassau in 1927 and he returned to more legitimate and familiar enterprise.⁹

     He assumed command of the Canadian government chartered St. Ann for an expedition commanded by the arctic explorer Capt J.E. Bernier, whose purpose was to transport dredges and stores for the construction of a harbour at Fort Churchill.  In July 1928 he sailed from Halifax as captain of the Morso owned by the Lindsley group of Canada on an expedition to stake out mining claims in the northwest territory between the northwest side of Hudson Bay and Great Slave Lake.¹⁰

     After returning home from the Morso expedition, Randell was persuaded by "the representative of some Montreal business men" to take command of the schooner I'm Alone engaged in "the liquor trade with the United States."  He sailed from Halifax for St. Pierre, Miquelon November 4, 1928.  I'm Alone was sunk in the Gulf of Mexico by gunfire from the United States Coast Guard March 22, 1929; its captain and crew were jailed in New Orleans.  The case against them was dismissed quickly but it took six years of diplomatic and legal wrangling before the United States paid reparation to the Canadian government and compensation to Randell and his crew.¹¹

     Randell's whereabouts and adventures between the sinking of I'm Alone and the outbreak of World War II are obscure.  He returned home to Liverpool, Nova Scotia before moving with his family to Toronto in the 1930s.  He took a series of jobs, including command of a large motorboat on Great Bear Lake in 1932, before returning once again to Nova Scotia.  His son Edwin, who told me he did not see much of his father when he was growing up because he was away from home most of the time, claimed they lived in North Bay in the 1930s before moving to Toronto.  Although Edwin and his older brother Jack both attended Liverpool Academy, Edwin can't remember much about Liverpool, but did recall two of his father's schooners Morso and Cote Nord being alongside there.¹²

     Captain Jack changed addresses in Liverpool frequently. Three senior residents, one a nephew of Captain Fred Inness and a friend of young Jack, remember Captain Jack's three-masted schooner, possibly owned by Captain Fred Inness, being tied up at Roger Inness's wharf, since filled in, located near the present Canadian Legion.  One, who lived across from the Randell family on Main Street for two or three years in the 1930s, asserted that the captain himself lived aboard; another claimed the whole family lived aboard.  None of them could recall the name of the schooner but one remembered that the Captain wore wooden clogs "like a Dutchman" aboard his vessel and allowed the local boys to dive from his schooner to swim in the river.¹³

     Except for the publishing of his autobiography in 1930, and two authors' statements that he commanded a large motorboat on Great Bear Lake in 1932, the only clue to Randell's movements during the 1930s is contained in a letter he wrote April 2, 1939 offering his services to Britain in the event of war.  Here, he claimed that for each of the last few summers he had travelled hundreds of miles by canoe in the Canadian North, frequently carrying heavy packs over rough portages.  He submitted this as evidence that, despite his sixty-two years, he was as fit for service as any man of forty-five.¹⁴  Less than two and one-half years later, his elderly body would betray his youthful spirit.

     He was called up and enlisted in the Royal Navy (R.N.) at Toronto August 26, 1939 for duty as Naval Control Service Officer (N.C.S.O.), responsible for controlling merchant shipping at St. John's, Newfoundland and was loaned to the Royal Canadian Navy (R.C.N.) when it assumed command of naval operations including the Naval Control Service in Newfoundland June 1, 1941.  Until then, when the Newfoundland Escort Force (N.E.F.) was formed under the command of Commodore L.W. Murray, R.C.N., naval control of shipping at St. John's had been exercised by R.N. personnel attached to the Commander in Chief, America and West Indies Station (C. in C., A. and W.I.).¹⁵

     By October 1941, Randell was "no longer considered entirely suitable" as N.C.S.O. due to its "increased importance."  His superior officer lacked the time to "supervise" his work.  When asked if Randell could be "usefully employed" elsewhere, the R.N. requested he be sent to Bermuda when relieved.  But before he could be relieved Randell suffered a stroke and was placed on the dangerously ill list.  It was considered "most improbable" that he would ever be fit for service again.¹⁶

     From Commodore Murray's opinion of and concern for Randell after his stroke, one can safely infer that his unsuitability as N.C.S.O. was due to ill health, not incompetence:

 

When this marvellous old gentleman recovers sufficiently to want to get back to work we shall have to arrange a medical board that will recommend sick leave, (month by month until the cold weather is over) followed by a recommendation that he be allowed to retire from active duty¹⁷

Murray emphasized Randell's "exceptionally hard and responsible work" carrying out "his most onerous duties" which prevented him from taking leave.¹⁸

     Randell's physical condition, aggravated by long hours without relief and advancing senility, began to deteriorate within months after he assumed his duties of N.C.S.O.  Since the day war was declared he didn't have one afternoon or evening off, working as late as midnight some nights.  One night in December 1939, after midnight on his way home in a snowstorm, he slipped on the ice in front of the Newfoundland Hotel, where Naval Headquarters was located, and fractured his right ankle.  He was hospitalised but returned to work on crutches.  Late in October 1940 he came down with the flu but carried on until he was admitted to the hospital where he was confined for ten days that December with pneumonia and pleurisy.  In September 1941 he experienced facial paralysis, temporarily lost sight in one eye and almost fainted which he attributed to problems with accustoming himself to a new set of dentures.  He asked for leave but was persuaded by Commodore (later Admiral) Murray to carry on because there was no one competent to relieve him.  Murray promised to obtain a relief so that he could take leave when the port of Montreal or Quebec closed up around the end of November.  But by that time it was too late.  On November 15, 1941 he was rendered unconscious by a stroke.  He regained consciousness and was much improved by November 17^th, but on November 20^th he contracted pneumonia, which in turn was complicated by arteriosclerosis (hardening of the arteries).  Both stroke and arteriosclerosis were deemed to have been caused by senile changes.  He had recovered sufficiently by November 30^th be removed from the seriously ill list but was "still under treatment" at Christmas time when a "prolonged period of convalescence" was deemed necessary and a medical report suggested that he "may not be fit for further naval service."  He was not discharged from the hospital until February 5, 1942.¹⁹

     He was deemed unfit for further naval service.  A Board of Inquiry was convened at the Royal Canadian Naval Hospital, St. John's, February 27, 1942 to determine if his disability was attributable to or aggravated by his naval service.  It found that his disability was not attributable to but was aggravated by his naval service.  He was invalided medically unfit for general service and discharged June 9, 1942.²⁰

     Thereafter he and his wife Gertrude continued their wandering ways.  Gertrude was living in Port Rexton in June 1941 but had moved to St. John's by July.  After being released from the hospital in February 1942, Randell's plans were to leave St. John's at the end of April for North Bay, Ontario stopping at Montreal and Toronto enroute.  But later that month, he informed Admiral Murray that he would be remaining in St. John's "for the next few weeks" before moving to Port Rexton where he and his wife were living when he was discharged in June 1942.  Transportation for Gertrude from Sydney, Nova Scotia to Toronto at public expense was requested that September.²¹

     On February 19, 1944, two years and two weeks after his release from hospital following his stroke, Lieutenant Commander John Thomas Randell died in Camp Hill Hospital in Halifax.  He was buried with full naval honours in Liverpool, Nova Scotia.  His widow Gertrude, once again living in Liverpool, Nova Scotia, inquired October 1, 1945 if she was entitled to receive any war gratuity for her late husband's service.  A cheque in the amount of ninety dollars was issued to her at her Liverpool address the following February.  She died in Spain and was buried in Alicante with her daughter-in-law.²²