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Captain Kendall
Henry George Kendall was the Commander of the ss Montrose when it sailed from Antwerp on the 20th of July 1910 with 20 Second Cabin; 246 Third Class passengers; and a crew of 107 on board - a total of 373 souls.
The Montrose was a single-screw Steamship capable of 13 knots per hour and, importantly, it was equipped with the innovative Marconi System of Ship-to-Shore radio.
Before embarkation, Kendall had seen the Wanted Posters offering a Reward of £250 issued for the capture of Crippen and Le Neve and, when he saw two of his passengers behaving more like lovers than the father and son that they claimed to be, his suspicions were aroused.
He kept a close eye on them and became increasingly sure that they were the two fugitives. He then asked his Marconi operator to telegraph his suspicions to his Head Office who duly passed them on to the Metropolitan Police.
Kendall gave two accounts of his role in capturing the fugitives and both are re-published here:
- A Witness Statement that he gave to Chief Inspector Dew on 4th August 1910 that may not have been published previously because it was not introduced into evidence at Crippen's Trial; and
- A more colourful account - Kendall's Story - that was published by The Daily Mail on 31st July 1910. This was re-published in 1920 by Filson Young in his important book.
Kendall duly collected the £250 Reward offered by the Police and, presumably, he also collected the £100 Reward that had been offered by The Daily Mail.