Captain Henry Parsell

RMS Adriatic and RMS Majestic, White Star Line

 

Captain Parsell of the Adriatic is unlike all the other Messrs. Ismay and Imrie's fleet commanders. He has a distinct personality, which makes one glad to know and likely to remember him. His age is not as easy to guess as most men's because when he smiles — as he frequently does — his face is as frank and merry as a schoolboy's. Still, when he fell into a trance and talked of his wanderings on icy seas many years ago, you can't help thinking that this young-looking man must be almost a patriarch.

Nothing will better indicate the man than by saying he enjoys the esteem of everybody who has ever met him and possesses the entire confidence of the company. So strong, indeed, is he in the confidence and good graces of the line that he has always been the pioneer officer in any new development of the White Star service.

There is not a sea on the planet he has not navigated. He has sailed upon the Arctic and the Antarctic and all the significant streams that flow between the two. He is an intelligent man and of such genial a type that he never gets out of patience with a passenger, even if he is stormed with an arsenal of such landsmen's questions as would drive many a mariner to distraction.

 

Captain Henry Parsell of the Majestic. The Great Atlantic Liners, May 1895.

Captain Henry Parsell of the Majestic. The Great Atlantic Liners, May 1895. GGA Image ID # 12e6865d77

 

The RMS Majestic Beats the Teutonic Fifty-Seven Minutes. New York, 5 August 1891.—The White Star Line steamer RMS Majestic, which left Liverpool on July 20th, arrived here this morning, thus breaking the record from Queenstown to New York.

She was signaled off Fire Island at 2:05. Her time is five days, eighteen hours, and eight minutes. She beat the record by fifty-seven minutes. Before the performance of the Majestic, the White Star steamship RMS Teutonic held the record. It was five days, nineteen hours, and five minutes.

Captain Parsell of the RMS Majestic and several hundred saloon passengers were enthusiastic when they learned this morning that they had journeyed across the Atlantic in such a short time. In addition to this rapid voyage, it was an exceedingly pleasant one, the weather being generally fair.

According to the ship's log, the days' runs were made as follows: First day, July 31st, 470 miles; second day, 601; third, 497; fourth, 501; fifth, 491. The RMS Majestic reached quarantine at 4:50 and was at her dock at ten minutes past seven.

 

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