You are here: Home » Captain John Murray

Captain John Murray

The Scot John Murray, son of Alexander Murray Sr. and brother of Alexander Murray Jr., also called Nakungajuq (Cross-Eyes) by the Inuit, spent a large part of his childhood with his brother on ships under their father's command. John Murray was born in 1863 and sailed on several ships on the behalf of the Scottish company Robert Kinnes& Sons Ltd. of Dundee and the Hudson's Bay Company until 1932.

For a short time in the 1890s, the Murray brothers participated in the bowhead whale hunt, paid by the Hudson's Bay Company to command the Perseverance (Eber 1989: 95). Between 1899 and 1903, still with the assistance of his brother, who was in command of the Active, John Murray founded and directed the Kinnes' whaling station on Southampton Island. After that station closed, the Kinnes [Company] sent John Murray, in command of the Ernest William, to Repulse Bay/Naujaat, where the ship was used as a floating whaling station. John Murray spent several years commanding the Ernest William around Repulse Bay, and he also went to Lyon Inlet (winter of 1906-07) and Wager Bay (winter of 1909-10). In 1912, when his brother lost his life tragically in the Ottawa Islands, John Murray was in command of the Albert. We also know that he lost a leg during an expedition in 1919. He ended his navigating career in 1930 at the helm of the Nascopie, a Hudson's Bay Company supply ship.

John Murray worked in close collaboration with the local population. For several years, his right hand was Angutimmarik (Scotch Tom). John Murray was also recognized as a rival of the American captain George Comer.