Joseph (two photos) and William Trayler
John Trayler has got in touch to ask whether Intheboatshed readers might be able to shed some more light on the careers of two of his forebears, both of whom were yacht captains based in Wivenhoe in the 1880 to 1910 era, or direct him to a source of more information.
Their were his great grandfather Joseph Trayler (1860-1915) and great uncle William Trayler (1855-1910).
John has learned that William was captain of the Varuna, which was wrecked on Madeira in 1909, and also captained the Star of the Sea, which was owned by the Duke of Norfolk. He’s also been informed that he captained the Cleopatra (ships register 99242) in 1894 and La Belle Sauvage (ships register 10903) in 1895.
A newspaper report of the funeral of Joseph Trayler mentions five boats are mentioned: Elsie, Spindrift, Dinitza, Bulrush and Marcella. A search of Lloyds Yachting Register did not reveal any information.
Are there records at Wivenhoe or elsewhere that John could access please? Let me know at gmatkin@gmail.com and I’ll forward the information to John.
Captain William Trayler was my 2nd Great Grandfather. He was presented in 1900 by G Kennedy with a walking stick. The assumption is that he captained a boat owned by the Kennedy family, but I can find no reference to the name of this boat/yacht. I have the actual walking stick and a photograph of this including the engraving.