From a host of able and experienced navigators, who would have counted it an honour to have assumed the command, Messrs. Wigram selected John Bohun Martin to be Captain of the _Suffolk_, and never did owners make a better choice. Many are still living who crossed the seas with him during those days of well-nigh angry competition, and who will recall with pleasure his practised skill, his genial, open disposition, his gentlemanly bearing, and his studious care for the comfort of his passengers in all the little details which have so much to do with the making or marring of the pleasure of a long voyage. He was one of the kindliest and most simple-hearted of men, pleased with very simple things, delighting in riddles in which a very child would have seen no mystery, and with all a sailor’s superstition about him; fond of cats, and a great partiality for absolutely doing nothing at all when he was not on board. With his attached relatives in Highbury Park he would always spend his time when ashore, and go about with them here and there; but he was perhaps never happier than when he could throw himself back in the large easy chair, and read the advertisements of the _Times_ and the advertisement especially of his own ship. Not tall, and not short, and every inch the gentleman; with a fresh-coloured face, light hair and blue eyes, and ambling motion, as if in any place he wanted sea-room and must have it; with a fine cheery voice, and a laugh of sterling quality; with a woman’s heart of tenderness within the strength that seemed equal to any danger--as such, John Bohun Martin will long be remembered. One who knew him well, and who could not speak of his loss without deep emotion, told the writer of many little acts of attention, which, although too trivial to appear in print, are not without importance when measured by the comfort they imparted, and by the void which their absence would have created. His heart was truly in his profession, and he had all the genuine sailor’s enthusiasm, and, we might almost say, affection, for his ship, of whose equipments, beauty, and good qualities he spoke with glowing pride. As he was never married, some used laughingly to say that the Captain had no bride but his ship; and certainly he had reason to be proud of the _Suffolk_ during the eight years she was under his command.