Captain Edward Taylor

Captain Taylor and his sons (AOT, PH30/1/7974)

Captain Edward Taylor (1846–22), the eldest of a prominent northern Tasmanian family of mariners. Born at East Arm on the Tamar River, he became master and later owner of small ketches and schooners trading around the Tasmanian coasts during the 1870s before expanding into the intercolonial trade in the 1880s. By the early 1900s he commanded and owned (in partnership with local timber merchants) a small fleet of large sailing vessels trading from southern Tasmania to mainland ports and New Zealand.

Seven of Taylor's nine brothers were also mariners, John (1848–1903), William (1854–1929) and James (1856–89) being owner-masters in the coastal trade, based variously at Launceston, Devonport and Penguin. Descendants also went to sea, William Baker Taylor (1881–1918) and Hedley William Taylor (1897–1925) being lost at sea.

Further reading: C Taylor, The brothers Taylor, Canberra, 1998.

Graeme Broxam