Smith, John [I]

Born deaf at Kirkwall in the Orkney Islands; attended Donaldson's Hospital School for the deaf in Edinburgh, although his brother James Smith, younger by 2 years and also born deaf, was for unknown reasons sent to a different and lesser school, the old and dingy Braidwood school in Henderson Row, Edinburgh. John apprenticed to a printer but hated the work, quitting and working for a time in an iron foundry. In 1871, he first went to sea as a coal-trimmer on a steamship, later being promoted to fireman (stoker), remaining that for 8 years until his death when his ship, the Bohemian, foundered in Donlough Bay, Ireland during a fierce gale. His body was lost at sea. He had been married to Hannah Webster only 7 months before.