The Cayman Islands National Museum recently received a historic sextant, almanac and a spyglass belonging to the late Captain Samuel Lorraine Henning, a legendary Caymanian seafarer.
According to a press release issued by the National Museum, “Captain Samuel Lorraine Henning, born in 1889, embarked on his seafaring career around 1903, a journey that spanned over five decades. His career began on schooners built by his father, Samuel Hooper Henning, and grandfather, John Hooper Henning.”
Loxley Banks, the former director of Radio Cayman and himself a noted local historian, is the grandson of Captain Henning. He showed the Compass an old photograph of the family’s schooner ‘E. A. Henning’, which was built in 1884, on land near Mary Mollie Hydes Road and Powell Smith Road in West Bay.
The Henning family can trace back their history in the Cayman Islands to John Hooper Henning’s arrival in the early 18th century.
The release goes on to say that “Captain Henning’s career on the sea included commanding various Caymanian schooners and other vessels, including The Flight, a luxury yacht owned by the Lambert Pharmaceutical Company.” The Lambert family made a vast fortune selling the mouthwash product Listerine.
Henning’s remarkable story includes being jailed in Cuba for six months after a commercial voyage aboard the schooner Dread Knot.
The sextant, believed to be over 150 years old and British built, was passed down through generations of the Henning family. Along with the spyglass, it was preserved in California for approximately 50 years before recently being returned to the Cayman Islands for the historic donation to the museum.
Sextants are hand-held nautical navigational equipment used to determine the angle between the horizon and a celestial body like the sun, moon, or a star.
The Henning family’s contributions to the Cayman Islands are also reflected in Henning Beach, a prominent West Bay landmark at the northern end of Seven Mile Beach.
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