John Quinlan was born in England to Irish parents. When his father Richard, a sergeant major in the army retired in 1870 the family went with him to Cork,where John went to school. John went to sea aged sixteen about 1885. Over the next nine years he sailed to America, Canada, Egypt, Russia, as well as most of Northern Europe. He studied to become a master mariner and passed his final exams in 1894 to become a captain. He commanded cargo and passenger/cargo ships up to 1915, when he enlisted in the Atustralian Imperial Force in Melbourne, Australia. His enlistment papers just say he is a single mariner with no mention of his expertise.
John shipped out to Egypt in August 1915 and later landed in Gallipoli with the Anzacs in November. When the Anzacs left Gallipoli on 20 th December 1915 John was transferred to the Royal Naval Reserve as a sub- lieutenant and served on the trawlers guarding the fleet.
Apparently the Navy discovered his naval expertise from a letter written to the War Office by his sister enquiring about his where-abouts, in which she mentioned he was a captain in the Merchant Marine!
After the war he returned to Australia and continued to sail on merchant ships between there and both Europe and the United Ststes.
He died in Melbourne in 1924. The autopsy record says he was a widower but I have never found any record of his marriage