OBITUARY.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1637, 2 January 1913, Page 5

OBITUARY.

WELL-KNOWN MASTER MARINER. ~' (By. Telegraph-Press Association!) .. Dunedin, January J. . Captahi John Watson, one of the; oldest almost highly respected citizens of Port Chalmers, died on Tuesday afternoon. Deceased was born in Scotland in 1834, and m 1848 went as apprentice in the barque To Victory to the Arctic regions. He got his mate's certificate in 1854, and made 12 voyages in that capacity in tho Arotic. Ho was master of the Imquo Perseverance in, 1856, and was appointed.ico master of the Dolphin (216 tens, 4'guns), in the Same year, in a search for minerals in Greenland., Later he want on a further expedition in Arotic whaling, and was twice wrecked, once, returning in.an open boat till picked up by the Emma, also fast in tho ice, and taken to England four months later, and once living many months with Eskimos,! Afterwards, ho entered tho Australian 'serrico,' and commanded several sailing vessels to Australian ports.' Ho came t<> Now Zealand during tho Maori war, and commanded the barque Collingjvood, whioh was eont to tjia Chatham Islands two weeks after tho escape of To Kooti: He brought back 160 Maoris and landed them in Taronaki. A few years later ho entered the pilot service, at Taiaroa Heads (Otago Harbour), and for 18 .years was secretory- of the Otago Dock Trust. ; . Ho then -retired, and 1 two years ago revisited England.