TWO COMMODORES

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 82, 31 December 1934, Page 8

TWO COMMODORES

Old Shipmates in the Oronsay WARTIME SERVICES Apart from seafaring men, few people noticed on Saturday that the Orient liner Oronsay was Hying the house-flag of the Orient Steam Navigation Company in the form of a commodore’s broad pennant. Fewer were aware that Commodore Charles G. Matheson, D. 5.0., R.D., R.N.R., commander of the Oronsay, was a commodore in a double sense.' Not only is he commodore of the Orient Line fleet, but he also holds that rank on the retired list of the Royal Naval Reserve. Travelling as a passenger in the Oronsay, too, is Captain 11. Staunton, C.8.E., R.D., R.N.R., formerly the senior commander in the Orient Line, now retired, who was succeeded two years ago as commodore of the fleet by Commodore Matheson. The latter has been in the service of the Orient Line for over 33 years, during which he has served in practically all of the company’s ships. Early in his seagoing career he joined the Royal Naval Reserve, and when the Great War started he was called up for active service. For some time he served in destroyers, and subsequently in command of a “mystery ship,” Q-19, in which he gained the D.S.O. In action with an enemy submarine. Commodore Matheson’s Career. Commodore Matheson returned to the Orient Line at the end of 1918 and commanded successively the Orontes, Orvieto, and Orsova, and later ships of the company. With the rank of captain he retired from the Royal Naval Reserve on December 31, 1925. Three years ago he was an A.D.C. to the King and attended his Majesty at the opening of a new dock on the Clyde. Subsequently he was appointed a member of the advisory committee of the Royal Naval Reserve at the Admiralty. In 1932, he was promoted commodore on the retired list of the R.N.R., and in the same year was appointed commodore of the Orient Line fleet. Captain Staunton, who retired from the Orient Line service less than two years ago, first visited New Zealand in a sailing ship in 1891. He joined the Orient Line in 1896 as an officer in the Lusitania.' His first command was the Ophir in 1907. He was chief officer of that ship when she was taken over for the Royal cruise in 1901. Since then he has been master of the first Orontes, the Ormonde, Orama, and Otranto. Service During War. During the war Captain Staunton served as a Royal Navy Reserve officer in the Otway, an armed merchant cruiser 'of \the famous Tenth Cruiser Squadron. He was later in command of convoys. After the war he resumed service with the Orient Line, and was made commodore of the fleet in 1927. He retired from the company’s service at the end of 1932. In connection with the visit to Wellington of the commodore ofifhe Orient Line, it has been recalled that since the retirement of the late Captain Robert Neville, there has been no similar appointment in the fleet of the Union Steam Ship Company of New Zealand. Captain Neville first flew his commodore's flag.in the Maheno when he brought that ship out from the Clyde in 1905, and he retained it until his retirement.