Well-known Sea Captain Passes

Manawatu Times, Volume 62, Issue 41, 18 February 1937, Page 9

Well-known Sea Captain Passes

CAPTAIN WILLIAM STRACHAN Having spent much of his life in sailing ships and in the-smaller steamships that are now almost as much in the past as tho windjammers they succeeded, Captain William Strachan, aged 84, who spent the past eight years j of his life in retirement in Palmerston North, passed away last week. Born in Aberdeen, Scotland, Captain Strachan went to sea at an early age j and visited most of the world’s ports in ' sail. He traded under canvas to all points of the compass and was in Japan ; when the steam locomotive was first introduced to the islands of Nippon. In i spite of the hardships attending life in I a windjammer, he studied navigation and at a comparitively young age obtained his master’s certificate. He was i chief officer in the clipper ship Samuel Plimsoll from the time of her launching j until nine years of her career had j elapsed. Of his first voyage as a cabin boy of 15 from London to Melbourne, which started in f 869, Captain Strachan often said before his death that had he been able to get off the ship he would have walked back to his birthplace, Aberdeen.. There was no walking off and 'he became a searfarer for a lifetime, rising from the humblest job to that of master. He left behind him a bound book of the certificates of discharge he received from ships he served in—all records of his ability in every station in which he served at sea.

Captain Strachan first signed on the sailing ship “Wave of Life” in 1869, and was at sea during the great equinoctial gales when 150 ships wero lost. This ship was of 779 tons, and his certificate of discharge from her is dated April 7, 1871. He was a grandson of Captain Jeans who sailed the first smack between Aberdeen and London. Then he went on to a 1452-ton-ner, the Mitfciades, in the China tea trade and then to tho Wimmera, 1008 tons. He sailed to India in 1880, having become second mate. In 1882 he was with the Aberdeen Line ship, Orontes, as second mate, next the Theophane, then the Camerata, a steamship. As chief officer of the Nelson, Captain Strachan first came to New Zealand, to Dunedin, in 1903. Next he was in the West York, an intercolonial ship. He served for some time in New Zealand waters, and was in the WellingtonGreymouth trade in the s.a. Paeora, Petone and the Ngahere, which was wrecked at Greymouth. He served 40 yearß at sea and then for two years was assistant pilot at Greymouth. For 17 years afterward, until ,he retired in 1928, he was in charge of the signal station and was chief pilot there. Of Greymouth alone, the ships that left their bones on the rugged West Coast, Captain Strachan could narrate many stories, but his association with the sea extended far beyonc that. As a member of the crew of the AberdeenWhite Star clipper ship Miltidaes during tho Franco-Prussian War ho experienced stirring adventures. Captain Strachan could tell of incidents connected with the South, American Revolution, and his recollections included also grim stories of yellow fever in tropic seas.

His foreign-going master’s certificate, issued by the Lords of the Committee of the Privy Council for Trade, is dated 1898, although he passed his examination some years before that. After retiring he lived at Palmerston North at the home of his niece, Mrs O. Howland, 225 Church street. He had had an adventurous life but spoke so little of his career that none but close friends knew of it. His wife died at Greymouth in 1928, and he left no family. Mrs Howland, Mrs S. Fry, Christchurch, and Mrs Edith Uddstrom, Gerymoutb, are nieces. He had a niece in Scotland and a cousin in Geelong.