DISASTER AVERTED

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 252, 16 June 1932, Page 7

DISASTER AVERTED

liner escapes collision with freighter by fifteen feet. captain's last hour on bridge. Captain S. G. S. McNeil, who a year ago retired from the cohimand : of the Mauretania, reveals in a voltime of memoirs, "In Great Waters," ; that during his last hour on the bridge the famous Cunardef naYrowly escaped being rammed by a foreign ship in Southampton Water. The Mauretania was half-way up the Channel when a French freighter started to head in towards her; "We were only 300 yards apart. . . He then blew three short blasts, meaning that he was going full speed astern, and our pilot at once ordered 'full astern'." ' Captain McNeil realised that this would not avert a eollision. He countermanded the order, and by swinging the Mauretania's stern away clear- i ed the freighter by a margin of 15 i feet. "I have been in a few1 dangerous ' positions when we might well have j sunk in deep water on the high seas. j But in my last hour of comiriand at sea, the possibility of having the Mauretania's beautiful side torn open by an ugly freighter's stem was a situation which eyen the choiciest adjectives of my sailing ship days could not cope with." It appears that the freighter stfuek the mud and canted over — which londs point to Captain McNeil's plea for the improvement of the appfoaches to Southampton. His hook is full of pungent comment, especially on the not alWays cordial relations between the Royal Navy and the Merchant Service dtiring the war, and of stoties of adventure in every kind of ship in evdry kind of weather. Captain McNeil explains the almost endless duties of the captain of a great Atlantic liner, ranging in his case from investjgations of alleged thefts to the knocking out of a burly, insane stoker. He gives a vivid account of the two voyages three years ago, in which the veteran Mauretania beat her own record, although for most of the tiine weather conditions were far from favourable, and adds: "If oil-fuel consumption were a matter of no moment, she would defy the weather sometimes and average 28 knots." Captain McNeil was trained in sail, and argues that modern methods of training Mercantile Marine officers are totally inadequate. "Foreign countries train their men in sail, and do not do it for the fun of the thing. . . Our supply of 100 per cent. seamen is failing; our whole existence depends on our Merchant Service. But the country with the greatest maritime history is appallingly igttorant of the past and present and careless of the future of the oldest branch of its sea service." This is a book which should be read' not only for its revelation of a racy personality but for its vigorous appeal to the nation to increase its knowledge of a service which in the past has been unjustly neglected, and is now facing strong competition from foreign rivals.