AFTER 40 YEARS

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 516, 20 November 1928, Page 1

AFTER 40 YEARS

RETIRED CAPTAIN’S VISIT MEMORIES OF THE WAR When he last visited Auckland, Captain J. Sim, late of the Adelaide Steamship Company, arrived in the 900-ton barque Snapshooter, which had journeyed from Fiji loaded with sugar. That was 40 years ago, and, as he leaned on the rail of the Port Wellington and gazed at the outskirts of the city this morning, he observed truthfully that “the place had changed.” Captain Sim, who is one of the bestknown skippers of Australian waters, arrived from London to-day after a trip to the Old World that has kept him north of the Equator for the past two years. He will continue on to Wellington on the Port Wellington, afterwards returning to Australia. His last command was the Merriwa, which traded in Australian coastal waters. During the war he was master of the Warilda, a hospital ship that was sunk by a torpedo in the Channel on August 2, 1918. Of the 801 people on board, 123 lost their lives. Captain Sim left the ship a few minutes before she sank.

Captain Sim was with the Adelaide company for 35 years, and retired a few years ago, after taking the Wandilla to America, where she was sold. During his stay at Home he noticed that shipbuilding was going ahead rapidly, and that a modern motor-ship was being built at Glasgow for the Adelaide Company. The vessel is of 9,000 tons, and will be used in the Australian coastal trade.