VETERAN MARINER

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 733, 5 August 1929, Page 11

VETERAN MARINER

DEATH OF CAPTAIN WING EARLY SHIPPING VENTURE With the death of Captain Edward Wing at his residence, *52 Quadrant i Road, Ouehunga. on Saturday, New j Zealand shipping circles have lost an j old and respected leader, and the Do- * minion has lost one of its oldest iden- | tities. Born on February 13, 1542. at Russell. Bay of Islands, Captain Wing has been connected with the sea practically ever since. At the*time of his , birth his father, Captain Thomas ! Wing, was in charge of the schooner ■ Deborah, the vessel which carried the 1 early surveyors down to Otago in -ES44. The Deborah called in at Russell and Mrs. Wing, the late captain’s mother, went ashore for a fortnight and Captain Edward Wing was born there. His.mother went aboard the ship again and she and her baby lived on the vessel for many years afterward, so that the late Captain Wing was practically brought up on the ocean. He was educated at Wesley College, Upper Queen Street, Auckland, where he was a schoolmate of | the father of Mr. M. H. Wynyard, of ! Onehunga, who is now chairman of , the Auckland Harbour Board. Thomas Wing, the late captain’s father, later come to Onehunga, where he was harbourmaster for 30 years. The late Captain Wing was signalman at the Manukau Heads when the H.M.S. Orpheus was wrecked. He was then 20 years of age. Following the wreck there was a nautical inquiry, but the late Captain Wing was exonerated of all blame. It was proved that the commander of the Orpheus ignored the signals and took the southern entrance into the Manukau instead of the northern entrance, as directed by the signalman, and thereby went on a mudbank. Captain Wing afterward went to sea and spent a number of years sailing in different parts of the world. At one time lie was third officer under the celebrated Captain McLean, known to the old New Zealand colonists as “HellFire Jack.’’ Captain Wing was in the Deborah, Daniel Webster, lliomana. Zilla, Aldringa, Black Swan, and was in charge of several paddle boats running between Melbourne and Geelong. He came across to Dunedin and was in charge of some of the earliest steamers on the coast of New Zealand. These steamers later formed tlie nucleus of the present fleet of the Union Steam Ship Company. They were the Bruce, Star of the South. Beautiful Star, Maori and Kennedy. Captain Wing then became manager for Rowley, Mason and Co., who .were ! the owners of the boats and the fore- ! runners of the present U.S.S. Co. James ! Mills, afterward Sir Janies Mills, was in their employ. In ISCS-GG, Captain Wing was the owner of the steamer Halcyon and made many trips between Auckland, Onehunga and tlie West Coast of tlie South Island, which was then in the heyday of the gold rush. He was later appointed manager of the Lake Wakatipu Steamship Company on the Cold Lakes of the South Island, an 3 was with that firm for 20 years before retiring and settling down in Onehunga.