AN OLD SHIPMASTER. THE LATE CAPT. MCKENZlE. AN EVENTFUL CAREER.

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 430, 21 December 1889, Page 5

AN OLD SHIPMASTER. THE LATE CAPT. MCKENZIE. AN EVENTFUL CAREER.

In" our yesterday's issue a brief reference was made to the death, at the age of sixty-four, of Captain Kenneth McKenzie, a rery well-known old Auckland shipmaster. Captain McKenzie died at Melbourne on Sunday last, partly from the effects of in juries received in an accident which he sustained on board the brigantine Anthons a little while back. Captain McKenzie was a native of Nova Scotia, and was in his timea pretty "canny" specimen of a descendant ot old Caledonia. During his life he had taken part in some rather exciting incidents in his seafaring career amongst the South Sea Islands. He came to the colony over thirty years ago with the Nova Scotia settlers who emigrated to Waipu and its vicinity. Captain McKenzie had been master of various vessels in New Zealand for over thirty years, and had for three or four years been employed in a similar capacity in the Old Country before he camo out here. For a long time the deceased mariner was engaged in trading to the South Sea Islands in various schooners, and in the Island labour traffic, and during this portion of his seafaring life ho had more than one narrow escape from massacre at the hands of treacherous natives in the Western Pacific.

A TERRIBLE EXPERIENCE. Long previous to the wreck of the brigautine Borealis, which was his last command, the old skipper had his share of misfortune with that vessel. A good naany years ago, in the " 3eventi6s," he had her down from Auckland on a labour collecting and trading cruise in the Western Pacific, and while away had his son and most of his crew killed and oaten by the natives, while he narrowly escaped sharing their fate He was lying at one of the islands in the Solomon Group, after having cruised through the rest of the islands in that archipelago. One evening, at dusk,horeturnedinhiswhaleboafcfromatrip on shore some distance down the bay trading with the natives. As he neared the brigantine lying at anchor he and his boat's crew, consisting of a man and a boy (his son (Jeorge) hailed her. No answer was leturned, and the skipper wondered much at the unusual stillness. The mystery was explained when he clambered on deck, for a terrible scene presented itself. The deck was covered with pools of blood, a human limb or two lay where they had been chopped off by tomahawks, and the great hacks in the woodwork on deck and below in the little cabin showed the nature of the deadly struggle that had taken place. It was only too evident that an armed party of natives from the shore had treacherously boarded the vessel and murdered every one of the crew except those who happened fortunately to be away with the skipper in the boat. The men had evidently sold their lives t'early. The captain's second son, young JMcKenzie, a mere boy, was one of those killed, and his body and the others were taken ashore by the savages and eaten. The captain and 1113 other son had happily escaped the massacre. Captain McKenzie after a terrible passage, bhorthanSed as he was, managed to get the Borealis back into Auckland again. When he reached this port again the traces of human blood were plainly discernible on the ship's galley. Captain McKenzie was an old Island trading shipmaster, and had made many South Sea cruises. In 1876 ho took the Auckland schooner Saxon away on a trading cruise to the New Hebrides, Solomon Group, New Ireland, New Britain, and New Guinea, and returned in a year, after an adventurous and perilous trip.

THE BOREALIS WRECK. During the latter paitof his seafaring career, Captain McKenzie owned and sailed the brigantine Borealis, and on his trips generally took his eldest daughter with him. This lady was almost as competent a navigator as her father, and in fact invariably acted as his right-hand "man" on board ship. His last voyage was made towards the end of lastyear. He was bound in the Borealis down the Australian coast from Cairns (Queensland) to Melbourne with a grain cargo when the vesssol struck on a coral reef and became a total wreck. The skipper and hi 3 daughter both very nearly lost their lives, but eventually safely reached Townsville with the crew. From Townsvillo Captain McKenzie came on to Auckland. A short while back he aoquired a share in the brigantine Anthons, and while in her he meb with an accident which appears to have partly caused hie death. Captain McKenzio leaves a widow, two daughters, and one son, George, who is now master of the Auckland barque Presto, which is at present in port here. "Auckland Star."