SEAMAN AND SAVAGE CHIEF.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LI, Issue 240, 3 October 1908, Page 6

SEAMAN AND SAVAGE CHIEF.

A " CAPTAIN KETTLE" OF HEAL LIFE DIES AT JUS WOKK. Liverpool, August 12. A slight little man with spectacles mul a student's stoop—who sailed ships in tliu world's wildest seas for fiftyeight .years, ami dwelt fondly on his experience as a savage chief—lias died at Gibraltar. The news of his death was received yesterday at Liverpool. He was Captain .lames Bell, manager of the Liverpool Sleam Tug Company, and his work iiir the company and on his own account brought him into far more adventures than are contained in tin: most sensational sea-faring stories. Captain liell was twelve years old when he began his adventures, lie started life iu a Whitehaven brig, aud I at tuenly lie commanded his' ship. K,jr | years he traded among the remote islands of the l'acilic, making and losing | fortunes. Then he turned to West Africa—nearly forty years ago. The natives along the coast are fairly fierce and wild, liut tliey found a master in Captain Bell, lie got another -promotion for a tribe near Benin made liim their chief.

He reigned in tropical splendour, sf"ing few white men, until British ships made their appearance nil the Xigel'. Then the sea life claimed him again, and he became a pilot. One of his most notalile engagements in that capacity was to take (lie Cermuii warship* un the Forcados river, when, they captured the Cameroons. Twenty years ago he came back to England and was appointed manager of the Liverpool Steam Tug Company, the largest undertaking or its kind in the world. lie towed the Etvuria from the Azores when she liroke down, six years ago, and lie was in charge, of the towing of the Sucvic's bow from Belfast to Southampton last year. Learned societies welcomed him as a member, and he accumulated many letters after his name. lie was particularly esteemed by the Liverpool Chamber of Commerce, because of his intimate knowledge of the African hinterlands. His last moments he spent at work. Bo died suddenly, while on his way to Frame with a large floating ■ dock, the towing of which he was supervising. There is great sorrow in Liverpool, not only among those who liave worked ivitli or under Captain Bell, lint ' among those also who were privileged ■ to li«ar this Captain Kettle of real >ifo 1 1 tell the stories of his travels and ad- • ventures.