A VETERAN ENGINEER.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 308, 21 May 1913, Page 8

A VETERAN ENGINEER.

EARLY VOYAGES ON THE COAST. MR. McGILL'S EXPERIENCES. Wellington, May 16. After nearly forty years' service, Mr. Robert McGill, who was the oldest engineer in the Union Company's service, has left the engine-room for good, and is now on his way back t6 his native heath. He has gone to settle in Scotland, which he left some thirty-seven years ago in the Union Company's Wanaka, which, with the Taupo and Hawea, made an eighteen-day cruise from Dunedin to Auckland and back, via ports. The Wanaka was a vessel about the same size as the Penguin. Mr. McGill, in the-course of an interview with the Wellington Post, describ-, ed .how the Wanaka came out by way of St. Vincent and the Cape of Good Hope, picking up a cargo of timber at Hobart for New Zealand. The vessel was built on the Clyde, and he engines were what are known by engineers as "a compound job." She made the first Sounds excursion that the Union Company ever ran. , NO STOKEHOLD TROUBLES.

"Those who came out in the Wanaka" said Mr. McGill, "are all dead but the cook and myself. We had no trouble with firemen in those days. They were recruited from the seamen, and were clean, handy, steady men, and worth the £l2 a month they got then. "Ah, man! there's a lot I could tell you if I could remember it," Mr. McGill went on. "But it does not pour out of a man, so to speak. Now, did you know that my grandfather was the first man to build an iron ship? Well, that is so. He called her the Vulcan, and his name was Thomas Wilson. My, didn% the old women of the place make a to-do about it! They couldn't for the life of them understand how iron would float, and my grandfather was thought to be a madman, if a harmless one. He said: TTou doubt if the boat will float, women. Very well, bring down your men's tea-flasks and try them.' So thev brought to the water all their pots and pans, and proved my grandfather right for themselves. It must have been a funny sight to see those old women paddling about in the water with pots and pans afloat, but they did that. FIRST IRON SHIPS.

"But, between ourselves, my grandfather was a bit uncertain himself, for he would not floats the vessel with the angle-iron and frames in, He just launched the mere shell of her first. She was really a beautiful model, and if you mind the Jane Douglas, then the Vulcan was like her. She was used on the Forth and Clyde Canal, and was towed by horses. "Well, if you want more about ships why it was my father who built the first wooden brig to trade between Scotland and Canada, and she took out a large number of emigrants. Fancy that, now —some 200 people stowed awav below in a small brig. Also, she carried out a cargo of eight-day clocks. "Now, as for New Zealand-well. I liave had some bad, very bad, weather on this const, but the years went by | quickly enough. As for the company. it treated me very well, I think 't received a cheque for £IOO as a mark ot appreciation of long service I thought the time had eomo when T should leave the sea, so I sent in my papers." ' This is the plain tale of a plain man a tvpical chief engineer of the old school tlie compound job."