RELIEF SHIP AURORA.

Auckland Star, Volume XLVII, Issue 239, 6 October 1916, Page 8

RELIEF SHIP AURORA.

CHANGE OF COMMAND. PROTEST BY OFFICERS. (By Telegraph.—Press Association.) DUNEDES", Thursday. The committees appointed in connec-j ti<ra witTi the Aurora relief expedition. after careful consideration of the matter of the command of the expedition, considered that the most experienced man should be selected. They considered that with Captain Davis in command and lieut. Stenhouse as chief officer the chances of success would be enhanced. The committees all agreed, with their •respective Governments, to offer the position of commander of the Ross Sea Belief expedition, and of the Aurora to Captain Davis. The Australian Transport Servicer Department having arranged to relieve him, he has accepted the appointment.

Captain Davis, was, during Sir Ernest j Shaekleton'a expedition of I!K>7 to 1910. chief officer of the Ximrod and was afterwards promoted to' captain of the j vessel. He made trips to Ross Sea. He ! also commanded the Aurora during Sir. Douglas Mawson's expedition, and conspicuous and meritorious work on these occasions won for him the special award of the Royal Geographical Society. He also wears a medal from the British Government. When at New York, where he was in command of the transport Boonah, Captain Davis received a cablegram from the Admiralty appointing him to the relief ship Discovery audi command of the Elephant Island expo-' dition, -with orders to report without delay at the Admiralty, London. This! appointment -was cancelled before he could leave New York, as Sir Ernest Shackleton obtained another vessel with which he expected to effect the rescue. In a letter to the Mayor of Dunedm, Messrs. Hook, 'Donnelly, and Thomson,' the three remaining officers on the Aurora, express appreciation of the ser-, vices Captain Steuhouse rendered to the expedition, and protest against the action taken in superseding his command. They state that a sense of loyalty to Captain Stenhouse and the marooned party kept them from participating in the European war, but they reluctantly feel bound to withdraw their services from the relief of their comrades in distress and leave it to 6<rangers if the authorities insist upon superseding the present comman-, der. They also take exception to the alleged discourteous manner in which the* alteration was conveyed to the cap-| tain, whom they know to be a worthy leader in danger and difficulty, after ten months' hardship in the. Antarctic.