ONCE SHIP'S BOY.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 299, 17 December 1937, Page 12

ONCE SHIP'S BOY.

FLAGSHIP SKIPPER.

ROMANTIC CAREER AT SEA.

SERVED IN DOVER PATROL.

A touch of Dick Whittington romance lies behind the life story of Captain W. Or. Busk-Wood, R.D., R.N.R., newly appointed as commander of the Empress of Britain for her world cruise. Advice has been received in Auckland that Captain 01, R. Parry, R.D., R.X.R., has been appointed to the position of shore superintendent at Montreal and so his place aboard the flagship of the Canadian Pacific Railway is to be taken by Captain Busk-Wood.

At one time a ships "boy in an old wooden schooner, Captain Busk-Wood acted also as coachman for a captain's buggy. He has visited most of the world's ports and once made a 226-day voyage under sail. Like many a good sailorman, he ran away to sea in the first place against his family's wishes and now he occupies one of the most coveted positions in the British Mercantile Marine as commodore commander of one of the world's greatest merchant fleets. Sow in his fifty-third year, the new commodore went to sea at the age of 14. Ilis father wanted him to enter the timber trade at Liverpool, but eventually sent his eon to sea for one voyage with the hope of curing his wanderlust. The voyage was to Brazil, but young Busk-Wood had no sooner returned than he signed on a coasting schooner bound for Plymouth. Long Service in Sail. At the historical Devonshire port he lured him-self within 24 hours and joined a 47-year-old wooden timber drogher for Parrsboro, Nova Scotia, where he proudly drove the frock-coated and tophatted skipper through the streets of the town.

Captain Busk-Wood served many years in sail. Some of his voyages were to the Cape of Good Hope in the barque Edderside, to Australia in the Clan McPherson, to California in the full-rigger Ditton, back to Europe again in the Crocodile, and to the Spencer Gulf in the barque Orion. His love of the sailing ship was demonstrated when he decided to try one voyage in steam; he could barely wait for its completion to return to sail. .

He then shipped as second mate in the barque Lalla Kookh under "Bully" Crowley, and later in the barque Lodore to the River Plate and the west coast of South America. For some time he was chief mate of the 300-ton barque Luz in the west coast trade, and he returned to England as mate of the four-masted ship Waterloo, of Liverpool. It was on this voyage that he was 226 days at sea, from Rotterdam to San Francisco, with a cargo of cement. That was his last voyage in sail. Gained Rapid Promotion. When war came in 1914 Captain Busk-Wood was an officer in the Royal Naval Reserve and he was in the Admiralty service until 1920. He saw service aboard destroyers in the famous Dover patrol and also in the Dardanelles. Then he had a spell at Port Said in the examination service before being seconded to the command of the Highland Monarch, which made a voyage froin Alexandria to Malta-towing a submarine which had been "strafed" at Solium. Other ships he served in were the Africa, Courageous, Redoubtable, Kangaroo, Zttbian, Malvern and Elgin. On demobilisation from the service in 1920 he rejoined the Canadian Pacific Railway and gained rapid promotion. He lias already made three round-the-world cruises in the Empress of Britain, but this will be his first as commodore. He has the distinction of being the first master to take a ship bearing the C.P.R. house flag to ports in Australia and New Zealand.

Captain Busk-Wood is now taking: Tiis new command from the Southern Pailway dock at Southampton on the way to New York to embark on a short cruise to the Mexican Onlf. The world cruise begins from New York on January 8.