Letters, captains, and churches

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33962, 1 October 1975, Page 19

Letters, captains, and churches

(By

JOHN LESLIE)

Correspondence is fortunately light, but two letters must be acknowledged, as through circumstances they have been held over.

The first comes from Mr C. H. J. Brown, a senior executive of the National Cash Register Company (N.Z.), Ltd. This major business organisation has in its time employed former seafaring officers in its field staff, because they readily accept discipline. The company gives the finest business training in the world. At least two master mariners — one of whom became New Zealand managing-director — and other seagoing officers have used this channel as a stepping stone to modest success ashore, where others may aave chosen more orthodox methods.

Mrs K. M. Renwick, of Avonside (Christchurch), writes expressing pleasure it the writer’s choice, in his column some time ago, jf his four favourite shipnasters. These were Captain 1. L. Upton and Captain J. 3. Laird, of the former New Zealand Shipping Company, .id, and Captain G. B. Morgan and Captain D. N. VlcLeish, of the Union Steam Ship Company, Ltd. All were strict — but it is Captain Upton to whom Mrs Renwick refers. All four are now dead.

Captain Upton had a special place in the memories of young men who served under him, including the writer. He was what we once called “an English gentleman” — no light term in that period. He would probably be the writer’s favourite, during two and a half most impressionable years. He brought the best out of everyone. A shipmaster can be efficient, strict, and still a gentleman, but not all achieve this in one package.

Best remembered as master of the New Zealand Shipping Company’s cadet training vessel Northumberland, and later the liner Rangitane, Captain Upton was also a distinguished Royal Naval Reserve officer. At church services in Kirkwall, Orkney Islands, during World War I, some of the young officers used to pull the pigtails of girls in the front row. That is how it all began, according to Mrs Upton. In a materialistic world, where good manners are deteriorating, it is refreshing to recall Captain Upton. Mrs Renwick writes that her brother, who was a clerk in the New Zealand Shipping Company, sometimes brought Captain Upton home, to the delight of her family. This is very understandable.

Speaking of churches, it is hard to believe that St Saviour’s Anglican Church, West Lyttelton, will be removed to Christchurch, after the final service, to be conducted by the Rev. C. J. Goldsmith, of Leeston, next Sunday. For five years, the writer’s home was opposite St Saviour’s Church. He observed and participated in joyous and sad occasions. The bell woke us early on Sunday. Sometimes the writer even rang it — a tricky business. Our wives cleaned and polished.