Old salt three short of 100

Press, 27 November 1987, Page 3

Old salt three short of 100

By

CHRISTOPHER MOORE

Everything will be shipshape and Bristol fashion for Aussie Rixon’s ninety-seventh birthday today. The retired master mariner’s Lyttelton neighbours and friends will ensure that the day does not go uncelebrated in the old salt’s small blue and white house perched high above the harbour. Aussie Rixon, plainspoken and 97 years

young, Keeps a seaman’s weather eye on his roses and shipping in the port. Barques, square riggers and clippers may no longer sail through the Heads but the wharves and quays are still absorbing places for a man who has had the sea flowing in his blood since he was a teenager. Mr Rixon received an early birthday present when one of his roses won second place at the recent Lyttelton Rose Show. Yesterday he

looked towards Diamond Harbour and remembered the age of sail. Born in the small New South Wales farming community of Tweedhead, he initially wanted to become a farmer. But in 1906, the 16-year-old signed on as a deck boy on the Melbourne Steamship Company’s steamer Sydney sailing between New South Wales and Western Australia. His first voyage under sail was on board the

three masted Finnish barque County of Anglesea, with a monthly pay of £4. That maiden voyage was eventful. Carrying a cargo of coal to Guayaquil, Ecuador, the vessel nearly ran ashore near Farewell Spit. In the teeth of a Cook Strait gale, she later lost a man overboard. Serving on the barque Thistlebank Mr Rixon rounded Cape Horn, narrowly escaping disaster when the vessel nearly

struck the rugged cliffs. He left sail for steam after passing his second mate’s certificate. In the early 19205, he signed on the Union Steam Ship Company’s Niagara as fourth officer. He continued his ties with the Union Steam Ship company, serving as an officer on a trio of Pacific Island traders. In 1921 he married Norwegian-born Sarah Pedersen and returned to the land and a dairy farm in Taranaki.