A VETERAN OF THE SEA

Dominion, Volume 22, Issue 265, 5 August 1929, Page 13

A VETERAN OF THE SEA

DEATH OF CAPTAIN WING Dominion Special Service. Auckland, August 3. A close liuk with early New Zealand shipping has been severed by the death of Captain Edward Wing, aged 87, ot Onehunga. Born at Russell, Bay of Islands, Captain Wing had been connected with the sea practically ever since. At the time of his birth his father. Captain Thomas Wing, was in charge of the schooner Deborah, the vessel which carried the early surveyors down to Otago. In 1844 the Deborah called in at Russell and Mrs. Wing, the late captain’s mother, went ashore for a fortnight and Captain Edward Wing was born there. His mother went aboard the ship again, and she and her baby lived on the vessel for many years afterwards, so that the late Captain Wing was practically brought up on the ocean. Thomas Wing, the late captain’s father, later went to Onehunga, where he was harbourmaster for thirty years. The late Captain Wing was a signalman at Manukau Heads when the H.M.S. Orpheus was wrecked. He was then 20 years of age. Following the wreck there was a nautical inquiry, but Captain Wing was exonerated of all blame. It was proved that the commander of the Orpheus ignored the signals and took the southern entrance into Manukau instead of the northern entrance as directed by the signalman, and thereby went on a roudbank. Captain Wing afterwards went to sea and spent a number of years sailing in different parts of the world. At one time he was third officer under the celebrated Captain McLean, known to old New Zealand colonists as ‘'Hellfire Jack.” Captain Wing was in the Deborah, Daniel Webster, Lliomana, Zilla Aldringa, Black Swan, and was in charge of several paddle boats running between Melbourne and Geelong. He went across to Dunedin and was in charge of some of the earliest steamers on the const of New Zealand. These steamers later formed the nucleus of the present fleet of the Union Steam Ship Company. They were the Bruce, Star of the South, Beautiful Star, Maori, and Kennedy. Captain Wing then became manager for Rowley, Mason and Co., who were owners of the boats and forerunners of the present U.S.S. Company. Mr. James Mills, afterwards Sir James Mills, was in their employ. In 1865-66 Captain Wing was owner of the steamer Halcyon, and made many trips between Auckland, Onehunga and the West Coast of the

South Island, which was then in the hey day of the gold rush. He was later appointed manager of the Lake Wakatipu Steamship Company on the cold lakes of the South 1 Island, and was with that firm for 20 years before retiring and settling down in Onehunga.