CAPTAIN GARRARD.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3078, 9 May 1881, Page 3

CAPTAIN GARRARD.

Captain Garrard was a son of Mr Joseph Garrard, an officer in the Revenue service at Home, and was born on March 2nd, 1852. When about eleven years of age he entered the Royal Naval School at Greenwich, and here he studied so successfully that at the age of fourteen he was admitted to the Nautical Schools to receive a course of instruction in navigation and nautical astronomy. At the final examination he came out at the head of the list, and received a special recommendation of the Admiralty for six months' further tuition. When he left the schools he was head captain of his company, and carried with him the respect of all who knew him, both masters and boys. He entered Lidgett's line of vessels, and served five years' apprenticeship, visiting during that time the principal commercial ports of the world. During his career as third mate he was wrecked in the ship Humber on an island in the Bay of Fundy, but fortunately no lives were lost, and this may be attributed mainly to his exertions after the crew had succeeded in effecting a landing upon a most inhospitable shore. The disaster occurred in the depth of winter, and the men suffered considerably from drowsiness, caused by the intense cold and the drink taken ashore with them. Captain Garrard, who then was, and has always been a total abstainer, appears to have been in a better position to withstand the cold. He succeeded in making his way over the frozen cliffs and through the snow drifts to a fisherman's cottage, whei*e he gave information of the accident,Jand|the men were rescued. Capt. Garrard subsequently gained some experience in steam navigation on the Mediterranean, and came out to this colony about five years ago in the Dilhawar to Wellington. He went with the vessel as far as Adelaide on the return journey, but there he succeeded in obtaining his discharge, with the intention of finally settling in the colonies. He joined the Hawea as second mate, and obtained rapid promotion, being shifted from one boat to the other at frequent intervals. Captain Garrard was chief officer of the Taupo on the occasion of her loss at Tauranga, and his coolness and presence of mind on that occasion will be remembered. He then returned to Dunedin, and was appointed to the command of the Ladybird and subsequently of the Albion. On the oocasion of the changes in the Tararua consequent on the gold robbery some two months back he was transferred to that vessel.