A PIONEER SHIPMASTER

Evening Post, Volume XCI, Issue 127, 30 May 1916, Page 8

A PIONEER SHIPMASTER

DEATH OF CAPTAIN RICHARD TODD. A man of wide business experience and quite a power in the shipping world, Captain , Richard Todd, died at Napier this morning. Few, if any, men connected with maritime liEe have been better known or more widely esteemed. Captain Todd, who was a native of Aberdeen, Scotland, first came to New Zealand in the old Malay, which arrived at Wangamri in the early 'seventies to inaugurate a direct sailing service between London and that port. Captain Peters was in command of the vessel with Captain Todd as his chief officer. The arrival of the Malay was made the occasion of a public holiday, and the town was en fete. A banquet was tendered to the captain, officers, and crew, at which Mr. Arthur Beauchamp, father of Jlr. H. Bcauchamp, of Messrs. Bannatyne and Co., Ltd., presided. On the second occasion when the Malay visited Wanganui, Captain Todd was in command of the vessel. The service was, however, only short-lived.

Subsequently Captain Todd became better known to Wellington folk as commander of the fine sailing ship St. Leonards, which was wrecked in the English Channel' in the early 'eighties, a number of lives being lost. Captain Todd was also master of 'the Northumberland, which was driven ashore at Petane beach, Napier, in a howling gale. He, with 3ome members of the crew, had hairbreadth escapes from death in tho perilous task of getting ashore oa tha-t occasion. That finished his career at sea-, and a little later he was appointed Marine Superintendent for the Colonial Union Line. On the inauguration of the Tyser Line he was appointed Marine Superintendent to that company, Mr. Robert Dobson being the first manager for New Zealand. On the death of Mr. Dobson, Captain Todd became Colonial Superintendent, and when, comparatively recently, the Tyser Line was merged into the Commonwealth and Dominion Line, Ltd., he was appointed director for New Zealand.

Captain Todd's wife predeceased him about - two years ago. He leaves a family of three sons—Messrs. Leonard, Richard, and John Todd (the latter of whom left New Zealand with the Twelfth Reinforcements), and a married daughter, Mrs. Arthur Sims, wife of Mr. Sims, a member of the well-known mercantile firm of Sims, Cooper and Co. Although not in 'the best of health for over twelve months, Captain Todd has been able to attend to business until about a week ago.