VETERAN MARINER

Evening Post, Volume CVII, Issue 25, 30 January 1929, Page 13

VETERAN MARINER

CAPTAIN R. 'M'LEAN

DEATH AT AUCKLAND

(By Telegraph.)

(Special to "Tho Evening Post.")

AUCKLAND, This Day

■ One oli the grand old veterans of the sea, Captain- Donald M'Lean, died in Auckland yesterday at the age of 72. Ho first shipped as a boy, and untii liis retirements eight years ago continuously followed a seafaring career. For forty-years he was in the Union Steam Ship Company's service.

■.Captain. M'Lean was born on the island of Tirce, off the coast of Argylcshire, the home of many sailors, and at ■an early age was on sailing craft between Scotland and America, chiefly to Quebec and the Gulf of Mexico. His first trip.to tho Southern Hemisphere was in the Loch Bannock, of the famous Loch Line, and. later he served in some of the Shaw-Savill clippers running between New Zealand and Britain, one of them being the speedy Taranaki. Intimates of those days knew him as "Dan, "a matter that might now cause doubt as to bis identity. When Captain M'Lean transferred to steam he selected the notable ship liotomahana, then the pride of the southern oceans, and in her he. got his ticket, rising to the position of chief officer before leaving her. Captain Underwood, her original master, was in command when he joined her, and lie was also with Captain Carey. Captaiii M'Lean served in a number of the Union Steam Ship Company's vessels as mate, among them being tho Taviuni, on which he was associated with Captaiii E. Smith for five years in tho South Sea Island trade. His first command was the little Maori, then engaged in the inter-island-Fiji trade, and later ho was master of the Poherua, the Navua, Taviuni, and Manapouri. When the Waitemata was built he went to: Britain and brought' her out on her first voyage. Upon the outbreak of war Captaiii M'Lean assumed -command, of the transport Moeraki, which took part of .the- New Zealand Force to Samoa, and he then took over the hospital ship Maheno, with which he took many thousands of sick and wounded soldiers from Anzac, Gallipoli, to New Zealand, Alexandria, and Malta, and later from Havre to Southampton. In 1920 Captain M'Lean was in command of the Mokoia, which carried the Parliamentary party to the Cook Islands and Samoa, and just before his- retirement ho had charge of the Niagara on one trip to Vancouver and flew his pennant as commodore of tho company.

Captain M'Lean, whose career was free from any serious shipping mishap, was a lovable man of exceptionally fine physique. His command of tho Maheno when she was a hospital ship was full of ■ anxiety and difficulty, which added years to ,his age. Since Ids retirement he. had suffered severely from heart trouble.