THE OLD SCHOOL

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 93, 21 April 1931, Page 13

THE OLD SCHOOL

CANADIAN MARINE EXPERT

TRAINED UNDER SAIL

Spending part, ol: a six months' leave —his first holiday sinco 1910—there is! travelling by the Canadian Conqueror, which arrived in. Wellington last week from Cfin.'idiiin ports, via Auckland., Captain L. A. Demcrs, F.K.A.S., Wreck Commissioner i'or the Dominion .of Canada. Captain Doniers, who was born at Montreal in 1802, went lo sea when he was seventeen as an apprentice on the brigantine Beaver, trading between Montreal and Buenos Aires, and at the age of 29 joiued the Canadian Government service. He is making a round trip on the Canadian Conqueror which, after visiting tho South Island, goes tv Australia and thence iack to Canada. Captain Demcrs's position is unique in the British Empire. Ho fulfils the rTiities of tho Nautical Court of Inquiry in. New Zealand, and of the Board of Trade in England. Ho is the permanent head of the tribunal that investigates all Canadian wrecks and marine accidents, and when ho has given his lecision it is final as regards officers <vho gain their tickets from tho Canadian Government, although those who rlerive their tickets from the Board of Trade, enn appeal to' that board. As Wreck Commissioner his wide knowledge of the sea ami sailo s has given 'urn a reputation which extends beyond Canada and only twice among'the inquiries he has conducted, running into iome hundreds, has his decision been upset. VALUE OF TRAINING UNDER SAIL. Trained under sail himself, Captain Demcrs believes that sailing ship training is necessary for the making of the complete sailor, and gives him valuable lessons which ho could never get. under steam. In all his years at sea ho was never in a wreck and never saw a roan lost. At tho end of his apprenticcsnip clays Captain. Demers made London his home port, and ho sailed from there in a variety of ships before eventually joining the famous sailer Thermopylae as second mate. The Thermopylae was not, then the crack ship she had been when she raced the other clippers homo with China test, and did not carry tho same spread of canvas, but she- was still capable or! good performances on the Australia-London run. Toy some years Captain Demers was in the Canadian Excise service, and lie had many exciting adventures with smugglers, tho counterpart in his day of the modern rum-runners.