CAPTAIN TO RETIRE

Evening Post, Volume CXXVIII, Issue 70, 20 September 1939, Page 6

CAPTAIN TO RETIRE

48 YEARS AT SEA

The retirement of Captain Albert Thomas Norton, master of the Limerick, from the service of the Union Steam Ship Company at. the epd of this month is announced. He has spent ;48 years at sea. Captain Norton, who was born in London on September 3, 1876, served four. years in sail with the Shaw Savill and Albion Co., Ltd., after which he continued in sail as third mate of the ship Wellington, and second mate of the barque Lurline. He later served' in the steamer the Duke of Devonshire'for about three months.

Captain Norton 'joined the service of the Union Company on October 10, 1898, as third officer of the first Kini, and was promoted to second officer of the first Wainui on December 5, 1899, and to chief officer of the Kittawa on December 31, 1903.

On April 23, 1910, he was granted his first command, the Koonya, and during the last 29 years he has commanded some 24 other vessels of the company, as follows:—Flora, Takapuna, Haupiri, Wanaka (first), Navua, Katoa, Kamona,. Waitemata . (first), Wairuna (first), Mararoa, Paloona, Te Anua, Monowai (first), Mokoia, Waitemata (second), Kekerangu, Komata (first),' Wairuna (second), Maheno, Tahiti, and Moeraki.

In October, 1925, Captain Norton was appointed to the Waiotapu in the trans-Pacific cargo service and remained in that vessel for nearly two years before being transferred to the motorship Hauraki, of which he retained almost continuous command for seven years. In April, 1934, he was sent to the United Kingdom to take command of the motor-slap Limerick before the entry of that vessel into the transPacific service, and with the exception of short periods absent on holiday, he has retained command of that ship up to the present date.