GREAT SEAMAN RETIRES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20898, 13 June 1931, Page 3 (Supplement)

GREAT SEAMAN RETIRES.

" AT ANCHOR " IN GARDEN. CAPTAIN JOF BERENGARIA. FROM BRIDGE TO DAFFODILS. A man stood on the bridge. of the third largest liner in the world. A law "that has not its equal in any part of the world was his to enforce. A thousand men or more —seaman, steward, purser, officer, and engineer alike—were at his heck and call. He had almost, the power •of life and death over them. Ho was captain of 11 in Cunarder Berengaria. That was a few weeks ago. The other day a man stood in the charming garden of a house delightfully poised on a lull, overlooking the, town of Southampton says the Daily Express. He looked proudly on an array of daffodils and tulips, of hudding fruit trees and newy-planted fruit hushes. He spoke sincerely and honestly of the philosophy of life, of'the world of to day, of yesterday, and of to-morrow. He was the former captain of the Berengalia. Who would believe that, those two were, the same man, the commander of one of the most famous ships in the world, and formerly of sixteen other vessels, the nan who has earned (lie iiotne of " Drake of the 'Atlantic," and the amateur gar-dener-philosopher ? But they were—Sir Arthur Rostron, who retired at the end of April from the position of Commodore of the ( unard Fleet. He has finished with the sea. lie may make another voyage in his old ship—;is a passenger—hut he has put the sea behind him from a professional point of view, lie has, as he, would probably express it, "anchored ' at last. He can hardly realise that the man who stood on the bridge of (he lierengaria was ever himself. He is going to spend the rest of his days among his family, making his life a busy one in bis beloved garden. The garden is Sir Arthurs favourite place when the sea is not within teach. A garden is the only place, he thinks, that is like the sea. One gets near to nature when in a garden, and one gets near to nature when at sea, and natuie is a thing that every true man of the sea honours / and respects. That is how Sir Arthur liostron. the perfect captain and the perfect host, wishes to spend the autumn of his life. It is a strange contrast to his former life, when ptinces of kingdoms and princes of commerce could not help feeling proud to enter his sanctum; when his brain controlled the destinies of a liner worth between four and five millions, when the capital represented by the two or three thousand passengers on hoard, who. had placed their safety in his hands, was usually in the neighbourhood of £400.000.000. Sir Arthur is happy, because he knows, without thinking about, it, that he has done his duty, that lie has brought that £1,000,000 ship time and again safelyback to port, that he has always cared well and truly for the passengers entrusted to him.