OLD PILOT'S PASSING.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21118, 27 February 1932, Page 2 (Supplement)

OLD PILOT'S PASSING.

DEATH FROM BROKEN HEART. " CURSE OF RETIREMENT." There was something fine, even noble, about the passing of an old Bristol Channel pilot the other clay, writes Mr. Andrew Soutar in an article on " The Curse of Retirement" in the Daily Mail. Ho had reached the age of 81, when, regretfully, they told him he must retire. In vain he protested that he was no older than Mr. Justico Avory, who is still a power on thn judicial bench. For days after his banishment from the scene of his toil tho old pilot passed tho hours at tho pier-head, watching the vessels como in from the sea, and go out of port.. For 60 years ho had guided them in and out, and it was hard for him to believe that I hey could do without him now that lie had passed his 80th year. " Ho would come home and sob at the loss of his work," the widow said, " and ho collapsed and died of a broken heart." There's a very old story of a boatswain who retired from the sea because of an unexpected legacy. He built himself a bungalow near tho sea, and every morning a hired lad hammered on the door at 5 o'clock to rouse him from sleep. "Why?" asked a friend.

The man replied: " The lad shouts, ' Bo'sun, tile cap'n wants yer.' And it's grand bcin' able to shout back, ' You tell tho cap'n to go to Jericho!"