SEA CAPTAIN TO RETIRE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22713, 28 October 1935, Page 3

SEA CAPTAIN TO RETIRE

One of the most popular masters on the Australian mail run —Captain C.H. C. Allin, of the P. and 0. liner Moldavia--will retire after 45 years at sea. on the return of his ship to its home port in December. ~ _ _ . . Going to sea at the age of 15, Captain Allin first visited Australia on board the three-masted barque West Australian, is which he served his time. He then shipped in tramp steamers, trading in various parts of the world, prior to entering the P. and 0. service in 1897. In his 12 years and a-half as a. master. Captain Allin carried 'in his ships 50,000 passengers safely along the trade routes of the world. For the last five years and a-ha*f he has had command of the Moldavia, and it is a fitting coincidence that the vessel will return to London on December 13—the date on which he joined the company’s service 38 years ago. Durins the war Captain Allin served as chief officer aboard the troopship Dongola, which was one of the first ships to land men on the Gallipoli Peninsula, and the last to leave after the evacuation. He was in this ship before the war when it was rammed by a Spanish tramp in the Channel, and he tells a graphic story of how it was beached at Barry with 1700 people on board after a frantic dash to the coast at 16 knots. Captain Allin plans to-make his home either at Southampton or at Falmouth, and acquire a little five-ton cruising yacht. “ I want to live on the coast,” he said, “ so that I can see the sea. smell the sea, and throw stones into it.” He is not giving up the life because he is weary of it, but because he feels he must make way for younger men. And in his retirement hundreds, aye thousands, wish him well, '