LONG LIFE AT SEA
Commander Of Matua Retiring PA AUCKLAND, Dec. 7. Thirty-seven years ago a junior deck officer, on the old steamer Niagara caught his first glimpse of New Zealand. Today the same man, now Captain A. R. Russell, commander of the Matua, took his ship out of Auckland bound for the Islands on his last voyage. When he returns after Christmas he will “ swallow the anchor ” and leave the Matua’s bridge for his Remuera home and garden. “I am the only one left now out of the Niagara’s deck officers,” he said before he sailed. “ I’ve had 49 years at sea and 37 with the Union Steam Ship Company running out of New Zealand.” • Captain Russell first took command of the Matua in 1942 as a relieving master, assuming full command in 1944. In spite of the war, the Matua maintained her Pacific voyages and, it is said, missed only one call at Apia, Western Samoa, when she was warned that a Japanese warship was waiting for her.
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Otago Daily Times, Issue 27567, 8 December 1950, Page 8
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170LONG LIFE AT SEA Otago Daily Times, Issue 27567, 8 December 1950, Page 8
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