ROMANTIC SEA LIFE

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18236, 3 November 1933, Page 5

ROMANTIC SEA LIFE

RETIRED MASTER’S CAREER . PASSENGER IN OWN SHIP Captain T. E. Musgrave, who reached Sydney lately by the Ceramic, on route to the Solomon Islands to visit his brother, commanded that ship for two and a half years. After 50 years at sen he was making his first voyage as a passenger, and he said be hoped It will be the last. Every time the ship’s bell sounded at night be sprang out of bed and groped about for bis cap. From the Ceramic Captain Musgrave passed into the White Star Line’s Atlantic service, as commander of the Laurentie, and later the Arabic. lie retired three and a half years ago. During the war he commanded troopships, and was master of the steamer Ifaverford, carrying Australian troops to Gallipoli when another transport, the Southland, was torpedoed in the Mediterranean. The late BrigadierGeneral Elliott, who was commanding officer, committed a breach of army regulations in allowing Captain Musgrave to stop his ship and rescue the survivors. By a coincidence Captain Musgrave was later placed in command of the Southland, which had been beached and salvaged. He received orders to proceed to New York in 1917 to transport United States troops to France, but. the Southland never reached her destination. A submarine fired three torpedoes at her, recording three direct hits, and this time the Southland sank. The crew took to the boats and were subsequently rescued. Captain Musgrave’s brother is a copra planter, but apparently bus the tine sailor spirit. Recently lie was travelling by launch when bis fuel ran out. A gale carried the small craft miles out to sea, where it drifted for nine days. The planter and his companion, a native, were practically without food and water throughout that period. Eventually the two men rigged a sea anchor and abandoned the launch to its fate, setting out in the dinghy for home. They rowed 45 miles before they reached another planter’s property. Later, in a friend’s launch, Mr Mitsgrave wont to the scene of his mishap and salvaged the drifting launch.