ADVENTURE AT SEA

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 843, 11 December 1929, Page 11

ADVENTURE AT SEA

LATE CAPTAIN A. JACKSON FORMER MASTER OF lONIC Barely a 3’ear after his retirement from the sea, where he spent 45 adventurous years : Captain A. E. Jackson, formerly master of the lonic, has died in London. On his last visi~ to Auckland Captain Jackson was given a farewell dinner, at which shipping and business men of the city paid tribute to his sterling service in the mercantile marine. Under the pennant of the White Star Line, Captain Jackson sailed about 3,700,000 miles, and he had his share of the adventures which come to men of ships. When he was first mate on the Belle of Arvon iri 1894 he received his first command through a tragedy. Yellow fever wiped out the captain, the second mate and a dozen hands, and Mr. Jackson himself nearly died at Rio. His commands included the Zoalandic, the Bovic, the Cufic, the Suevic and the Arabic. In 1917 Captain Jackson was transferred from tho New Zealand run for a few months’ service on the Zealandic, which was under charter to the New Zealand Government for tho conveyance of frozen meat to Salonika. In his own words, the ship was turn d into a huge butcher’s shop and cargo was discharged only at night. It took six weeks to clear the holds in this fashion, as representatives of Allied nations went alongside to collect a few* carcases as they were needed. At night hostile aircraft dropped- occasional bombs nearby. Captain Jackson assumed charge of the lonic six years ago. When tho vessel was Homeward bound on Good Friday, in 1927, signals of distress were picked up in the Atlantic about 200 miles from land. They wrere from the French fishing schooner Daisy, which had been leaking badly for four days. Thc> crew of 24 was safely rescued. Gunpowder was used to sink'the vessel in order to prevsnt it becoming a floating menace to shipping. For his services in this respect Captain Jackson received an illuminated letter of thanks from the Royal Humane Society.

After his retirement Captain Jacksan practised as a marine surveyor at Liverpool.