VETERAN SKIPPER DEAD

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1021, 11 July 1930, Page 7

VETERAN SKIPPER DEAD

CAPTAIN C. C. WELCH PASSED 100TH BIRTHDAY Special to. THE SUN DUNEDIN, Thursday. Alter a lifetime of voyaging over the seven seas, Captain Christopher C. Welch died after a short illness at his home in Port Chalmers this morning. Born in Great Yarmouth on November 5, 1829, Captain Welch celebrated his 100th birthday on November 5 last year. » At the age of 14 years he was apprenticed to the sea, joining the Olmer Laing Line of Sunderland. Before die mast he made many trips to ports in all parts of the world, and when still a young man he obtained his master’s certificate, and went to New York and purchased a three-master schooner, tho Elizabeth Pelther, just after the first battle of the American Civil War in 1860. He sailed his vessel out of New York harbour, arriving in 1861. The schooner made her next voyage to Soderham, in the Gulf of Bothnia, and she sailed from that port to Sydney, arriving at the New South Wales port after a passage of 96 days. At Sydney his ship was chartered to take 488 gold diggers to Otago, and on this voyage he made the record passage from Sydney anchorage to the Port Chalmers wharves in six days. On his return to Sydney two companies of passengers were embarked, and he sailed for San Francisco. When three days out the ship ran into a cyclone and was so badly damaged that Captain Welch had to return to Sydney for repairs, but when a survey had been made. and his lowest repair tender amounted to £2,850, he sold the shin to the New Zealand Government. She was used for some time as a home for prisoners, and subsequently lost on the Manukau. INTERCOLONIAL TRADE Captain Welch wandered off to the Philippines as master of a barque engaged in carrying sugar, thence to Sydney. He subsequently had command of about 12 vessels at various periods in the intercolonial trade, and at one time he was * master of the barque Union, owned by a Dunedin firm. In 1874 Captain Welch and his family settled in Port Chalmers, and in later years he commanded the brigantine Thomas and Henry, which is now doing duty at Port Chalmers as a coal hulk. Captain Welch finished his long sea career 20 years ago, and had since lived in his trim little cottage at the water’s edge in Carey’s Bay, Dunedin, where he could see the ocean he had served so long. In 1928 Captain Welch was appointed a member of the Master Mariners’ Guild of New Zealand, and at the time of his death was the oldest member. At his 100 birthday celebrations there was a huge cake with 100 candles and 10 sea captains sang sea chanties. It was not until Captain Welch was nearing his century that his health began to fall.