CHIEF OF THE NGAPUHI

Taranaki Daily News, 2 May 1930, Page 14

CHIEF OF THE NGAPUHI

“THE AULD FLEET ENGINEER”

NEARLY 45 YEARS WITH COMPANY

VARIED LIFE ALONG THE COAST.

“From a seagoing point of view I have had a very pleasant and successful life.”

Just that, and no more. It was with a modest and simple .philosophy that Mr. Alex Brown, engineer in the employ of he Northern Company for nearly 45 years and for very many years chief engineer of the Rarawa and the Ngapuhi summed up his life at sea. Sitting in his cabin hard by the old Ngapuhi’s engine room, with the noise of the triple expansion engines pounding up through the bare iron gratings, one could understand to t’he full the solemnity of nearly 45 years of faithful service. It is th© theme of Kipling’s tale of “the auld fleet engineer” in “McAndrew’s Hymn.”

“Lord, Thou hast made this world below the shadow of a dream, An’, taught by time, I tak’ it so —excepting always steam. From coupler-flange to spindle-guide I see Thy Hand, O God —• Predestination in th© stride o’ yon conncctin’-rod. John Calvin might ha’ forged th© same —enormous, certain, slow— Ay, wrought it in the furnace-flame —my ‘lnstitutio.’ I cannot get my sleep to-night; old bones are hard to please. I’ll stand the middle watch up here alone wi’ God an’ these My engines . . .

“I am working, in my fourth employment, my second at sea,” said Mr. Brown in explanation of tho fact that for 44 years seven months he had been an engineer of the Northern Company. Since the middle ’Bo’s he had been on vessels plying the northern coasts, many of them on the New Plymouth-One-hunga service. Mr. Brown received his first schooling to tho sea on the old Calabar, a passenger steamer sailing out from Liverpool to tho West Coast of Africa. Eighteen months on this exacting service stood him in good stead. A position as engineer on the Katekate, “a little, wee puffing Billy on the Whangarei harbour” was the beginning of Mr. Brown’s long service with the Northern Company. Six months passed and ho joined the ill-fated Gairloch in February, 1886. « About two years previously, explained the old engineer, the Gairloch had commenced trading between the Manukau and Waitara. Even when ho started with her a visit to New Plymouth was an exception rather than the rule and was generally made only when it was not possible to land cargo at the river port. Cattle and sheep were in those days the chief cargo, though the Gairloch could, and often did, carry as many as 20 passengers. There was accommodation for about 80 head of cattle on board. After about two and a-half years, during which he was associated with Captain McArthur, the Gairloch was sent to Wellington During the following three years Mr. Brown was chief engineer on the Glenelg, which carried cargo and passengers between Onehunga and Wanganui. The Glenelg, with its curious name, which is purely convertible, was commanded by Captain Norbury, who is still remembered for his long term of service with the Rarawa in later years. Tho intervening years between 1896 and 1911 Mr. Brown spent in many different vessels trading along the East Coast.

His acquaintance with the turbulent West Coast was renewed in 1911 when ho accepted tho position of chief en-

gineer on the Rarawa, and until 1929 he was the guiding spirit watching over her 1250 horse power, twin-boiler engines. Last year Mr. Brown took charge of the triple expansion engines of the Ngapuhi. Referring to his long sojourn on the coast he said it was pleasant to find that after travelling to a port for as long as h© had been to New Plymouth h© still had many friends. “Nearly all my old ship-mates are gone,” he continued. Living as he did in both Onehunga and New Plymouth he had become a member of a New Plymouth as well as of an Onehunga bowling club.

Very often there was strife between the chief engineer and the captain, he said, but not so on the Rarawa and the Ngapuhi. Captain Bark could 7 not be beaten as a careful, capable master. He never interfered with the chief engineer’s business in any shape or form. It had not all been plain sailing, said the old engineer and he referred to thrilling incidents on the Manukau bar.

Out of the lighted engine room the pounding of the engines rose. It was five minutes to seven and they were warming to their work, for at 7 p.m. the Ngapuhi was duo to sail. “All these things are just in the day’s work,” he concluded, “the usual vicissitudes in the life of a seagoing man.”

While some prominence has been given this morning to wrecks that have occurred in the service, because they are to the public the most spectacular incidents of the running, their importance should not be over-estimated. Such mishaps were comparatively very few when account is taken of the multitude of ships that made scores of safe and uneventful voyages, faithfully perforin iug their vast service of passenger and goods transport. Replacing the old Ngapuhi in the passenger ferry service will be the Northern Company’s new motor vessel the Hauturu, which will commence a bi-weekly cargo run between Onehunga. and New Plymouth. The vessel, which has a gross tonnage of 204 tons, is reputed to be able to carry 400 tons of cargo. She is commanded by Captain Jackson Fowler. Next Tuesday the Hauturu will arrive for the first time from Onehunga. The service will not be on the same days as those of the Ngapuhi, however, as it is intended that the Hauturu should arrive at New Plymouth on Thursdays and Sundays, leaving with her cargo for Onehunga on Thursdays and Mondays.

The three principal steamers used in succession in the service by the Northern Company were the Gairloch, Ngapuhi and Rarawa, each vessel being built specially for the trade. The Gairloch was employed for-over ten years, and she was wrecked on the west coast when on a trip between the two ports. In 1960 the Ngapuhi was built for the service, but she was replaced in 1903 by the Rarawa, which ran continually from Onehunga to New Plymouth for 26 years.