SEA VETERAN’S DEATH

Taranaki Daily News, 23 July 1930, Page 3

SEA VETERAN’S DEATH

CAPTAIN W. H, BENNETT, HOLDER OF MERCANTILE V.C. Captain W. H. Bennett, the veteran former commander of the famous clipper Loch Vennachar, who was reported dead on May 31, 1926, and celebrated the mistake with a'jolly luncheon party the same day, died on June 23 at Richmond, Melbourne. Only a few days previously Captain Bennett attained the ripe old a"C of 85. He had lived in Melbourne for 23 years, ever since his retirement. Until this year it was his custom to receive his friends on his birthday anniversaries and ..make a festive occasion of them. This year he was .too sick. Captain Bennett’s sea stories of the famous clipper days made him a vivid and interesting personality to his friends. Many a time he would sit down and tell the stirring tale of how the Loch Vennachar beat even the Cutty Sark on one trip to England from Australia; or of how he sailed her under a jury rig to Mauritius after she had been dismasted in a nine-day gale in the Indian Ocean. This feat won high praise from Rear-Admiral W. L. Kennedy, of H.M.S. Boadicea, flagship of the East India Squadron, which Was in Port Louis when the Loch Vennachar arrived. Captain Bennett was awarded Lloyd’s Medal, the V.C. of the mercantile marine service. His old ship was one of the fastest of the Loch Line’s clippers. Her average for 12 passages to London, while he was in command, was 86 days. She was usually one of the first wool clippers to get away from Melbourne on the homeward voyage. A native of Chatham, England, Captain Bennett went to sea at the age of 14 hi a barque of 300 tons bound for Jamaica to pick up a cargo of. sugar and rum. Later, he was apprenticed to Mr. W. H. Tindall, a shipowner. He joined the Loch Line in 1873, became mate of .the Loch Tay, and was later her skipper for eight years. He commanded the Loch Vennachar for 20 years and became a familiar figure to the thousands of passengers she carried during that time. To the end, the old sailor never forgot his great love for the sea and ships. The window of his room commanded .a view of the Hobson Bay and Captain Bennett used to spend hours there, scanning the bay with a telescope for sight of the ships he loved.