FIFTY YEARS AFLOAT

Taranaki Daily News, 14 January 1935, Page 13

FIFTY YEARS AFLOAT

SKIPPER’S NOTABLE CAREER. HERO OF MANY RESCUES. One of the most popular North Atlantic skippers, Captain Thomas F. Gates, recently retired from the sea after more than 50 years’ active service. Big, breezy, and with a laugh that can be heard from bows to stern, he attains the age of 73 this month, but he does not look a day over 50. No wonder, for he has never had a day’s illness in his life! When a correspondent of the News of the World visited Captain Gates at his Twickenham home the other day to congratulate him on his many years’ service, he related some particulars of his career. “Well,” he began in a booming voice, “I have been in ships just on 56 years, for 45 of which I have been in command. “How did I begin? That’s a deuce of a way back. However, to start with I went to school at Bury St. Edmunds. Then when I was 1 15 I went to sea in one of the old sailing ships called the/ Dorset. I had five and a-half. years in sail. It was a hard life, but a healthy one - . m “In 1883 I joined the Atlantic Transport Line, with whom I have been ever since. My first command was the Missouri, which I took over in 1889. Since then I have been in charge of 18 others. I cannot remember them all now, but the Manitoba, Mohawk, Mississippi and Manhattan are all well known. dentally, the names of all the ships I have ever commanded have started with the letter ‘M.’ ” Captain Gates has figured in many rescues at sea. The most dramatic was probably in 1887, when he was chief officer of the Missouri. On that occasion he was responsible, with others, for saving 735 lives from the Danish emigrant steamer the Denmark. The rescue is justly regarded by sailors as one of the most thrilling in the history of the sea. It was made the subject of a well-known painting entitled, “And Every Soul was Saved,” the original of which is in Baltimore, United States. In 1914 Captain Gates became commander of the Minnewaska, the first of its name, of the Atlantic Transport Line. He remained with her unnl he beached her on the Island of Crete, after a great part of the ship had been blown away by a mine. By his prompt action Captain Gates saved the lives of 1800 troops and crew, for which he was awarded the C.B.E. When the Armistice was signed a new Minnewaska was built, and Captain Gates was put in command, but the following year he was given charge of the sister-ship, the Minnetonka, which he commanded for ten years from 1924 until 1934. It is a strange coincidence, but both these ships are to be broken up, just at the same time as Captain Gates is retiring from the sea.