VARIED CAREER.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXIV, Issue 935, 4 December 1933, Page 9

VARIED CAREER.

New Zealander Was P. and O. Commodore. SEA CAPTAIN’S VISIT. A passenger by the C. and D. Line motor-ship Port Gisborne, which left Lyttelton on Sunday morning for Wanganui, was Captain C. M. Burleigh, D. 5.0., R.L., R.N.R. Captain Burleigh, who retired from the service of the P. and O. Company about three years ago, is a New Zealander who had the distinction of rising to the position of commodore-master of the P. and O. Company’s fleet. He was born in the north of the Auckland Province, and was educated at Christ’s College. It is 47 years since he last visited New Zealand. To Sea as a Cadet. On leaving Christ’s College he went to sea as a cadet. Ilis first experiences were obtained on the New Zealand Shipping Company’s Waimea, and later on the same company’s ship Rakaia. then trading between England and New Zealand. He later joined the P. and O. Company as a junior officer. Promotion, stated Captain Burleigh, was slow, but he worked up to master, and obtained his first command in 1913, when he was in charge of the Ngvarra. During his long absence from Net Zealand he has traded to all parts of the world, mainly to the East. During the war period, Captain Burleigh had command of a light auxiliary cruiser attached to the Grand Fleet in the North Sea. In the last year of the war the cruiser acted as escort to the Scandinavian convoys. Plenty of Thrills. Captain Burleigh had plenty of thrills during the time he was in command of the auxiliary cruiser. His vessel escaped unharmed, though it was fired at many times by submarines. Asked if there were any outstanding features in his long career at sea, he replied that he did not think so, except some memorable episoSes during the war period. There was one incident that came to his mind, that was shortly after the war, when he was given command of the German liner Berlin, a minelayer, which had been responsible for the sinking of H.M.S. King Edward in the North Sea. His last command was the R.M.S. Moldavia, trading to Australia. It had been reported that he was returning to Christchurch to live, but that was not so. His present programme was to visit various parts of New Zealand, and then proceed to Australia, returning to his home in Norfolk, England, in April. Owing to his short stay at Lyttelton he was not able to renew old school friendships. During his stay in Christchurch, Captain Burleigh visited Christ’s College, and was shown over the college by the bursar, Mr E. R. Webb, who told him that he could remember him as a boy.