G.O.M. OF COMMERCE.

West Coast Times, 24 June 1909, Page 1

G.O.M. OF COMMERCE.

|| +*+ . ! CAREER OF THE LATE SIR. DONALD CURRIE. The annals of commerce contain few more interesting or instructive stories than that of the life of the late Sir Donald Currie, founder and • head of Mesrs Donald Currie and Co., of the Union-Castle Steamship line, who has just died at Sidmouth in Devon. Sir Donald usually went for a cruise every winter, but this year, owing to the state of his health, he went to stay at Sidmouth in January last, with lady Currie, his private secretary, and a medical attendant. Up till a fortnight ago he was able to take outdoor exercise. Death' was due to a complication of ailments. Sir Donald Curries memory will be held for long in respect and esteem by men of many classes. A great sea captain, the founder and director of one of our chief ocean lines, famous as a philanthropist, a friend of Mr Gladstone, and a man who on more than one occasion did valiant work for the Empire, he has left many lasting memorials to himself. The Romance of Success. But in the years to come one aspect of his life bids fair to be specially dwelt upon. Here was a young Scotsman, born to poverty, brought up to high principles, who came south and won his way to a foremost place by a policy of sheer straightforwardness and enterprise. He rose from nothing to great wealth and power. In his 84th year, Sir Donald Currie took his place among the working octogenarians of our time, the men who maintain in old age work that might well appal youth. Up to recently he might have .been seen at his place in Fen-church-street, directing his vast organisation, presiding over meetings of shareholders shrewdly discomfiting critics, and adapting his policy to the trying times that all world shipping has recently experienced. Donald Currie was born in 1825 at Greencock, and was the son of a small trader. As a lad of 14 he entered the office of a local shipowner. He rose rapidly, but not' finding in Greencock sufficient scope for his energies he set out for Liverpool, obtaining a minor place in the great house of Cunarcl. Before he was 20 he was one of the responsible men in the Cunard office. Saving His Ship. At the age of 37 he set up for himself and established the Castle line, which at first ran between Liverpool and .Calcutta. Ten years later he was strongly enough established to challenge the great Union Line to the Cape by opening up direct competition with it. Within five years the monopoly in mail services enjoyed up to then by the Union Line was shared by the Castle service. In years to come the Union and the Castle Lines were made one, with Sir Donald at the head. An episode in Sir Donald Curries life has never found its way into the press. On the first voyage of the first steamship of the Castle line to South Africa the ship sprang a leak, and for many hours it was a question whether the vessel, which was then far out in the Atlantic, could be saved. None of the pasFengers know of this, or that all through one long night Sir Donald, with his first engineer, was toiling in the bottom of the ship, waist-deep in water, attempting to stop the leak. They finally succeeded and the voyage was regarded by all as a most prosperous one. It was not till many years afterwards that Sir Donald in private conversation' disclosed the story. Caution and Enterprise. What was the secret of his success? First, he looked ahead, and always tried to anticipate coming events. He combined the traditional caution and carmines of his race with an, enterprise all his own. He studied the comforts ,of his passengers and revolutionised the accommodation for the sea voyager. Nothing was too small for his personal attention. He played a leading part in bringing about the first annexation of the Transvaal, helping to foil a German scheme for making that land a German Protectorate. In those days there was no cable to the Cape. When the Zulu war came Mr Currie organised a news service that enabled him to inform the Government at Home of the disasters at Isandula and at Rorke's drift four days earlier than would otherwise have been the case. As it happened his services in South Africa Mr Currie of many thousands of our troops. For was made a G.M.G.. A few years later he received his knighthood. It was largely due to him that Matabele and Pondoland came under the British flag. When standing as Parliamentary candidate for Greenock he made a famous reply to a heckler. "Mr Currie," he was asked, "is it not true that at one time your father was a barber in this town?" "Yes, it is quite true," Mr Currie replied ; "but had your father been a barber you would have been only a barber still."