PROMOTION IN THE ROYAL NAVY.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXXIII, 27 November 1912, Page 6

PROMOTION IN THE ROYAL NAVY.

iVVI X . I >■ Lto the ehitohJ Sir, -Under the heading of '‘Personal .Notes” in your issue of yesterday it is stated that an event of import—auce took place last month in England in the promotion of Lieutenant J. T. lyne, of the Royal Navy, who was originally a lower deck rating, to tab rank of Commander, and it is stated that he is_the first Comamnder in the Navy to rise from the lower deck owing to the rigid conservative 1 tradition that has hitherto prevailed. Permit me to point out that the illustrious circumnavigator Captain James Cook was the first lower deck rating to appointed commander in the lioyal Navy, and to whom we of Itoy erty Bay haY’e erected a* monument to mark the spot where he first landed in New Zealand. He was born of humble parents and apprenticed at the age of 13 to a draper in the fishing town of Straiths, near Whitby, but he quarrelled with his master and ran avay to sea and early in 1755, on the commencement of hostilities with h ranee, volunteered for service in the Royal Navy on board the Eagle, of 60 guns under Captain Hugh Pattiser, who, quickly discovering the young man’s superior seamanship, afforded him every encouragement and rated him as quartermaster. Later on, on the 25tli May, 176 b, he was piomoled to the rank of lieutenant by a commission dated 25th May, 1768, and I hoisted his pennant on hoard the bar- ! que Endeavor of 370 tons burden, and eventually set sail on his first circumnavigation on the 26th August, 176«, and the manner in which he discharged his duty secured him almost universal approbation, and he was honored u ith an introduction to His Majesty at- St. James’ and by a commission dated 29th August, 177-7. was promoted to the rank of Commander and took command of the Resolution, of 462 tons burden, and set out on Iris second voyage of. circumnavigation and the design of this voyage in grandeur and vastness was without a parallel in the history of maratime enterprise, and never, perhaps, had any expedition been conducted with greater skill, perseverance or success. Cook was received with every mark of approbation and honor and raised to the rank of post-captain by a commission dated 9th August, 175. As the illustrious navigator was promoted when conservatism was all powerful and predominant so the honor conferred on Cook by raising him to the rank of post-caj>-tain is a very much greater distinction than similar promotions in these democratic days. That distinguished voyager D’Urville, in reference to Captain Cook, said “that in almost every quarter of Polynesia the seeds of civilisation have been sown, and it is a plant (as. has been remarked) which seldom withers or decays, however slowly it may advance in growth. The hopes, therefore, can hardly bo considered visionary as found by me when sailing along the shores of New Zealand I anticipate the period when that magnificent country shall become the Great Britain of the Southern .Hemisphere when its then solitary plains shall be covered with large and populous cities, and the bays, which are at present frequented but by the j frail canoe of the wandering savage, 1 shall be thronged with the commercial navies of empires situated at opposite ends of the earth. When that time arrives, and the fertile islands of the Pacific become the seat of great and nourishing States, we may confidently predict that the name of Cook will be revered with the respect and affection due by art enlightened people to him who was the harbinger of their civilisation and none will be more extolled than the illustrious navigator who, surmounting the dangers and difficulties of unknown seas, laid open the path- by which the benefits of knowledge and religion were wafted to thesedistant shores.” —T am. etc., VINCENT PYKE.