Sunday Times (Perth, WA : 1902 - 1954), Sunday 31 March 1912, page 12


CAPTAIN TOM ALLEN

A Sketch of His Career

Captain Tom Allen, the skipper of the s.s. Koombana, about whose fate so much misgiving is felt, is undoubtedly one of the most popular of the sea-faring men on our coast. He is in his 53rd year, and a bachelor. His imme-díate relatives are his mother, who is 83, and Mr. Sea Born Allen, of George

Wills and Co., his sole surviving bro-ther, both of whom reside at the Semaphore, South Australia. Captain Allen's father, a Cork Irishman, was a shipmaster and owner in the 50's, 60's, and 70's, and frequently visited Al-bany and Fremantle. His son Mar-mion was born in Marmion's Hotel, Fremantle, in 1857; hence the name. The late Hon. W. E. Marmion and his sister were the child's god-parents. Captain Allen was a sailor from his childhood, sailing with his parents round the Australian coast, and subse-quentiy to New Caledonia. In 1873 he

sailed from Port Darwin in the barque

Contest, commanded by his father, for Rockingham, to load jarrah. They ar-rived after calling at Cossack; but in a north-westerly gale the Contest was blown from her anchors at Rocking-ham and wrecked. As his father then

gave up the sea, Captain Allen shipped in one of the Glasgow "Citys." and went to foreign lands, returning to Austra-lia in the Northern Monarch.

He then joined the Orient line as Quartermaster of the Cuzco, and was aboard of her when she broke down and sailed from 1000 miles south of the Leeuwin to Port-land, in Victoria, he being one of the men who were lowered over the quarter in a heavy sea to secure the propeller. He next became bo'sun of the Pacific liner Sonta, and after passing his examinations came to Aus-tralia as mate of the Meeinderry.

The old Verulam was his first com-mand, and after commanding various other sailing ships he passed for extra master. He then took charge of vari-ous tugs and coasting steamers, and was stevedore in Ports Pirie and Ger-mein. Tried alluvial gold digging at Teetulpa, South Australia, and after commanding various vessels in the early. 90*s he took charge of the Te kapo, owned by the Union Company of New Zealand, but chartered to the; Adelaide Steamship Company for the West Australian trade.

Subsequently he took command of the Marloo in the same trade, and in 1897 had a verdict of manslaughter returned against him by a Fremantle Jury because a man fell down the hold of the Marloo. The Attorney-General ignored the verdict. In 1897 he resign-ed from the Marloo, and joined the

Port Adelaide pilot service; in which he remained 10 years, and left because, the law' being altered, the pilots be-came civil servants at a salary, with undefined responsibility. During the 10 years he was pilot he handled hun-dreds of vessels of all descriptions sat-isfactorily, the Royal yacht Ophir being one of them. The present sailor King of England complimented him upon his skill, and gave him a scarf pin bearing the White Rose of York as.a souvenir.

Rejoining the Adelaide Steamship Company he was sent to England for

the Junee and Echunga, and after a voyage to. Valparaiso in the Echunga

he commanded many of the company's

steamers on the coast, the Grantala,

Bultarra and Winfield being the last prior to joining the Koombana, a few months ago. It is a coincidence that when the Waratah was in Sydney for

the last time the Koombana was in dock having 13 plates replaced which had been broken on the Nor'-West

coast. During Captain Allen's career as master and pilot he had had no mis-

hap prior to the present.

A warm-hearted, conscientious, painstaking man, devoted to his duty, always ready to do a kind action and to champion the under-dog, chivalrous to women and devoted to children.

Tom Allen will be always remembered with the kindliest feelings by the many friends who knew him. Tyranny and cruelty he abhorred, and on his arrival last time in Fremantle he gave information of the scandalous and cruel sentence of flogging passed on the blacks, in Derby, and the sentence

was cancelled.

Captain Allen's parents in the 50's sailed the Eastern seas from Madras to Manila, from Sydney to Singapore. The notorious "Bully" Hayes, Cadell (who opened the Murray to naviga-tion), and Professor Alfred Russell Wallace were well known to them in the East. . Mrs. Allen describes Hayes as a burly, jovial man whom no one would suspect of piracy or barratry. Professor Wallace taught Mrs. Allen Malay, which he said was the French of the East

During the Crimean War coffee was scarce and dear, and Captain Alien chartered his schooner to a wealthy Chinaman and sailed into various then out-of-the-way places in search of trade. One of Captain Tom Allen's brothers is buried in Singapore, an-other (Marmion) in Melbourne, a third and a sister in Adelaide, and now it is only too probable that

"The sea, the blue, lone sea"

covers Tom Allen awaiting the time when "the sea shall give up its dead."'

Captain Allen's only surviving bro-ther, Mr. Sea Born Allen, was born on board the Sehah Jehan off Cape Northumberland during an awful gale. As Captain Allen could not leave the deck Mrs. Allen was left to the care of Nature and the steward, with satisfac-tory results. The elements welcomed the little stranger with a gorgeous dis-play of Saint Elmo's fire on the mast-heads and yards, and 50 years later, on his brother's birthday, off the same place (Cape Northumberland), Captain Allen, then commanding the Grantala, was treated by Nature to a similar electric illumination, the corposants outlining the steamer's masts and fun-

nel.