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Richard William White
Captain
The Australasian March 31, 1894
the present commandant of the naval forces of this colony, is an Imperial officer, and under an arrangement between the Government of Victoria and the home authorities, gives his services for so many years to the management of our floating defences and to the training of our seamen. His immediate predecessor was Captain Mann, who was preceded by Captain Thomas. The style of Captain White is quiet and effective, without any of the dramatic strokes which made the rule of Captain Thomas so extremely popular with the men, and so noticeable by the public. The work goes on steadily from day to day, and week to week, and the force progresses in knowledge and skill, but it misses the blockade-running and the torpedo fighting which made the Easter manoeuvers of six and seven years ago so interesting to newspaper readers, so exciting to the fleet, and so pleasing and vexing to that old "sea-dog" Captain Fullarton, when he had charge of the Williamstown sailors. Captain White entered the service in June 1862. |
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In 1874 he attained the rank of Lieutenant, and the same year on board the Charybodis took part in thje little war against the Malays in the North of Malacca and on the Lingu and Lukut Rivers. For these services he received the Perak medal. From 1884 to 1888 he was assistant director of naval ordnance at the Admiralty and was in command of the Porpoise from 1888 to 1891. During the naval manoeuvres of 1891 he was in command of the Barracouta which had been told off to defend, and did so successfully, the St. George's and Bristol Channels against torpedo boats. He came to Melbourne in 1892. Captain White is well liked and respected in the service, and his genial manner and cherry ways have made him a great favourite.
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The Capt. Gaunt of whom we speak was a slim, curly headed young lieutenant in our Victorian Navy at the time when Capt. 'Tea Party White' commanded the Victorian Naval Forces; the Nelson tea parties were a feature in society entertainments in those days. Capt. Gaunt was exceedingly popular In those past days, He has been lucky— Indeed, luck seems to have been the birth-right of all the Gaunts. In the days of his youth young Guy ran away to sea, and after a career In the merchant service, was privileged to write R.N.R. after his name, and was appointed to the Victorian Navy, from which he drafted into the Royal Navy, and is now, whilst still a young man, Commander 'of the Challenger. One of his comrades on board the Nelson was Lieutenant De Courcy Hamilton, a particularly charming and good-looking young man. He was engaged for some length of time to a pretty daughter of a civic dignitary, but the stern papa forbid the banns, so to speak, so our Lieutenant went back to England - he was Irish', by-the-way— and married an equally attractive bride, and became Chief of the London Fire Brigade.
The Daily Perth, 12 July 1910 |