Death Of Captain "Jimmy"

Smith

THE death occurred in Sigatoka, Fiji, on December 1. of Captain James Alfred (“Jimmy”) Smith, of Abe mama (Gilbert Islands), at the age of 86.

In the “PIM” of June, 1945, we told the story of how Captain Smith managed

to “retain his head” during the Jap occu pation, when other well-known European residents of the Group were murdered.

Captain Smith, born in Liverpool, went to sea as a boy, and learned seamanship the hard way. He was still a young man when he qualified for command; and it was as master of various sailing ships that he first made the acquaintance of the Pacific. He was for some time in the north-eastern Pacific, sailing out of San Francisco and Honolulu; and, about 1895, when he was a man of 36, he ac quired property in Abemama atoll, in the Gilberts, and settled there. He had four sons and four daughters, but only one son and two daughters survive him. He left Abemama when liberated by the Americans in 1944, and went to reside with his son, Mr. William Smith, at Sigatoka.

Captain “Jimmy” Smith was one of the famous old sea-dogs who made history in the Central Pacific in the latter end of last century, and his death severs one of the last remaining links with that period.

Snapshot of Captain Smith, taken by the Editor of the “PIM” on Abemama, in 1941, just prior to the Jap invasion.