Bp Ship

He Knew Every

Paul Best, best-known ma£

engineer in the Pacific Islan

had been relieving chief engiii and odd-job man for Buu Philp for longer than most!; us could remember. His such death on September 25 left' host of saddened friends throw out the Islands.

PAUL Raymond Best was born Beaconsfield, Tasmania in I which made him three-sco years-and-ten on June 19 this y though most people thought : could be ten years younger, first ship, according to the arch legists, was the ss Oomah in : when he was signed on as third* gineer. He joined Burns, PhilgJ 1915, starting in the Mindini, since then had served in every in the company. He passed as seof engineer in 1915, and got his CM certificate at Sydney in 1917.

Paul was Chief Engineer of 1 Makambo in 1921, if not before,, went to the Marsina that yean a seven-year stretch. This was broken by the job of Maiwara from Glasgow to Guinea in 1926.

These were the years of boom r prosperity, including the openinn the New Guinea goldfields, and I “swallowed the propeller” in ; taking the plunge ashore into ( car-selling business with brother.

The depression killed the busiif stone dead so the records s Paul back at sea for a stretcH; 1933 in the ships Wallarah Beulah in 1932-33. He then gavrj the sea once more, to run a II freezer works in Sydney. From j shore job he was seduced bade

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A Brett Hilder Profile

sea in 1938, serving as Third in the Merkur to qualify for his diesel en dorsement for the growing number of motor-ships in the company.

The motor-ships have included the Merkur, Neptune,, Malaita, Mon toro, Malekula, Muliama, Bulolo, Braeside and Tulagi; the old steamers Paul served in have in cluded the Makambo, Marsina, Mindini, Maiwara, Morinda, Marella and Burnside.

In all these ships Paul got to know the Islands people on every Burns, Philp trade route, quite a consider able effort in itself, and he also had a wonderful memory for faces, names and the children of each generation. He left a widow and two married daughters.