has made
p. 107 · Read in the full issue
Brett Milder
Profile
New arrival has made his mark
/CAPTAIN FILMER is a comparatively new arrival in the Pacific trade, but he made his name very quickly by sailing his 1821-ton command, MV Niuvakai, for several days after the main engine broke down. The ship wasn’t fitted with canvas hatch covers, but he rigged sails from awnings and other canvas and was making good headway, then the wind failed, and a tug towed the ship to Brisbane.
Niuvakai belongs to the Government of Tonga, and carries a full Tongan crew with the exception of the master, chief engineer and electrician. She is running regularly between Melbourne, Sydney. Fiji, Samoa and Tonga, with Burns Philp as agents in most of the ports, Cecil Howard Filmer was born at Johannesburg in 1915, and after school and college there he joined the training ship General Botha at the age of 15. At the end of the two-year course he got first class passes and was appointed Midshipman, RNR. He then spent three years in the merchant ships of Houlder Bros., running to South America, and passed for second mate in London at the age of 21.
After three months training for the Royal Navy he transferred to that service in June, 1 Q 37. In l q 3B he was navigating officer HMS Grenade and in 1939 transferred to the Fleet Air Arm to train as a pilot. During 1940 he was operating from the carriers Glorious and Ark Royal, was shot down twice over Norway, taken
prisoner by the Germans and spent five years in prison camps in Germany. He escaped twice but was recaptured each time. He was mentioned twice in dispatches during his operational service, Free in 1945 he commanded a squadron of Mosquito aircraft for two years and then served in the carriers Illustrious and Vengeance for three years. The next five years were spent ashore in important posts of naval air training, including the revision of the Manual of Airmanship.
In 1957, after 20 years of service, “Fil” retired from the Navy and entered the business world of London. Twelve months in the office of the British Independent Air Transport As sociation cured him of living under a bowler hat, and he entered the boating business at the Isle of Wight. During the long off-seasons he did short voyages in merchant ships, and after four years went back to sea permanently. He sailed in Saint Line ships to South America, and to the Pacific in the Bank Line. In 1964 he was granted a master’s certificate of service and in June, 1965, he went master of the Tongan Gov ernment vessel Aoniu, transferring to the Niuvakai six months later, His main hobby now is the handling of a cine-camera with both artistic and professional skill. for he was once a member of the Royal Photographic Society, Indeed, his many skills make him a distinguished member of the mixed repertory of Pacific Islands
ship-masters.