Frank Whitcombe,
p. 97 · Read in the full issue
An "Old Salt"
Frank Whitcombe, probably without knowing it, was a walk ing encyclopedia of the Pacific.
Born in New Zealand in 1872, he first went to sea as a passen ger, bound for England at the age of six. By his teens he had signed on as seaman on a schooner built for Finau, High Chief of Vavau. Years later, still at sea, he was on personal terms with such men as Jack London, Robert Louis Stevenson and Louis Beck.
Frank interspersed his sea life with a few years managing copra estates and some time as general everything with the Levuka Municipal Council. Frank died in the mid-1950’s and his son kept his father’s jottings until Captain Stan Brown came across them, Stan Brown edited them into separate stories. As Captain Brown says, the story of the capture of the Manilla by the Seeadler has been written before, but never by a member of the prisoner crew.