Bay Harbour: March 22, 2023

Wednesday March 22 2023 Bay Harbour News
TREASURES FROM THE PAST 13
Captain Champion’s true commitment
IT WAS a fine day in February
1961 and Captain Roy Champion
was enjoying a leisurely jaunt on
a speed boat with his daughter
around Whakaraupō Lyttelton
Harbour. The family fun was
rudely interrupted, however,
when the good captain and
harbourmaster spied another
speed boat clearly transgressing
the five-knot limit within 200
metres of the foreshore.
The alleged offender led the
captain on a merry chase before
attempting to make a getaway by
beaching his boat at Charteris
Bay. To the cheers of a small
crowd of onlookers, Captain
Champion handed the controls
to his daughter before diving
into the water and then chasing
down the owner with whom he
had a few words, presumably
concerning safe boating
practices.
Captain Alexander Royle
Champion was born on October
21, 1902. A third-generation
mariner, his grandfather,
Captain William Nile
Champion, was the master
of the missionary schooner
Undine and a well-known pilot
at Onehunga, while his father,
Captain William Champion,
commanded several vessels
including the barque Otago.
Young Roy Champion
began his maritime career in
Wellington at the tender age of
14 when he joined the barque
Rona, which traded between
New Zealand, Australia, and
the Pacific Coast of North
America.
In 1920, at the age of 18, he set
sail from Lyttelton in the barque
Rewa for Cape Horn and Great
Britain. He obtained his master’s
certificate to sail at just 23, at
that time the youngest New
Zealander to do so.
In 1929, master seaman
Champion gave up the carefree
seafaring ways of his youth
to marry Edna Mae Monks,
and served with the Southland
Harbour Board at Bluff before
joining the Lyttelton Harbour
Board as a pilot in 1937.
The start of World War 2
hostilities saw him aboard the
John Anderson as examination
officer, inspecting all ships
entering the harbour.
On October 12, as Captain
Champion was returning to port
after ordering the signals closing
the harbour to all traffic, the
fishing vessel Dolphin entered
past the heads and failed to stop.
A warning shot was fired from
the Battery Point gunnery but
tragically went astray, hitting
the Dolphin’s engine room
and killing its Captain, James
Brassell.
Already alerted to the apparent
intruder, Captain Champion
on the John Anderson had
cleared the moles just in time
to observe the Dolphin heeling
over, and managed to rescue the
ship’s second crewman William
Willman before she sank.
Later on during the war,
Captain Champion returned to
sea when he was released by the
Harbour Board to command
the mighty sailing ship Pamir,
making several voyages across
the Pacific carrying precious
cargo in hostile waters.
Post WW2, Captain
Champion returned to Lyttelton
as harbour pilot. He was
appointed Lyttelton Harbour
Master from 1950-1967 and
was involved in the move to the
Harbour Board’s Hollis and
Leonard designed seven-storey
headquarters, later known as
Shadbolt House.
He went on to serve as a
board member and chairman
of the Lyttelton Harbour Board
from 1968 to 1981, and was
also a member of the Lyttelton
Borough Council for nine years,
serving as deputy mayor for
three of those years.
In 1977, he was elected
president of the Lyttelton
Historical Museum Society
and was instrumental in the
fundraising campaign to find
new premises, officially opening
the Lyttelton Museum at
Gladstone Quay in 1980.
Captain Champion lived with
Edna Mae for many years at 8
Reserve Tce in Lyttelton – locally
known as ‘the Champion house’
until it was demolished, along
with his Lyttelton Museum
on Gladstone Quay, after the
February 22, 2011 earthquake.
He passed on at the venerable
age of 83 in 1985. The captain
was known for his reputation as
a stern disciplinarian, a seaman
without peer, and someone who
did not suffer fools gladly. Yet he
was also known for his kindness
and compassion, always quick
to offer help when needed. It
has been said that regardless of
whether he was speaking with
a governor general, an admiral,
a watersider, or a fisherman,
or singing around the piano
at a party, he remained true
to himself as ‘a man without
pretensions’.
Many thanks to Helen
Greenfield and Andrea McHarg
for their excellent research.
Harbourmaster Captain Alexander Royle Champion at his
desk, 1952. Te Ūaka The Lyttelton Museum ref. 12741.1
https://www.teuaka.org.nz/online-collection/1133434
Above left – Captain Champion (in uniform), then pilot for
the Lyttelton Harbour Board, with Captain Collier (hatless),
then master of the barque Pamir, and gentlemen of
the Lyttelton Harbour Board on board Pamir, berthed
at Lyttelton No.7 wharf west, early 1940s. Te Ūaka The
Lyttelton Museum ref. 6177.1
https://www.teuaka.org.nz/online-collection/1008987
Below – Captain Champion OBE, president of the Lyttelton
Historical Museum Society, opening the new Lyttelton
Museum at Gladstone Quay, 1980. Te Ūaka The Lyttelton
Museum ref. 12202.1
https://www.teuaka.org.nz/online-collection/1132888