Roxburgh Cemetery.
OBITUARY
CAPTAIN JOHN BEIGHTON
Confirmation has now been received of the death of Captain John Beighton, R.N.R., who, with his crew, was lost when his vessel was destroyed as a result of enemy action in the Atlantic. The only son of the late Mr. John Beighton, a pioneer of Central Otago, Captain Beighton was born and educated in that province and served his apprenticeship on the barque Onyx. A well-known and popular master mariner, he held command of various steamers in the Union Steam Ship Company, including vessels engaged in the island trade, and was in command of supply and Australian troopships during the Great War. At the conclusion of the war Captain Beighton retained command of the troopship Bohkara, later taking over the Largs Bay, a unit of the Australian Commonwealth Shipping Line, then newly established, holding this command for some years until the Largs Bay was sold to British shipping interests. Captain Beighton was a man of genial personality, and possessed in a marked degree those social qualities that inspire confidence and make enduring friendships. His death under such tragic circumstances will be regretted by a wide circle of friends in many parts Of the world. The surviving members of Captain Beighton's family are his sisters, Mrs. F. T. D. Jeffery, Roxburgh, Otago, and Mrs. John Henderson, Hataitai, Wellington. -Evening Post, 26/8/1941.
Further details of Captain Beighton's fate were not hard to find and I found them on the site "uboat.net." He was the Master of the ship Har Zion (2508 tons) and was outbound from Liverpool the Savannah, Georgia, with a cargo of 1000 cases of spirit and 120 tons of fertiliser. The ship had been left behind by the convoy and, at 6.15am, was hit amidships by two torpedoes from the U-boat U-38. The Har Zion sank by the stern with one survivor.
A "close personal friend" quoted in the Benger Mail remarked: "He went in the manner he would have liked best."
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| SS Har Zion. |
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