DEATH LIKE A PASSING BREEZE ENDS A USEFUL AND HONOURABLE CAREER.
HON. CAPTAIN BLANDFORD PASSED AWAY THIS MORNING
MARCH 8, 1909
At 8 o'clock this morning after a useful and honored career Hon. Capt. Samuel Blandford, M.L.C., one of Newfoundland's most noteworthy men passed into that sleep which is the awakening of the soul. The summons came suddenly as a passing breeze.
On Friday last he was seen on the street. Yesterday he dined at his residence with a number of his old friends among the sealing Captains before their departure for the icefields. He was in his usual health and spirits and recounted with them the adventures and perils of voyages past, little thinking how soon the call would come to him.
The Hon. Capt, Samuel Blandford was born at Greenspond, August 10, 1840, where he was educated and is now nearly 69 years of age. He worked with his father as a blacksmith, and at the age of 16 assumed full charge of the business, which not only included the profession of vulcan but also a large fishery and supply business. He early took to the sea, and in 1864 assumed command of the brig Hebe, engaged in the seal fishery. He subsequently commanded the brig Renfrew and the brig Isabella Ridley in the same enterprise. In 1873 he was in the S.S. Tigress, Captain I. Bartlett, which picked up part of the crew of the Polaris which had been adrift on the ice for five months. In 1874 he took charge of the S.S. Osprey which had previously been engaged in the mail service between Halifax and St. John's. He subsequently commanded the steamer Iceland, from 1876 to 1878; Eagle, 1879; Esquimaux from 1850 to 1883; and since then the Neptune. In the latter ship he brought in the two largest loads of seals, both as to the number and weight, ever landed. He was manager for .Job Brothers and Company, at Blanc Sablon, Straits of Belle Isle, one of the earliest fishing establishments connected with the trade of Newfoundland. In August 1893, he went to Cape Chidley in the S.S. Nimrod, the first steamer prosecuting the codfishery on the Labrador and going 100 miles farther north than any other vessels fishing for cod, Captain Blandford also commanded the S.S. Hercules from 1873 to 1875, which vessel conveyed the circuit courts during that period. He also commanded the S.S. Plover in the maritime coastal mail service from 1875 to 1883, and was one of the most successful and popular coastal captains the colony ever knew. In 1889 he was elected to represent his native district, Bonavista, in the House of Assembly, declined to contest the district in 1893, was appointed to the Legislative Council, Hon. Captain Blandford was twice married – Miss S.A. Edgar of Greenspond, and a few years ago Mrs. Wilkie of Halifax, Nova Scotia. He retired from the fisheries some years ago and up to the time of his death occupied the position of ship's husband with the Reid Newfoundland Company.
Hon. Captain Blandford was a man possessed of genuine benevolence and Sterling worth. He was a devoted member of the Church of England and. foremost in all movements connected with that body. He took a particular interest in the boys of the Church of Eng1and Orphanage and many springs took them for a trip on the harbor in his steamer before leaving for the sealfishery. Hon. Captain Blandford. is survived. by a widow, two sons Hon. S.D. Blandford, Minister of Agriculture and Mines, and Edgar, now in Montreal, and one daughter, Mrs. H.J. Duder, for whom general sympathy will be felt in their bereavement. The funeral takes place at 3 o'clock on Wednesday from his late residence, Hopedale, Circular Road.