Brownsville herald. [volume] (Brownsville, Tex.) 1910-current, 1912-10-01
THIRTY YEARS OF
uFE.SAV|NG SERVICE
Capt. w. A. Hutchings, Superintend-
ent of Ninth District Has Long
and Honorable Record.

The Galveston News of Sunday
publishes the following interestine
story of Capt. w. A. Hutchings, well
known for many years all along the
Texas coast from Galveston to
Brownsville as the superintendent of
the life saving service of this dis
trict:
Few are the men now living who
have active memories of the days Of
the old time sailing vessels. The
great majority have to depend on the
pages of the novelist for knowledge
of taut-stretched canvas and rigging
that sang in the gales. And those
few to whom the life at sea before
steam and steel had revolutionized
things nautical is an actual memory
have little else to do but sit in easy
chairs and reminisce. This rule has
it's exception, however, and one of
them, living in Galveston, is a par
~ticularly active exception. Captain
William A. Hutchings, superinten-
dent of the ninth district, United
States life saving service, has COM
pleted thirty years Of active service
in the post he now holds, and if
asked c~onfidentially how many more
vaarc ha aynaotc RI ha in harpacc
will opine enthusiastically that he is
good for as many more. The Gal
weston water front would exhibit a
perceptible gap at the departure of
cap Billy d'Hutch," as he has been
known to two generations of Calves
tonians-while the third generation
is just learning Of the fondness of
the old disciplinarian for the Riddles.
New England Nautical Stock.
"A transplanted Yankee his
friends frequently call the captain
facetiously. And he does come from
the goold old New England nautical
stock that made Americas shipping
famous in the days of the old clipper
trade. N~obleboro, Maine, was his
birthplace, the event happening July
/, 1915. His father, Captain Will
lam B. Hutchings, was for thirty
years one of the most efficient mari
ners of the old Black Star packets
that piled between New York and
Liverpool. He piled up a fortune
considered "fairish' in those days,
but lost it during his sons boyhood.
To this situation, blood and environ
ment considered. there was but one
answer. Captain Billy-then a long
ways from being a captain-prompt-
ly went to sea. The time-hOnored
place Of cabin boy was his at the
munificient salary of IS a month. He
stuck to it, however, habit that
has since characterized his work
and eventually, when G. D. Mallory
of the Mallory line built the first
iron steamship ever flying the 1as of
the line, William A. Hutchings was
appointed second officer. This boat,
the City Of Houston, was a famous
vessel in the costwise shipping
world of that day. And it is inter-
esting to note that if Captain Billy
had stayed with the line he would
now, in the point of seniority, be the
senior captain of the Mallory fleet.
Galveston Looked Good.
Thirty-nine years ago Captain
Billy looked about him during a visit
to Galveston-and the city Cooked
good to him" He stayed. Several
positions of trust he held, and
eventually landed on the Galveston
police force. Up the ranks he went,
from patrolman to night sergeant
and deputy chief of police. In the
election for the office of chief of
police al the hands of the board of
alderman he was nosed out of a vic
tory by the late Captain Joe Atkins
by the somewhat narrow margin of
one vote. Strenuous times those
were for the police. The seaport city
was as exciting as the average a
port town Of that period when ports
were far from tame, and Captain
Billy's "reminiscences of this part of
his experience make entertaining
listening.
Back to Things Nautical.
Then. in 1882. the mar with sail
or's and policeman's experience felt
the call of things nautical and went
TO Washington. d. c., for his exam
ination as superintendent of the
ninth district, United States life
saving service. He passed it with
flying colors. and in April of that
year come the appointment TO the po-
sition he has held ever since. The
lcaptain found the district in crude