Arthur Tillotson Brown

Arthur Tillotson Brown[1] R. D., R. N. R., (10 April 1878[2] - June 1942) was a career sea officer who was the last captain of the first RMS Mauretania, and the first master of the second RMS Mauretania.


Career

ATB started his career on sailing ships, either as a runaway or an apprentice (Singapore Straits Times, 1938). Just before the 1st war he was Captain of an IoM ferry, joined the White Star company and joined the Royal Navy as an RNR officer in the First World War. After the merger of White Star & Cunard, he became a Cunard captain and had served either as Staff Captain or Captain at various times on many Cunard ships, including the Andania, Aquitania, Berengaria, Britannic, Franconia and Mauretania II, on which he died at Port Said in 1942 from the exhaustion of being in command on unaccompanied transits of hostile waters. There is some reason to suspect that he may have been at Gallipoli in 1915, but no direct reference has been found at this time.

Brown was confirmed a sub-lieutenant from probationary sub-lieutenant in the Royal Naval Reserve with seniority date of 12 August 1907.[3][4][5][6] Brown served in the Royal Navy during World War I. He took command of HMS Seal on 7 May 1917.[7] Brown was promoted to lieutenant commander in 1918,[8] and to commander on 30 June 1922.[9][10] He retired from the Naval List on 10 April 1928 with the rank of captain.[11]

Captain Brown delivered the RMS Mauretania from retired lay-up in Southampton, to the breakers, arriving at Rosyth, in Scotland, at about 0600 hrs. on 4 July 1935, during a half-gale.

Captain Brown commanded the new RMS Mauretania on her acceptance trials on the Clyde, out of Liverpool, from 31 May 1939, and on 17 June 1939 captained her first transatlantic crossing to New York.[12]

Death

"LONDON, June 15, (Associated Press) - Death of Captain Arthur Tillotson Brown, skipper of the old Cunard liner Mauretania and later of the New Mauretania when she made her maiden transatlantic crossing in 1939, was announced tonight. He died at sea."[13]

References
  1. https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/34768/supplement/152/data.pdf
  2. "Catalogue description Name: Arthur Tillotson Brown . Rank: Captain (Retired) Date of Seniority: 10 April".
  3. The Navy List, Admiralty, London, July 1908, page 493a.
  4. Admiralty, Great Britain (1908). "The Navy List".
  5. The London Gazette, 15 December 1908, page 9559.
  6. https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/28205/page/9559/data.pdf
  7. The Navy List, Admiralty, London, August 1917, page 397w.
  8. "Catalogue description Name: Arthur Tillotson Brown . Rank: Lieutenant Commander . Date of Seniority: 1918".
  9. The Navy List, Admiralty, London, August 1939, page 894.
  10. http://deriv.nls.uk/dcn30/9271/92713760.30.jpg
  11. "Catalogue description Name: Arthur Tillotson Brown . Rank: Captain (Retired) Date of Seniority: 10 April".
  12. "RMS Mauretania 2 - 1938 to 1965".
  13. Associated Press, "Mauretania Skipper Dies", The Spokesman-Review, Spokane, Washington, Tuesday 16 June 1942, Volume 60, Number 33 page 5.


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