James Anderson (iii)

At age 17, James joined the schooner Lavinia, and eventually sat for a Master's Certificate when he was in his late 20s. In 1912, he received command of the s.s. Cayo Gitano, and later the s.s. Messina, a ship that traded in the Far East. In 1914, while unaware of the outbreak of war, his ship called at Nauru Island for cargo and he was promptly taken prisoner by German soldiers. A fictitious cable arrived to the island to the German governor declaring that the war was over, and he was let go. He later returned to the island as the Australian troops liberated it from German rule, and he captained the ship that took the same Governor and German troops back to Sydney as prisoners of war.

In 1916, he took command of the Lord Dufferin, running stores and troops to Salonica. While travelling from Malta to Gibraltar, the British convoy was attached, with James's ship the only one who successfully escaped and fought off the attackers, arriving in Bone, Algeria. He was subsequently awarded the Lloyd's silver medal.

While on leave after the war in Shetland in 1918, the Lord Dufferin was accidentally rammed by the Aquitania in New York harbour and sank. James's last two years at sea were spent at the helm of the s.s. Republic for the United States Shipping Board, training cadets for the United States Navy.