CAPTAIN ROBERT A.D. CAMBRIDGE
COMMODORE, MASTER "PENDENNIS CASTLE"
From The B & C Review, December !967
From The B & C Review, April 1969
This photograph brings to mind a story my father (Capt. C.S.G. Keen, Marine Superintendent, Southampton) told me. He and Capt. Cambridge got on together very well. Cambridge always had his pet Siamese cat with him at sea and was very conscious of any possible 'cat small' in his quarters, my father knowing this on sailing day or arrival on standing at the door would sniff the air, "You got a cat Captain?"
From The B & C Review, June 1969
When the 28,453 ton Pendennis Castle arrived at Southampton on Monday, March 17th, her captain, Commodore Dillon Cambridge, left har for the last time. He came ashore pending retirement on May 1st, when he will be 63.
Commodore Cambridge, who carried out his early training at the Nautical College, Pangbourne, has been with the the Union-Castle Line since 1923. He served with the Company as a junior officer until the outbreak of war in 1939, when he was called up for R.N.R. service. During the war he was awarded the D.S.C. and was mentioned in despatches. He returned to the Company after the war and his first command came in 1947. He has been in command of the Pendennis Castle since 1964. He is a Younger Brother of Trinity House.
Commodore Cambridge was always popular with passengers, and not least with very young ones. Each voyage the children's hostess would organise a visit to the bridge and there, under the personnel supervision of the Commodore, they would have the opportunity to launch into the sea a sealed bottle containing a note of their name and address. Recently one such bottle was found to have travelled over 5000 miles. He is also noted for the Siamese cats who accompanied him on his travels.
Commodore Cambridge lives at Brockenhurst in the New Forest. He will not be entirely abandoning the sea as one of his hobbies is ailing his own 25 ft Folk boat in the Solent.
The new Commodore is Alex Hort, who commands Windsor Castle.
