{"id":13490,"date":"2012-05-06T02:08:00","date_gmt":"2012-05-06T02:08:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/traveloscopy.com\/travel-news\/vale-allan-roxburgh-2\/"},"modified":"2012-05-06T02:08:00","modified_gmt":"2012-05-06T02:08:00","slug":"vale-allan-roxburgh-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/traveloscopy.com\/travel-news\/2012\/05\/vale-allan-roxburgh-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Vale Allan Roxburgh"},"content":{"rendered":"<table cellpadding=\"0\" cellspacing=\"0\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td><a href=\"http:\/\/farm4.staticflickr.com\/3578\/5717862210_83817b10a3_q.jpg\" imageanchor=\"1\"><img decoding=\"async\" border=\"0\" src=\"http:\/\/farm4.staticflickr.com\/3578\/5717862210_83817b10a3_q.jpg\"><\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Allan Roxburgh aboard<br \/>MV Fiji Princess in Feb 2009<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<div>Many passengers aboard <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bluelagooncruises.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Blue Lagoon  Cruises<\/a> will fondly remember Allan Roxburgh, a Fiji-born <i>kai viti<\/i>  of Scottish descent known locally as &#8220;the old cock&#8221;, who accompanied many of History &#038; Culture  itineraries over the last few years. Allan, who was about to  celebrate his 80<sup>th<\/sup> birthday in December, died after a  short illness.<\/div>\n<div>I sailed with Allan twice on these  enriching voyages, enjoying his sometimes rambling tales of  adventures in the Fiji Islands as a child with his father aboard a  copra schooner during the war years and afterward.<\/div>\n<div>Born in the old colonial-era capital of  Levuka on the island of Ovalau, Allan enjoyed immersing guests in the  history of the old town and would tell many stories you&#8217;d never read  in the history books.<\/div>\n<div>&#8220;I&#8217;d be at school and my younger  brother would come to the class and say &#8216;Dad wants you&#8217;. Everyone  knew what that meant. &#8216;Alright Allan, off you go&#8217;, the teacher would  say and I&#8217;d race home and grab my gear because Dad was about to set  sail.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div>This writer owes a small debt of  gratitude to Roxburgh for introducing me to the wonderful tale of  Count Felix von Luckner, the buccaneering German nobleman who ranged  throughout the Pacific in 1917. On our visits to the quaint old  Ovalau Club on Levuka, where von Luckner&#8217;s hand-drawn portrait hangs,  we would raise a glass to the Count and Alan would retell the  fascinating yarn of his arrest by a tiny militia detachment from  Levuka who bluffed the Germans with a coconut trunk rigged as a dummy  deckgun on a commandeered ferry.<\/div>\n<div>Allan&#8217;s funeral was held in Lautoka and  was attended by the President of Fiji, Ratu Epeli Nailatikau, as well  other dignitaries and community figures. He was then buried at sea  according to his wishes.<\/div>\n<div>We&#8217;ll raise a glass to Allan this week  at the Ovalua Club. Travel well old friend.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Allan Roxburgh aboardMV Fiji Princess in Feb 2009 Many passengers aboard Blue Lagoon Cruises will fondly remember Allan Roxburgh, a Fiji-born kai viti of Scottish descent known locally as &#8220;the old cock&#8221;, who accompanied many of History &#038; Culture itineraries over the last few years. Allan, who was about to celebrate his 80th birthday in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[338],"class_list":["post-13490","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-blue-lagoon-cruises"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/traveloscopy.com\/travel-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13490","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/traveloscopy.com\/travel-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/traveloscopy.com\/travel-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/traveloscopy.com\/travel-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/traveloscopy.com\/travel-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13490"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/traveloscopy.com\/travel-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13490\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/traveloscopy.com\/travel-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13490"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/traveloscopy.com\/travel-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13490"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/traveloscopy.com\/travel-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13490"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}