In Loving Memory of

‘Captain’ Athol Richard Rusden

Master Mariner and Author
‘Rascal of the South Pacific’
Set Sail, 19th June 2012
Aged 93 years.

Late of Gold Coast, Australia. Formerly of Auckland, New Zealand

Adored husband of Diane.
Father to Mark in Hawaii, Sonja in New Zealand and Paul (dec’d).
Much loved step father to Troy and Paula Turnbull in New Zealand.
Loving grandfather and great grandfather.

Happy and safe sailing Athol, your family and dear friends will always remember you and sail along with you.

Privately Cremated.

In the care of
Ruffles Funeral Services
1300 512 287

A parody of Immortality

I am standing upon the seashore.
A ship at my side spreads her white sails in the morning breeze and starts for the blue ocean.
She is an object of beauty and strength and I stand and watch until at last she hangs like a speck of white cloud just where the sea and sky come down to mingle with each other.
Then someone at my side says, there she goes!”
Gone Where? Gone from my sight… that is all.
She is just as large in mast and hull and spar as she was when she left my side and just as able to bear her load of living freight to the place of destination.
Her diminished size is in me, not in her.
And just at the moment when someone at my side says, “There she goes!,” there are other eyes watching her coming and other voices ready to take up the glad shout, “Here she comes!”
– Henry Jackson van Dyke (1852-1933)