THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, September 5, 1996 TAG: 9608310193
SECTION: NORFOLK COMPASS PAGE: 03 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: CLOSE-UP
SOURCE: KATHRYN DARLING
LENGTH: 69 lines
When Shelton White was growing up in Mathews County in the 1920s, a steamboat out of Norfolk was his town's connection to the world. It brought passengers, packages of clothes, mail and even bales of hay.
For White, the steamboat offered a sense of freedom, and he set out to become a boat captain.
At 18 he got a job as a deckhand with Hampton Roads Ferries, and at 22 he made captain. For 16 years, White ferried people across the waters where the James, Nansemond and Elizabeth rivers converge into the Chesapeake Bay.
When the bridge-tunnel was built over the Hampton Roads waters, White, who has been a Norview resident for 55 years, went to work on Texaco tugboats pushing barges on the Chesapeake Bay, the James River and the Intracoastal Waterway in North Carolina.
On the tugs, White had to start out as a deckhand, but again he made captain after only a few years.
As a tugboat captain, he also pushed barges 450 feet long and 80 feet wide and loaded with black oil on the Delaware River and the Atlantic Ocean.
When he retired from Texaco in 1983, he went back to work as a part-time ferry boat captain with the Jamestown-Scotland Ferry.
``I liked hauling people better than I liked hauling oil,'' he said.
On a tug, he saw only his tug crew. But on the ferries he said he made a lot of friends and ``set travelers on their way. It was something worthwhile.''
This May, he retired after 60 years on the water.
Name: Shelton S. White.
Nickname: Cap'n.
Birthdate: March 21, 1918.
What brought you to Norfolk? A job on Hampton Ferries.
Birthplace: Mobjack P.O. - Mathews County.
Occupation: Retired. I was a ferry and tugboat captain.
Marital status: Married.
Children: One daughter and one granddaughter.
Last book read: ``Twenty Million Tons Under the Sea'' by retired Navy Rear Adm. Daniel V. Gallery.
Favorite movie: ``Oklahoma.''
Favorite magazine: Texaco Today and Reader's Digest.
If you could trade places for just one day with anyone in the world, who would it be and why? The captain of the H.M.S. Queen Elizabeth II for the prestige.
Biggest accomplishment: Becoming captain of both ferries and tugboats.
Most embarrassing moment: I mistakenly entered the ladies room in a restaurant in Waverly, Va.
If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be? To be more outgoing and to have a better memory.
Perfect way to spend the day: Doing something worthwhile. Especially to help someone to have an easier time along life's road.
Favorite vacation spot: The Blue Ridge Mountains.
Pet peeve: Getting behind a slow-moving vehicle in the lefthand lane.
First job: Driving a wholesale grocery and feed truck.
Worst job: Seaman on an oil tanker.
Hobbies: Home improvement, especially at my old home place in Mathews County. Also, leather and knot crafts and building ship models and dollhouses.
Favorite restaurant: Tandom's Pine Tree Inn.
What do you like most about Norfolk? The people and the convenience of church, stores, post office, restaurants, etc.
What do you like least about Norfolk? The violence and the excessive traffic. ILLUSTRATION: Staff photo by LAWRENCE JACKSON by CNB