Old Salt Albert Can Still Find His Sea Legs At 100

Sydney Morning Herald

Thursday July 20, 2000

By JOSEPH KERR

You might not be able to teach an old dog new tricks, but yesterday 100-year-old seaman Albert Flint took time out from a celebratory tour of HMAS Brisbane to show some of the Navy's youngest recruits he hadn't forgotten his semaphore or how to obey orders.

``Do as you're told and complain later," was Mr Flint's advice to those on board the Brisbane, moored yesterday at the naval base near Harry's Cafe de Wheels.

In a remarkable demonstration of flair and memory, Mr Flint took time out on the ship's bridge to run today's sailors through the semaphore alphabet.

He also scampered up and down two flights of vertical stairs with only a slight pause halfway up the second.

Mr Flint boarded the Brisbane he served on the first ship to bear that name in 1926 to mark his 100th birthday.

Albert Flint joined the Royal Navy as a Boy Seaman in 1915, serving on a series of ships, including the HMS Indomitable during the Battle of Jutland. He stayed with the Royal Navy until 1925, before transferring to the Royal Australian Navy until medically discharged in 1931.

On his voyage to Australia in 1925, Mr Flint married his first wife, Sarah. Although she and his second wife, Amy, are now dead ``one died of cancer, the other died of stroke" Mr Flint's spirit hasn't been dimmed.

``Enjoy life, for one," he advised his fellow sailors. ``Always look on the bright side of things."

Mr Flint said he didn't mind a beer at the Earlwood-Bardwell Park RSL, which he often enjoyed with his ``lady friend".

The captain of HMAS Brisbane, Campbell Darby, said the current destroyer bearing that name the second, after the one Mr Flint served on with its complement of 310 people, was 18 months from the end of its life and, at 32 years of age, the Navy's oldest.

``I think Albert's in better shape than she is," said Captain Darby.