The trouble with the distance
of years is that the memory you think so perfect
is often in error. There are few bits about this
that are a bit hazy but I think the underlying
story is about spot on. I was (I think) 12 at
the time and was returning to England following
the Christmas holiday. School waited at journey's
end and that wasn't a happy prospect. After 18
months living in Kolkata (West Bengal) we had
moved even further north to Srinagal in Jammu-Kashmir
as this is where my father was to survey a new
rail line. The train journey down to Bombay had
been uneventful but it had been good to aboard
the waiting ship bound for Tilbury (I think, or
it may have been Southampton).
Chusan was quite modern for the time. Not air-conditioned
but rather with forced draft ventilation, it got
hot below decks but not unbearable. There were
five of us 'colony kids' on board, although we
didn't know each other at the time of boarding.
Four of us shared a 4BC two up two down and the
eldest was sharing with a homeward bound civil
servant who very much liked the gin.
We had all done this voyage a few times and
so we knew the rules and how to get the most
out of each day. We knew that we were leaving
a warm place and that day by day it would get
colder until the Dover cliffs loomed out of
a misty grey February morning a few weeks ahead.
So, how did a day in the Chusan go for group
of mini schoolboys?
0530: Sneak down to the bakery and stand outside
the door looking pathetic. Result, freshly baked
bread rolls with lashing of butter and filled
with fried eggs, sausages and bacon. Trays of
these were made and sent round to all the on
duty crew. 0630: return to cabin grab towels
and stuff and head for the showers at the end
of the passageway - best to get cleaned up for
the day before the adults started to stir. Some
had been on foreign station for many, many years
and could be a bit 'strange' - both men and
women.
0800: down to dining room for breakfast (there
were no deck buffets in those days). Seeing
as we had already filled up with 'the good stuff
only a couple of hours earlier we could pretend
to be gentlemen and only eat a light meal -
that always impressed the old Colonels and their
Ladies.
0900 - 1200: Tricky, this is not the best time
for a ship at sea. Adults did art classes, listened
to very boring port lectures and even played
Bingo. A lot of the males were in the early
opening bar at 10 am for heart starters and
to read the Radio News printed from the Radio
Office. Then there was the daily tote, I don't
know if ships do this. You bet on how far the
ship has steamed in the past 24 hours. The captain
put what he thought it would be and then you
bet around it. The answer was given out during
the noon announcement from the bridge, you know
the old eight bells followed by "This is
the Officer of the watch the time is 12 o'clock
- noon. From Noon yesterday until noon today
Chusan has steamed a distance of 367 nautical
miles etc etc etc." The bet was a shilling
and I once won 6 pounds (can't find a pound
sign on the keyboard). All of this went in bribes
to stewards to get us some beer, which we drank
in various nooks and crannies on deck during
the evening when the adults (dressed in their
finery) would be dancing in the main lounge
or in the makeshift cinema.
Lunch (again in the dining room) was a relaxed
sort of meal. The food was pretty close to what
you were going to get again for dinner that
evening but the evening meal had a couple more
courses and better desserts. (Mostly desserts
were ice cream and something - just given different
names. If you saw the words 'coup de' you just
knew it was ice cream again. Because of the
size of the ships, food smells did, at time,
seem to permeate most of the vessel.
The afternoon saw uplift in the day's activities.
Bridge and engine room visits for the adults,
we could get away with going at anytime except
when entering or leaving port. Then there were
costumes to be made for fancy dress (real fancy
dress balls where imagination ruled). More lectures,
swimming in the small pool, eating the nuts,
crisps, and munchies off tables in the bars
- perhaps a movie (they were always new release).
Mid afternoon the ship fell silent as people
went for siesta or quitly read in the library
in galleries. But then came the night, a time
when all ships old or new come to life.
At six men and women would start appearing
in the bars ready for the night. Men in black
tie or dress uniforms (negative swords - they
are not built to be worn in a ship plus it was
plain 'bad manners') and the ladies - well what
can I say, we fell in love every night with
these gorgeous creatures in their ball gowns
withfantastic hairstyles - these were not the
mortal women we saw during the day, these, no
matter the age or how pretty they were, were
all out of fairytales. Some nights there would
be horse racing and once a week a casino would
be rigged with all profits going to the Mission
for Seamen.
A string quartet played everybody to dinner
- not us we had to eat earlier hidden behind
a curtain (the night was not for children).
One fact is that many officers attended children's
dinner - they could make pigs of themselves
and not have to bother with those confounded
complicated table manners. I remember almost
fighting a hungry second officer for the last
fish finger.
Dinner ended around 10pm and then it was dancing,
talking, partying, movies, cards etc. As for
us, well by this time we had reached our favorite
hiding place on deck and were sipping beer and
munching stolen food. Crew members doing rounds
pretended not to see us (it was an unwritten
law that) and then later at night we got to
spy on all those adults who had, shall we say,
enjoyed more than a few drinks and got a bit
amorous in their little deck places. We learned
a lot from our peeping tom activities and could
(if we had thought about it) earned a fortune
in blackmail, as it was surprising who turned
up with who, or is it whom, I can never remember?
We usually turned in around 2am, most people
were asleep by then and the deserted decks were
our little fantasy world as we stumbled down
to our cabin. Tomorrow was to be another day.
Perhaps a port - Cairo, Naples, Aden, Port Suez,
Marseilles, Gibraltar, or Rotterdam - interesting
places for a 12 year old with friends around
him and money in the pocket. All too soon it
would get cold and the voyage would end but
there would always be another ship, another
voyage and another and another ....
